Latest / Majapahit: The Empire That Once Ruled Indonesia — Fexingo History / Majapahit's Keraton Agung: The Lost Royal Palace of Trowulan
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Trowulan — the capital of Majapahit — but we've never really walked through the heart of it, the royal palace itself. I mean, imagine a sprawling walled complex, bigger than most medieval European castles, right in the middle of a lush rice plain. Luna: The Keraton Agung, right? The 'Great Palace'. Lucas: Exactly. And the thing is, almost nothing of it survives above ground today. But we have the Negarakertagama, Mpu Prapanca's poem from 1365, which describes it in vivid detail. He calls it the 'best of palaces' — a walled city within a city. Lucas: Prapanca describes a complex about two kilometres across, surrounded by a thick brick wall with iron-studded gates. Inside, there were audience halls, courtyards, gardens, and dozens of pavilions. The main hall — the Pendopo Agung — was where Hayam Wuruk held court, and it was decorated with carvings of the Surya Majapahit, the nine-pointed sun. Luna: So it wasn't just a residence, it was the administrative and ceremonial centre. Lucas: Exactly. The palace complex housed the king, his family, his ministers, and all the royal servants. It had kitchens, stables, even a marketplace. There was a pool fed by an aqueduct from the Brantas River — we've seen the remains of Candi Tikus, which was part of that water management system. Lucas: But the most iconic surviving structures are the gateways. You've probably heard of Wringin Lawang — the 'Banyan Tree Gate' — a massive split gate made of red brick. It's the only standing remnant of the outer wall. And then there's Candi Bajang Ratu, a slender gateway tower that probably led into the inner sanctum. Luna: How did they build all that in brick? I mean, the Majapahit brickworks are famous, but a two-kilometre wall? Lucas: They used millions of bricks — the famous bata merah — fired in kilns along the Brantas. The wall was about 25 feet high and 10 feet thick at the base. The bricks were laid without mortar, relying on precise interlocking. Some sections had drainage channels to prevent collapse during the monsoon. Lucas: The Negarakertagama says the palace was decorated with gold leaf and painted wood, but none of that survives. The brick foundations are all we have. And even those were almost lost — by the 19th century, local farmers had carted away most of the bricks for their own houses. Luna: Wait, so the palace was essentially dismantled? Lucas: Pretty much. When Sir Stamford Raffles visited Trowulan in 1815 during the British interregnum in Java, he found a few standing ruins. He commissioned the first archaeological survey and even took some statues and carvings back to England. But by then, the great palace was largely a memory preserved in poetry. Lucas: There's a poignant line in the Negarakertagama where Prapanca describes the palace as 'adorned with flowers and filled with the sound of gamelan'. Now, that same spot is just rice fields and a few brick stumps. The ghosts of that court are still there, but you have to imagine them. Luna: It reminds me of how much of history is about the imagination, not just the ruins. Lucas: That's exactly it. And we're able to do that because of one poem — one court poet who decided to record the glory of his king. Without Mpu Prapanca, we'd have almost no idea what the palace looked like. Lucas: You know, speaking of preserving things — we try to do something similar here, in our own small way. We make these episodes ad-free because we think the story deserves to be told without interruptions. And if you appreciate that, there's a simple way to support it: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It keeps us going without having to sell you anything. Luna: Yeah, it's a nice model — listeners who care can chip in, and everyone else just enjoys the history. We're grateful for that. Lucas: Absolutely. So back to the palace — one of the biggest mysteries is the layout. The Negarakertagama mentions specific pavilions: the 'Pavilion of the Moon' where the king slept, the 'Pavilion of the Sun' where he held audiences, and a 'Golden Pavilion' for sacred rituals. But archaeologists haven't been able to match them to any excavated foundations. Lucas: Part of the problem is that the Brantas River has shifted course over the centuries. The area was prone to flooding, and volcanic ash from Mount Kelud periodically buried parts of the city. The palace was built and rebuilt multiple times. Luna: So the palace we imagine from the Negarakertagama might not be the same one that stood in later years? Lucas: Exactly. Prapanca described it during Hayam Wuruk's reign, the golden age. By the time the empire fell in the early 16th century, the palace had been modified, expanded, and maybe even partially abandoned. We know that the last king, Bhre Kertabhumi, was forced to flee to the Pasundan, and Trowulan was sacked by Demak forces. Lucas: There's a Portuguese account from 1513 by Tomé Pires, who visited Java just after the fall. He mentions a great city 'with many people' but says the king's palace was already in ruins. So the decline was rapid. Luna: It's incredible that a city of that scale just faded away. Lucas: It speaks to the shift in power from the interior rice kingdoms to the coastal trading states. Trowulan relied on the Brantas for water and transport, but it was inland. As maritime trade became more important, the new Islamic sultanates favoured ports like Demak and Banten. The old Hindu-Buddhist capital was left to crumble. Lucas: Today, the site is a protected archaeological area, but much of it remains unexcavated. There are probably entire pavilions and courtyards buried under the fields. In the 1990s, ground-penetrating radar revealed what might be a large structure beneath a village near the modern museum. Luna: So the palace is still there, just underground? Lucas: In theory, yes. But excavating it is complicated — there are modern houses and rice paddies on top. And the Indonesian government has limited resources. So the Keraton Agung remains mostly a literary ghost, waiting for the right moment to reappear. Lucas: That's part of what makes Majapahit so fascinating — it's a story told in fragments. A poem here, a brick there, a gateway standing alone in a field. And we have to piece it together like a puzzle. Luna: I'm glad we have the poem. And that we can still walk through Wringin Lawang and imagine the rest. Lucas: Exactly. Next time you look at a picture of that split gate, remember — you're looking at the echo of an empire.