Qualla: Where the Gods Were Smiling

Where the Gods Were Smiling: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

"When the gods were smiling, the land of Parahyangan was created." The Sundanese proverb explains the region's beauty the only way that makes sense from the ground: as something supernatural. Parahyangan - the name means "abode of the hyangs," the gods of pre-Islamic Sundanese belief - covers nearly one-sixth of Java, a volcanic highland stretching across West Java province from Cianjur to Ciamis. The mountains that give the region its name and its sacred character are also what drew every power that ever coveted Java: the Sunda Kingdom, the Mataram Sultanate, the Dutch East India Company. Each left its mark. The Sundanese people, whose heartland this has been since at least 9,500 BCE, absorbed the occupations and outlasted them all. From the air, Parahyangan is a corrugation of green ridges and terraced valleys, with Bandung - the region's modern center - sitting in a highland basin that was once, according to both geology and Sundanese legend, an ancient lake.

Where the Gods Were Smiling: Before the Written Word

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Archaeological evidence places human habitation in Parahyangan at least as far back as 9,500 BCE. In the Padalarang karst area west of Bandung, the Pawon cave has yielded prehistoric remains of early settlements clustered around what was then a large natural lake filling the Band...

Where the Gods Were Smiling: Kingdom, Sultanate, Company

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Parahyangan was the sacred interior of the Sunda Kingdom, whose rulers practiced Sunda Wiwitan, an animist belief system that held the mountains sacred. The kabuyutan of Jayagiri - a spiritual sanctuary mentioned in ancient Sundanese texts - was located somewhere in these highlan...

Where the Gods Were Smiling: De Preanger

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Dutch called the region De Preanger, and under their administration it became one of Java's most productive plantation zones. The construction of the Great Post Road under Governor-General Daendels connected the highland plantations to the port of Batavia and transformed Para...

Where the Gods Were Smiling: The Sundanese Mosaic

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Parahyangan is the cultural heart of the Sundanese people, but the Sundanese world extends beyond its mountain borders. Scholars divide the Sundanese cultural area into four zones: Banten Sundanese in the west, extending into Lampung on Sumatra; Priangan Sundanese in the central ...