Garut

Garut is a district and town in West Java of Indonesia, and the former capital of Garut Regency. It is located about 75 km to the southeast of the major city of Bandung. The modern history of Garut started on 2 March 1811 when the Balubur Limbangan Regency was dissolved by Governor General Herman Willem Daendels because the area's production of coffee had decreased and the Regent, Tumenggung Wangsakusumah II, had refused a command to plant indigo. Balubur Limbangan Regency then comprised 6 districts: Balubur, Malangbong, Wanaraja, Wanakerta, Cibeureum and Papandak. The Limbangan Regency, which has now become the Garut Regency, was founded by Lieutenant-Governor Stamford Raffles on 16 February 1813. RAA. Adiwijaya, who governed from the 1813 until 1821, was the first Regent of the Garut Regency. He was well known as Dalem Cipeujueh. The town of Suci was originally the capital of the new Limbangan Regency. However it was thought that Suci did not meet the requirements of a capital because the area was crowded and quite narrow. Regarding this matter, Regent Limbangan Adipati Adiwijaya formed a committee to find a suitable place for the capital of the Regency. In the beginning, the committee found Cimurah, about 3 km to the East Suci (currently the village is known by the name of Pidayeuheun Village). However, in this place clean water was difficult to obtain so the place not regarded as suitable to become the capital. The committee then decided that a suitable place was about 5 km to west of Suci. In addition to fertile land, the place has a spring that flows to the River Cimanuk and is surrounded by mountains, like Mount Cikuray, Mount Papandayan, Mount Guntur, Mount Galunggung, Mount Talaga Bodas, Kandangwesi and Mount Karacak. When the site was first found, there was a spring nearby that was said to have been surrounded by a small pond closed off by thorny scrub. According to local stories, one person in the group had his hands badly scratched by the thorns.