KEMARO ISLAND

2. KEMARO ISLAND

Somewhere in the middle of the Musi River there is an island called "KEMARO ISLAND". The name means that the island never gets flooded even thoug the Musi River gets high tide. From distand island looks like a floating one.

The island has a legend of love affair between "Siti Fatimah", the daughter of Palembang King. who was proposed by the Son of Chinese King named "Tan Bun Ann". Tan Bun Ann was required by Siti Fatimah to prepare 9 jugs containing gold. Tan Bun Ann parents agreed with it, and to avoid an attack from pirates they covered the jugs with salty food and vegetables. When the ships arrived in Palembang, Tan Bun Ann examined the jugs. To his surprise, he found out that the jugs only contained salty food and vegetables. He became so disappointed and furious that he threw out all the jugs to the river. However, one of the jugs hit the ship wall and broke into pieces that the gold inside camo into sight.

Feeling very regretful on what he had done, he decided to dive and get himself drowned into the river. Seeing this, Siti Fatimah did the same while saying "if a land emerges at the bank of this river, it is the place where I am buried".

Buddhist Temple

Buddhist Temple

Buddhist Temple

Buddhist Temple

On the island lies the Buddhist Temple that is always visited by the Buddhist followers, particularly during the celebration of Cap Go Meh. They are Indonesian Chinese living in Palembang, people from other regions of Indonesia, and even those coming from overseas such as Singapore, Hongkong, China, etc. To get to the island, one can take a ketek, speed boat , cruise ships, and Dragon Boat from the jetty of Benteng Kuto Besak or the one at Intirub factory.

celebration of Cap Go Meh

celebration of Cap Go Meh