In this last building which is usually fully enclosed by walls, it is usually broken up into three bays, a central bay known as the senthong tengah, the left bay known as the senthong kiwo and the right bay known as the senthong tengen. Both kiwo and tengen bays are used as bedrooms or storage areas for pusaka or agricultural produce; and the centre bay is a sacred space denoted as a shrine of sorts in the kejawen (Javanese philosophical thought) belief which usually houses a wooden structure not dissimilar to a canopied bed known as a pasren or krobongan.
The interior of the dalem
The pasren is where homage is paid to Sri, the goddess of rice, fertility and who brings livelihood and good fortune. And in the dalems of the nobility in Surakarta (as opposed to the Yogyakarta where all and sundry are permitted to display such statues), there are two highly significant wooden statues or figurines, known as loro blonyo, set before the pasren or krobongan in a halus kneeling/sitting position (in Yogyakarta these statues can be made from either wood or terracotta and be sitting or standing).
The pair of Sri and Sadana sitting before the krobongan at the nDalem Brotodiningratan
Etymology of the term, loro blonyo: Loro means two and Blonyo means rubbed with lulur (luluran) with a yellow powder paste. The male figure is symbolic of Wisnu and known as Raden or Batara Sadana and the female figure is Dewi Sri who is conceived of as living in heaven (kahyangan) but descends from time to time to the pasren.
The dalem where the pasren is situated may be ornamented with ancestral portraits and often contains a plancan which is for for pikes or lances (tombak), pennants and payung (song-song) of state.
The centrality of the pasren or krobongan in the Javanese house is fully reflected in the keraton. Behrend writes that this is in the Dalem Prabasuyasa which is the ritual heart of the palace complex, although the Susuhunan (ruler) did not live there, it housed the pusaka, the krobongan structure (described in Dutch as the state bed or Staatsiebed) and the loro blonyo statues representing Sri and Sadana; the eternal flame of Ki Agung Sela; the sekar wijaya kusuma, which would bloom as long as the king possessed the wahyu, the regalia (ampilan dalem; heirloom weapons, ornamental betel sets and standards carried behind the ruler) and the symbols of state, the upacara (in Surakarta, right figures cast in precious metals and embellished with rare stones and gems, ie. a cock, a crowned naga, a goose, a roe deer, a garuda, two elephants and a bull).
Modern replicas in fibreglass on display at the Keraton Museum
Throughout the relatively brief history of the Surakarta Keraton or the Kasunanan, the various symbols and furnishings of the nobility have been lost through private sale and from the property (warisan) being divided as an inheritance amongst the descendents and these included the extremely rare statues of Sri and Sadana.
Only a single pair currently exists in-situ within a royal dalem in the Baluwarti (walled enclosed area of the palace) in Surakarta and all other known pairs are dispersed in private collections mostly within Indonesia.
Two pairs of the most significant and beautiful loro blonyo were owned by KRT (as he was then) Hardjonagoro and now after his passing in 2008, they have passed on to his heirs and then onward to his nephews. These were published examples which were exhibited in various museums in the USA and the Netherlands as part of the Court Arts of Indonesia exhibition organised by the Asia Society Galleries in New York back in the early 1990s.
And without the standard sample as a pakem, for contemporaneous artisians who make new loro blonyo; these are mostly ornamental figurines that do not accurately portray the intrinsic qualities and characteristics of genuine figurines.
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