About Untung Suropati and Pendekar Sartono

In 1603 when Indonesia was a Dutch colony a Govenor General, General Edeleer Moor, adopted a young Balinese who was a descendent of a high caste Balinese noble family. His name was Untung.

When he was old enough Untung joined the Dutch army. During this time Untung had been seeing the General’s daughter, Suzane Moor and without her father’s permission she married Untung. Being in Java the marriage was performed by a Moslem Canonist. When the General found out he sent Untung to jail to be executed. His wife, who was pregnant with his son, was exiled back to Holland. In prison Untung was tortured badly. With great effort he escaped with a group of his friends.

After a few revolts against the Dutch, outnumbered he left for Cirebon. Cirebon is a port town on the northern coast of Java and was wedged between the warring kingdoms of Banten to the west and Mataram in the interior. At that time the mayor of Cirebon had a son whose name was Suropati, a rude and violent young man. Disliking Untung he attacked him in a fight to the death. With his Pencak Silat Untung killed Suropati. Because the mayor liked Untung and did not approve of his son’s behavior he gave the name Suropati to Untung as a badge of honor.

From here Untung Suropati traveled south to Tasikmalaya in Rajapolah which is 57 km east of Garut and 116 km southeast of Bandung. Eventually Untung married the daughter of the sultan. In a special ceremony he also married her “genie”. Because of this when they had two children, they could live in both worlds – physical and astral. Their names were Embah Adisana and Embah Samber Nyawa. Through his wife and children Untung Suropati learned the secrets of the other world, i.e. contacting deceased masters, etc. He used his knowledge to develop his Pencak Silat fighting powers for combat and enchantment magick and so became the first of our lineage of the Byang-Byang Naga Penglima (Shadow Snake Warriors).

After constantly refining his internal art he then traveled southeast to kingdom of Mataram (present day Yogyakarta). Because of his great skill and power he became minister to the King. The King called him Tumenggung Wironegoro and the Pasuruan Region was his authority. The name of his group of men, (troop in the army), was “Wirodimejo”. In battle in 1649 Embah Untung Suropati using his magickal and physical abilities against guns, fire and a vastly greater number of enemies was able to save his men.

Alive, but very weakened he went to a village called Randatelu and then returned to the castle where he died in 1649. There are a few different dates recorded in the places one finds reference to Embah Untung Suropati but I use the ones supplied to me from my spiritual teacher, Pendekar Sartono a direct lineage holder from Embah Untung Suropati.

Pendekar Sartono’s teacher was named Pendekar Kiyai Donowongso, “descendant of the fourth”, and on August 30, 1985 I was added to this lineage.