Soko tatal
Sunan Kalijaga's wood-chip pillar; the original is in the museum.
Hastosuprayogo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · DARMAS BS 9 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · SATELITBM — CC BY-SA 4.0 · SATELITBM — CC BY-SA 4.0 · DARMAS SB 9 — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Demak Great Mosque, beside Demak's town square near Java's north coast, is among Indonesia's oldest mosques and a model of Javanese style: a timber-framed hall about 23 by 22 metres under a three-tiered roof, with no dome. Tradition credits it to Raden Patah, Demak's first sultan, and the Wali Songo, the nine saints said to have spread Islam in Java. Its date is debated: a turtle relief in the mihrab is read as a chronogram for 1479; Javanese chronicles give 1477 or 1506. The three roof tiers, which recall Hindu-Buddhist Java's tiered shrines, are said to stand for faith, submission and excellence. The four main pillars are 1983 copies; the teak originals, each credited to a saint, are in the museum, among them Sunan Kalijaga's soko tatal, said to be of bound wood chips. The carved main door, the Lawang Bledeg or Thunder Door, shows plants, vases, crowns and a fanged head that legend links to lightning caught by Ki Ageng Selo; the original is in the museum north of the mosque, with old roof shingles and a scale model. The eight pillars of the front veranda, the Serambi Majapahit, are said to come from the Majapahit palace. Demak's sultans, Raden Patah included, lie behind the mosque. It stands about 26 km east-north-east of central Semarang as the crow flies, 30 to 40 minutes' drive in light traffic; allow 45 to 90 minutes here. Sunan Kalijaga's tomb at Kadilangu is about 2 km by road, and the Menara Kudus Mosque 24 km east-north-east, so all three fit into a day trip.
Sunan Kalijaga's wood-chip pillar; the original is in the museum.
The carved Thunder Door; the original is in the museum.
Raden Patah and Demak's sultans lie here.
West side of the town square, Kauman, Bintoro, Demak
Domes reached Indonesian mosques only in the 19th century. Java's early mosques were timber halls under tiered roofs, much like the wooden shrines of Hindu-Buddhist Java and Bali.
Demak's yearly Eid al-Adha festival: from 1 Dhu al-Hijjah pilgrims visit the sultans' tombs and Sunan Kalijaga's, and on the 10th, after the Eid prayer at this mosque, his heirlooms are ritually cleansed at Kadilangu. It draws thousands of pilgrims and visitors to the town.