Astana Giribangun (also "Giri Bangun"), is a

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

complex for the

Soeharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto l ...

family of the former

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The mausoleum is located in Karang Bangun, Matesih,

Karanganyar Regency Karanganyar Regency ( jv, ꦏꦫꦁꦲꦚꦂ) is a regency in the Indonesian province of Central Java. It covers an area of 773.79 km2 and had a population of 813,196 at the 2010 Census and 931,963 at the 2020 Census. Its capital is the to ...

Central Java Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in t ...

province. It is on the slopes of

Mount Lawu The Lawu ( jv, ꦭꦮꦸ), or Mount Lawu ( jv, ꦒꦸꦤꦸꦁꦭꦮꦸ, Gunung Lawu) is a massive compound stratovolcano straddling the border between East Java and Central Java, Indonesia. The north side is deeply eroded and the eastern s ...

, approximately 35 kilometres east of the city of

Surakarta Surakarta ( jv, ꦯꦸꦫꦏꦂꦠ), known colloquially as Solo ( jv, ꦱꦭ; ), is a city in Central Java, Indonesia. The 44 km2 (16.2 sq mi) city adjoins Karanganyar Regency and Boyolali Regency to the north, Karanganyar Regency and Sukoh ...

. The archaic Javanese prose title translates as "Palace of the risen mountain". The structure is in traditional

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

nese architectural style and occupies parts of the

Mangkunegaran The Duchy of Mangkunegaran ( id, Kadipaten Mangkunegaran) is a small Javanese princely state located within the region of Surakarta in Indonesia. It was established in 1757 by Raden Mas Said, when he submitted his army to Pakubuwono III in F ...

Royal Cemetery complex. It is approximately 300 metres from the burial sites of the Solonese royals

Mangkunegara I Mangkunegara I, also known as Pangeran Sambernyawa ("''Life Reaping Prince''"), (born Raden Mas Said, 7 April 1725 – 1796) was the first ruler of Mangkunegaran in Java in the eighteenth century. Personal life Mangkunegara was given the nic ...

, II and III. Former President Soeharto was buried in Astana Giribangun on 29 January 2008 with full state military honours following his death in Jakarta the day before. President

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949), commonly referred to by his initials SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired army general who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party ...

presided over the ceremony. Suharto was buried beside his late wife, Mrs (Ibu) Tien Soeharto (Siti Hartinah Soeharto, who had died on April 28, 1996) and her mother. Later, in October 2010, in line with traditional Javanese practice, Soeharto's family held a memorial ceremony at the Astana Giribangun 1,000 days after his death. The choice of the site caused some controversy at the time. Many Javanese believed Ibu Soeharto not to be of true noble blood but, rather, a commoner who was the descendant of a faithful court servant. The Mangkunegaran Court reconciled this controversy by decreeing that Soeharto could indeed build an Astana (''istana'' in bahasa Indonesia, or ''palace'') but that it could not be any higher than a pre-existing royal tomb, the Astana Mangadeg, near where the Astana Giribangun was to be established. The Astana Mangadeg was considered to be in a location having special spiritual features by many of the

dukun A dukun is an Indonesian term for shaman. Their societal role is that of a traditional healer, spirit medium, custom and tradition experts and on occasion sorcerers and masters of black magic. In common usage the dukun is often confused wi ...

s, spiritualists and soothsayers who had supported Soeharto's kejawen (or kebatinan) practices of meditating and drawing charisma from ''

shakti In Hinduism, especially Shaktism (a theological tradition of Hinduism), Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; lit. "Energy, ability, strength, effort, power, capability") is the primordial cosmic energy, female in aspect, and rep ...

'' (magic).Astana Giribangun''. Panduan Peziarah. Yayasan Mangadeg Surakarta, 1996. See also Dwi Atmana,
Mysticism shrouded Soeharto's life, death'
''The Jakarta Post'', 29 January 2008.

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Further reading