Pleiades and its local folklore

I guess there are no other deep sky objects that attract people most as Pleiades (M45). Any folklore has at least a version that tells a story about seven sisters, or seven goddess or fairies (bidadari in Indonesian) as the Javanese called. Pleiades is relatively easy to locate. Even with an unaided eye, this object could be seen as dots of tiny stars in the dark sites in the constellation Taurus, the Bull. I saw Pleiades for the first time on July 13, 2008 from my backyard in Purwakarta. With binocular, these seven stars could be seen clearly as cluster of tiny stars. 

Although it consists of hundreds of stars, Pleiades is known for its seven brilliant stars, commonly visible to unaided eyes. The name of each star comes from Greek mythology, these are Electra, Taygeta, Maia, Asterope, Alcyone, Merope and Alcyone. My colleague Purwanto Nugroho of ISG has been able to capture this beautiful object. He is a talented person with many skills, photography, playing saxophone, diving. He is also very good in taking astrophotography. Here is his photo of Pleiades he took on August 18, 2012:

Pleaides, the Seven Sisters, photo by Purwanto Nugroho

Pleiades is so famous that it is reflected in many folklores that go with various stories, including from Indonesia. In our language, Pleiades is known as ‘Kartika’. The story tells that seven fairies from heaven were taking bath in a river, where Jaka Tarub, a local handsome man was bewitched with the beauty of these fairies. He silently stole one of the fairy’s scarf. While the rest of the fairies went back to heaven, Nawangwulan, the one left behind, could not fly back home because she could not find her scarf. Then Jaka Tarub asked Nawangwulan to marry him. They finally married and had one daughter, Dewi Nawangsih. But one day, as she discovered her scarf and learned that it was in fact stolen by Jaka Tarub, she got angry and wanted to return to heaven, although her husband begged her not to leave him. She insisted, but promised that she will be back one in a time to breast feed her daughter. 

If you once noticed that one of the Pleiades’ stars disappeared, it probably is Nawangwulan who is feeding her lovely daughter. This legend inspired Basuki Abdullah, one of Indonesian prominent painters, to produce the famous painting on “Jaka Tarub and Seven Fairies” or “Jaka Tarub dan Tujuh Bidadari”, which was later followed by many other painters in various styles. Basuki Abdullah is one of Soekarno’s favorite painters. Many of his paintings become Soekarno’s collection. See his painting on “Jaka Tarub and Seven Fairies” in the following link: http://asian-paintings.blogspot.com/2009/04/art-of-basuki-abdullah.html