THE VILLAGE of Cibuaya in Karawang was thrown into an uproar one day in 1951. It all began with a villager named Warsinah who was digging a well. Instead of water, he discovered a statue. Startled, the villager immediately reported the find to local authorities.
“This object was discovered by Mr. Warsinah from the village of Cibuaya; it was found when he dug to a depth of 21 meters. After being reported to Village Head Erman, the statue was immediately handed over to the District Head at the time,” wrote historian Halwany Michrob in an article in Buletin Kebudayaan Jawa Barat, (the West Java Cultural Bulletin), Issue No. 2, 1976, titled “Some Issues and the Background of Archaeology in Indonesia”.
It later turned out that what Warsinah had found was a statue of the god Vishnu—later known as the Cibuaya I Vishnu Statue. Then, in 1957 and 1975, similar statues were discovered in succession, designated as Cibuaya II and Cibuaya III. Cibuaya Village subsequently became a site for archaeological excavations. All of this is, in fact, still connected to the history of Tarumanagara.
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