Jakarta –
The story about the invisible city is not only about Saranjana. There is also a magical city known to the people of Sulawesi called Wentira. The magical city which is believed to be in the city of Palu has made a yellow monument bearing the words Ngapa Uwentira or which means the magical city.
The mystery regarding Wentira’s whereabouts was also narrated by Randu Alamsyah, a former journalist for Indonesia’s largest newspaper, in a book with the same title. The book published by the publisher Gagasmedia was released simultaneously with the publication of the book Saranjana by Gusti Gina.
To detikcom, Randu told that this invisible city in Central Sulawesi is located between the border of Parigi Moutong Regency and the city of Palu. There, there is a hill which is the trans-Sulawesi route.
“This story is very well known among the people of Palu so that a monument was made by the local government, because it is believed to be a magical city, the city where the jinn kingdom is, some call it the city of gold,” he said when talking to detik.com.
Randu said that if Wentira was just a myth, why did the local authorities build a monument. “It seems that the Wentira story is the only one in Indonesia that has had a monument like that built,” he said.
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Randu Alamsyah, novelist of the book Wentira Photo: Courtesy of Randu Alamsyah/Personal
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From Randu’s account, he interviewed drivers who passed this route and the local community.
“There’s a lot of throwing cigarettes, money, honking, and there’s a lot of stories going around there,” he said.
In 2020, Randu started writing on the Wattpad platform and received a warm welcome from readers. Two years later, he wrote it into a book script until it was proposed by the publisher.
In Wentira’s book, he inserts a story about a journalist as well as a humanitarian volunteer who is trapped in the magical city of Wentira. At that time, he was covering the aftermath of the tsunami that hit the city of Palu.
“During the Palu tsunami, many people said that Wentira was also affected,” said Randu.
He continued, “I collected stories from what I heard, combined them with my time to work on reporting there, and combined them with the Palu tsunami incident in 2018.”
How is the mystery story about Wenhira and her creative process working on this fiction genre book? Check out the next article.
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