User:Rtnf/Survey Report/Banten - 29 December 2025

• 10.10 : Departing from Rangkasbitung Station Rangkasbitung Station (Commuter Line Merak; to Cilegon Station; 3000 IDR)
• 10.22 : Gunung Karang Gunung Karang and Gunung Pulosari Gunung Pulosari sighted from Jambu Baru Station Jambu Baru Station
  • Gunung Karang Gunung Karang : The highest point in Banten Province.
  • Gunung Pulosari Gunung Pulosari : "According to Sajarah Banten, upon arriving in Banten Girang, Sunan Gunung Jati and his son, Hasanuddin, visited Mount Pulosari, which at that time was a sacred place for the Sunda kingdom. There, Gunung Jati became the religious leader of the local community, who converted to Islam. Only after that did Gunung Jati conquer Banten Girang through military means. He then became king with the blessing of the ruler of Demak."
• 10.29 : Tree line of Metroxylon sagu Tree line of Metroxylon sagu sighted. Its leaves can be used as traditional roofing material, and the starch extracted from its trunk can be processed into sago, a major staple food for people in Eastern Indonesia.
• 10.48 : Complete loss of mobile signal @-6.191155,106.2371624 (Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison)
• 11.24 : It can be seen @-6.0338222,106.1446238 that a line of low hills stretches out in front of Gunung Karang Gunung Karang. Possible candidates are :
  • Gunung Payung Gunung Payung : In 2010, the user BlueArrow added this data from the NGA-GNS import (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Geographic Names Server 1994), claiming it was added ‘in coordination with indomapper (Indonesian mapper?)’. But so far, I haven’t found any supporting evidence that this peak is actually located here. In OSM, this peak is placed on the northern side of Pandeglang, yet I found several sources that Gunung Payung is actually located in central/southern Pandeglang, especially inside Ujung Kulon National Park.
  • Gunung Tenbang Gunung Tenbang : The only internet source that I managed to find regarding this mountain is this Wikipedia article in the Cebuano language (spoken in the southern Philippines). Yes, I can’t even find any Indonesian sources about it, but apparently these Filipinos know more about this mountain.
    • But, after I translated this supposedly long article, it turned out there isn’t much information to be gained from it. The only noteworthy mention is a reference to a GeoNames entry, which details its elevation (308 m), taken from yet another NGA dataset.
    • P.S.: After more thorough background checking into who is responsible for creating the Gunung Tenbang Wikipedia article in Cebuano, it turns out that the actual writer is a Swedish man who is married to a Cebuano woman. He claimed that he does not know Cebuano very well yet, but is trying to learn it by writing Wikipedia articles in that language.
  • And there are plenty of other peaks located near each other, forming a group of peaks.
• 11.24 : Gunung Pinang Gunung Pinang sighted from Tonjong Baru Station Tonjong Baru Station
  • Gunung Pinang Gunung Pinang : A forested area managed by Perum Perhutani. It is a hill with an elevation of only about 300 meters above sea level and covers an area of 222 hectares. This Perhutani-managed area was later developed into a tourist destination under the ownership of KPH Banten and is located along the main Serang–Cilegon traffic corridor. To reach the summit, visitors can walk approximately two kilometers. The forest consists of mixed vegetation, including teak and mahogany. It has a downhill trail that was once used for the International Downhill Championship in 2009. Gunung Pinang also has an off-road circuit; in November 2011, the Djarum 4x4 Real Adventure National Championship was held there.
    • For some reason, there is local folklore associated with this hill that has very similar plot elements to the Malin Kundang folklore from West Sumatra.
    • Between 1940 and 1943, several prolonged droughts occurred in areas surrounding Mount Pinang, causing severe water shortages in nearby regions. Since ancient times, local communities had believed that burning forests could induce rainfall. As a result, many residents set fire to large parts of the Mount Pinang forest in the hope of bringing rain, which ultimately degraded the area into critical land. Early forestry workers later carried out reforestation efforts to restore Mount Pinang as a dense forest. In 1971, reforestation was undertaken using cajuput trees (Melaleuca cajuputi). The most extensive and significant reforestation campaign took place in 1978–1979, involving the planting of kaliandra (Calliandra calothyrsus), mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), accor or akasia (Acacia auriculiformis), cliriside or cebreng (Gliricidia sepium), angsana (Pterocarpus indicus), flamboyan (Delonix regia), lamptong (Leucaena leucocephala (?)), and sonokeling (Dalbergia latifolia). Owing to these efforts, the forest has recovered and can once again be enjoyed by the public as it is today.
    • This tourist site underwent renovation in 2016, and after the renovation, the number of visitors increased threefold. According to a 2017 report, around 130 tourists visited each day. On holidays, the number could reach 400 to 500 visitors.
    • Officially registered in the Republic of Indonesia’s National Tourism System under ID 23184.
    • In April 2025, a construction project linked to the development of tourism on this hill was opposed by local environmentalists.
    • This hill made primarily of solid rock that became elevated above its surroundings because tectonic forces pushed the crust upward. There are reports of mining activities (boulders, fill soil) on this hill.