Traveljunkieindonesia.com – I have some pretty cool postcards to share! Tritis Maria cave in Gunungkidul. And I’m SO GOING!
Gua Maria Tritis becomes one of the natural caves in a line of karst hills in Gunungkidul which turns out to be a sacred place for Catholic people for praying.
Goa Maria Tritis is situated approximately 50 km from Yogyakarta City or 28 km from Gading T-intersection, Wonosari.
The name tritis is taken from Javanese language, tumaritis which means water drop.
In this cave, there are always water drops from the stalactites from the above. It used to be a very quiet and spooky area, so only few people dare to come.
In the past, this cave was used as a place for asceticism practice of some princes from Mataram Kingdom.
It started to be known by the Catholic people in 1974 when it was used for Christmas Eucharist.
No longer after that, its name, Gua Tritis, was also given name Maria.
In other words, Gua Maria Tritis becomes a favorite place for the pilgrims to pray or do meditation, especially to worship mother Marry.
To get to the cave, we need to walk across hardwood plantation through curve path between the barren rocky hills.
You may have two routes to reach the cave, they are the long route (1.5 kilometers) and the short one (500 meters).
For those who want to do Jalan Salib (a Catholic rite in a form of short trip to commemorate Jesus Christ’s crucifixion), they usually choose the long route with 14 stops of Jesus Christ’s misery journey before being crucified.
In the 12th stop, there are 3 crosses as a sign that Jesus was crucified with 2 criminals.
During May and October, Gua Maria Tritis will be so crowded of visitors who want to pray to mother Marry since those months are special months for her.
Happy green travels!
Follow us on Twitter @TravelJunkieID & like us on Facebook.