Hamengkubuwana X

Who is Hamengkubuwana X?

Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X is the current monarch of the historic Yogyakarta Sultanate in Indonesia, and is currently also the governor of the modern Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta Yogyakarta Special Region. He was inaugurated on 3 October 1998.

During Dutch Colonialism prior to 1941, the governmental position of Governor was occupied by the Dutch-appointed Dutch Resident of Yogyakarta, with the Sultan maintaining a facade with merely ceremonial powers.

Due to special status granted to the Yogyakarta Region when the Republic of Indonesia was formed in 1945, in recognition of the late Hamengkubuwana IX's heroic support and role in the Indonesian War of Independence, the hereditary monarch was to hold the position of Provincial Governor. However, this provision was not honored by the Indonesian central government when Bendoro Raden Mas Herjuno Darpito ascended the throne in 1988 as Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwana X.

One of the two symbolically important banyan trees, namely Kiai Dewandaru planted during the reign of SS HB I fell in the Alun-Alun Utara coincidentally concurrently with the funerary rites of his late father SS HB IX, attributed by kejawen Javanese as a sign of immense grief of even the physical lands of the kingdom. The banyan was replanted with approval of SS HB X although it is diminutive beside the centuries-old Kiai Wijayadaru on the east flank.