The plateau villages round the old temples stand at about 2,100 m in a caldera with live craters (Sileri and Sikidang on en.wikipedia) and volcanic lakes.
Rice will not grow at that height; the campaign board says the people live off roots and the pilgrim traffic, and it adds tobacco, which reached Java after 1500 and cannot be in the Dieng of 1200. Their link to the lowland court is service to a sanctuary rather than tax to an officer (board). The name is Old Javanese di plus hyang, 'the place of the gods' (en.wikipedia).
The temples are of the eighth and ninth centuries and the dated inscriptions found on the plateau run from 861 to 919 (Gunung Wule 783 Saka, Kapuhunan 800, Indrakila 804 and Wintang Mas II 841), so by 1200 the sanctuary is three centuries past its last recorded activity; whether anyone still served it is not pinned.
Who holds it
- Title
- Village heads of the plateau and the keepers of the sanctuary, if any
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Nothing I read names anyone on the plateau after the inscription of 919.
Overlord
the king of Kediri by convention; the lowland court reaches the plateau through a sanctuary, not an officer (board)
What it holds
- Plateau fields and hamlets
- The temple group (see Dieng temples)
- The road down to the Serayu and the Kedu
How things stand that morning
Unknown. The plateau was a religious centre in the ninth century; nothing dates it after 919.
Wealth
Roots, mountain produce, pilgrims' gifts; no figures.
Military
None attested.
Threats
- Volcanic gas and ash from the craters (no date)
Places of note
- Dieng temple group: The group of small stone shrines on the plateau floor.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry dieng-upland-communities lists tobacco among the plateau's livelihoods. Tobacco is a New World crop and is not for 1200.
Evidence: Ninth-century inscriptions and the campaign board's reading of the later situation; nothing for the twelfth century.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Outline of the plateau; the real number of settled hamlets in 1200 is not known.
Primary sources for Kediri
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Old Javanese Charters (the Brandes and Krom corpus), including the Kediri inscriptions of Kamesvara and Srngga, Various (the Kediri kings and their officers), edited by J. L. A. Brandes and N. J. Krom (inscriptions of the 8th to 15th centuries; edited 1913). Kediri (Panjalu) in 1200 is known from a few royal charters on stone and copper, which this corpus first printed: the records of Kamesvara (about 1182 to 1194) and of Srngga, that is Kertajaya (from about 1194 to 1222), among them the Kamulan charter of 1194 and the Palah (Panataran) record of 1197, with the king's titles, his seal, the officials of the court and the villages freed from tax.
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
- The Description of the Country, called the Nagarakretagama, Mpu Prapanca (1365 at the Majapahit court). A Majapahit court poem of 1365 listed here only for its retrospect. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (en), Dieng Plateau (read in this pass): temples of the 8th to 9th century, build date 'not known exactly'; inscriptions Gunung Wule 783 Saka (861), Kapuhunan 800 Saka (878), Indrakila 804 Saka (882), Wintang Mas II 841 Saka (919); about 2,100 m; active craters Sileri and Sikidang
- Wikipedia (en), List of volcanoes in Indonesia (read in this pass): summit coordinates of Semeru, Bromo, Arjuno-Welirang, Penanggungan, Kelud, Lawu, Merapi, Merbabu, Sumbing, Sindoro, Slamet, Dieng, Muria, Batur, Agung, Rinjani, Tambora, Sangeang Api and others
- General knowledge of Old Javanese and Old Balinese epigraphy and the archaeology of Java, recalled and not re-read in this pass (Boechari, Poerbatjaraka, Soekmono, Bernet Kempers)
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.