Life and Marriage
Siti Hartinah was distantly related to the Mangkunegaran Royal household. Some commentators state that her honorific title of Raden Ayu was reserved only for faithful commoner courtiers or servants (abdi dalem) of the Mangkunegaran court.
She was married to Suharto on the December 26, 1947 in Surakarta in a traditional Javanese ceremony. The Javanese custom was for the bride's family to pay the bulk of the wedding costs. Suharto apparently drove there in a battered De Soto sedan. Suharto stated that the marriage was initially not one of romantic love, but they did eventually grow to love each other devotedly, a type of marriage that was very common for many Javanese of that era. Three days after their marriage, Siti Hartinah was taken by Suharto to live in his Yogyakarta house at Jalan Merbabu 2.
Her marriage to Suharto was initiated by Suharto's foster mother at the time, Ibu (Mrs) Prawirowiharjo, who sought an audience with her mother. Ibu Prawirowiharjo cultivated a close relationship with her mother, a family in Suharto's own words as "well regarded and respected in the city of Solo"
Siti Hartinah became to be known in Indonesia as "Madame Tien". Many Javanese saw her as one of the major causes of Suharto's own power. Ong Hok Ham, a prominent Indonesian social historian, said in an interview “When Suharto rose to power, people believed that the wife had the wahyu, the flaming womb, and whoever united with her would get the wahyu. After her death, people began to sense the wahyu was gone.”
Siti Hartinah is interred in the Astana Giribangun Suharto mausoleum complex, in Karananyar Regency, Central Java beside her husband, former president Suharto.
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