Gajah Mada

Oath of the Unripe Palm

Gajah Mada was the great prime minister of the Javanese Majapahit empire in the fourteenth century. According to the chronicles he swore the Sumpah Palapa, a vow to abstain from the pleasures of spiced food until he had united the entire archipelago under Majapahit rule. Through tireless campaigns he brought much of what is now Indonesia and beyond under the empire's sway, and he remains a national symbol of unity and unshakable resolve.