Exploring Gua Putri Pukes in the Gayo Highlands

The cave is located in Mendale Village, Kebayakan District, beside Lake Lut Tawar and along the road connecting Takengon and Bintang. It is only a short trip from the centre of Takengon, but the experience offers much more than the distance suggests. Here, beautiful scenery and local stories come together along the same route.

Walking into Gua Putri Pukes is not simply about seeing a rock formation believed to be the body of a princess. What makes the place fascinating is the story that has given the cave a special place in the memory of the local community. Inside, a stone formation is believed to be Putri Pukes, who, according to the story, was turned into stone after going against her mother's advice.

The story has been passed down through Gayo oral tradition. Putri Pukes is said to have been a princess from Nosar Village who married a man from Delong Village. Before leaving her hometown, her mother asked her not to look back. But as she began her journey, her longing for her parents became too strong, and she turned around. Soon after, heavy rain and thunder arrived. She took shelter inside a cave and, according to the legend, was eventually turned into stone.

The story of Putri Pukes does not have to be understood simply by asking whether the event really happened. Like many traditional stories, it also offers a glimpse into how a community understands values, family relationships, and the places that shape everyday life. Research by Astri Juraini and colleagues, published in the Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Language Teaching, places the Putri Pukes story within the folkloric heritage of Central Aceh and highlights its moral and cultural values.

The researchers write, “Folklore is one of the local cultural potentials that must be preserved together.” Seen from this perspective, Gua Putri Pukes is more than a place to visit. It is also a place where the Gayo community continues to keep stories, memories, and cultural traditions alive and pass them from one generation to the next.

There is another side to the cave that makes the visit even more interesting. Archaeological records related to Loyang Putri Pukes point to evidence of human habitation in the area, which is part of the wider archaeological setting around Lake Lut Tawar. The cave is also located near the Loyang Mendale archaeological site, an important location for understanding traces of human life in the Gayo Highlands in the past.

This makes a visit to Gua Putri Pukes more than a stop at a destination built around a legend. The natural landscape, traces of human life, oral traditions, and tourism all come together here, creating a place where different layers of Gayo history can be experienced at once.

When we step out of the cave and see Lake Lut Tawar again, the story of Putri Pukes begins to feel different. The lake is not simply a beautiful backdrop. It is part of everyday life in the Gayo Highlands and has long been connected to the stories and traditions of the people who live around it. Oral literary traditions from Lut Tawar, Kebayakan, Bebesen, and Bintang show how local communities have connected their stories with the landscapes around them.

In the end, visiting Gua Putri Pukes is not simply about seeing a stone inside a cave. It is an invitation to discover a landscape through its stories, to see how people give meaning to the places they call home, and to remember that a destination can hold a history far older than the few hours we spend there.