Page 7 - English for Pesantren Berbasis Eduliterature _FLIPBOOK AANG FATIHUL ISLAM_ RUKMININGSIH (1)

Pesantren Tebuireng Jombang; From a Nest of Immorality to a Centre for
Religious Knowledge

One day, there was a famous pesantren in Jombang East Java, its name was pesantren
Tebuireng. According to local beliefs, the name Tebuireng comes from the word 'kebo ireng'
(black buffalo). That said, there is a resident who has a yellow-skinned buffalo (kebo bule).
One day, the buffalo disappeared and after being searched here and there, the buffalo was found
almost dead because it was mired in a swamp inhabited by leeches.
His entire body was full of leeches, so that the buffalo's skin, which was originally yellow, now
turned black. This incident caused the owner of the buffalo to shout"Black buffalo...! black
buffalo …!” Since then, the hamlet where the buffalo was found has been known as Kebo
Ireng.
In subsequent developments, when the population of the hamlet began to get crowded, the
name Kebo Ireng changed to Tebuireng. It is not known exactly when this change occurred
and whether it had anything to do with the emergence of a sugar factory in the south of the
hamlet, which encouraged many people to grow sugarcane. Because there is a possibility,
because the sugar cane planted is black, the hamlet has changed its name to Tebuireng.
The prestige of the Tebuireng Islamic Boarding School cannot be separated from the legendary
charisma of its founder, KH Hasyim Asy’ari. Since he was young, Hasyim Asy'ari, who was
born in Gedang Hamlet, Tambakrejo Village, Jombang District/Regency, February 14, 1871,
was known as a person who was smart, tenacious, and able to see far into the future. At the age
of 15, KH Asy'ari's third son was already traveling, studying from one pesantren to another.