Babat District, Lamongan: Solo River Hub

Babat District in Lamongan Regency, East Java, is the western gateway of the regency, a trading town on low, flat ground beside the Bengawan Solo. Roads from Tuban, Bojonegoro, Jombang and the Surabaya side of Lamongan meet here, and the town grew around that meeting. It is also the place where one of Indonesia’s best-loved coconut cakes was first baked, and a small limestone ridge on the Jombang road carries a marriage superstition that people still respect.

The district is made up of 21 villages and 2 urban wards. For anyone planning a stop between Surabaya, Bojonegoro and the north coast, or a look at the western end of Lamongan Regency, it repays more time than a petrol stop.

Where Babat District Sits

Babat lies at the western edge of Lamongan Regency. To the north are Sekaran District and, across the river, Widang District in Tuban Regency. To the east is Pucuk District. To the south are Modo, Kedungpring and Sugio Districts, and to the west lies Baureno District in Bojonegoro Regency. The Bengawan Solo, Java’s longest river, forms the northern boundary against Tuban, and the river also separates the district from Bojonegoro on its western flank, so Babat is a river-edge district.

The land is lowland, mostly rice fields and fishponds. In the south, small limestone hills break the flatness. One of them, Gunung Pegat, rises only about sixty metres above sea level, but in such flat country that is enough to make it a landmark. Bojonegoro, across the river, has its own character, set out in Bojonegoro Regency, and the two districts share the same river plain.

The Bengawan Solo at Babat

The river is the reason for much of what Babat is. The Bengawan Solo is the longest river on Java; it rises in the hills of central Java, crosses the plains of East Java through Bojonegoro and the Lamongan and Tuban border, and reaches the Java Sea on the coast of Gresik. For centuries it served as a trade route, and a town on its bank at a crossing point had every reason to become a market. In Babat the river forms the boundary with Tuban and Bojonegoro, so crossing it means crossing from one regency into another.

The same river is the district’s main hazard. When the water rises, the low fields and the wetland south of the town take the overflow, and the shifting channel is the reason a village such as Truni ended up on the wrong bank. Anyone reading a map of the district should treat the northern boundary as a living line rather than a fixed one.

Villages and Urban Wards

The two urban wards, called kelurahan, are Babat and Banaran. The 21 villages are Bedahan, Bulumargi, Datinawong, Gembong, Gendong Kulon, Karangkembang, Kebalanpelang, Kebalandono, Kebonagung, Keyongan, Kuripan, Moropelang, Patihan, Plaosan, Pucakwangi, Sambangan, Sogo, Sumurgenuk, Trepan, Tritunggal and Truni.

Truni has an unusual place on the map. The Bengawan Solo changed its course, and the change left Truni on the north bank, cut off from the rest of the district by the water. It is a clear example of how this river has reshaped boundaries on the plain over time.

Development across the district is uneven: only the Babat ward ranks high, while the villages rank lower. That fits what a visitor sees, a dense, busy town centre and, around it, villages whose life still revolves around rice, fishponds and small trade. Population, industry and shops have all been increasing, and the growth is moving toward the west.

A Trading Town: Markets and Roads

Babat is the commercial centre of western Lamongan, and its markets show it. Pasar Babat is the main town market. Pasar Agrobis Semando, Pasar Moropelang and Pasar Gembong serve other parts of the district. The roads explain the activity: Babat is a junction for traffic between Tuban, Bojonegoro, Jombang and the Lamongan to Surabaya route, and it is the main western entrance to the regency.

Lamongan is famous across the country for one dish above all, and the regency’s food culture is covered in Soto Lamongan: Chicken Soup From East Java. Babat adds its own sweet snack to that picture, covered further down.

Public Services in the District

Because Babat serves the western part of the regency, it carries public services that smaller districts lack. The regional hospital of Lamongan has a site in Karangkembang village, and community health centres operate in Babat town and in Moropelang. Together with the markets and stations, they explain why people from neighbouring districts such as Modo, Kedungpring and Sugio travel into Babat for everyday business, much as they did when those districts formed one kawedanan with Babat during the colonial period.

Rawa Semando and the Fishponds

South of the town lies Rawa Semando, a low wetland that works as a basin for floodwater from the river. Much of it has been taken over by fishponds, some of them informal. The wetland shows the double nature of the district: the same flat land that makes it easy to farm and build on is flat land that floods when the river rises, and the old swamp is part of how the plain copes with high water.

The result is a landscape of ponds and paddy in which water is the organising force.

Wingko Babat: The Cake That Started Here

The best-known product of the district is wingko babat, a round, sweet cake of glutinous rice flour and grated coconut. Many people assume it comes from Semarang, where it is also sold, but it was first made in Babat in 1898 by a Chinese migrant couple, Loe Soe Siang and his wife Djoa Kiet Nio. Their son Loe Lan Ing carried on the business in Babat, and a daughter later moved to Semarang and started a similar trade there, which is how the cake came to be known in two cities.

In Babat the cake is still baked in a stone oven, a traditional method that the family trade has kept. A monument to the wingko stands in the town centre, called Tugu Wingko. The Semarang side of the story, with its own history, is told in Wingko Babat: The Coconut Sweet of Semarang.

Gunung Pegat and the Chicken Throwing Custom

Gunung Pegat is a limestone ridge that runs from the Baureno area of Bojonegoro into Babat. The road between Babat and Jombang cuts through it. The cut was made during Dutch rule, when the colonial government wanted a road linking the northern coast with central Java to move natural resources and spices, and many forced labourers died in the work.

The belief that grew around the place has lasted. The angry labourers cursed the route. Unmarried travellers who pass through meet misfortune, and married people may face hardship, up to divorce. The name fits the belief: pegat means divorce or separation in Javanese. Someone travelling to a wedding who must pass the ridge throws a chicken there to protect the marriage. Many people avoid the route altogether and take a different road, through Mojokerto or Bojonegoro. The belief is held across Tuban, Bojonegoro, Jombang and Lamongan alike. Many people mistake another hill, Gunung Girik in the Ngimbang area, for Gunung Pegat, but Gunung Pegat is the one in Babat.

The Railway Town Streets

Babat grew quickly under Dutch rule as the seat of Kawedanan Babat, an administrative area that covered Babat, Modo, Kedungpring and Sugio. In 1936 it was one of six kawedanan in Lamongan. Colonial buildings from that period remain in the town: the railway station, the CTN building, the old police station, the Cincim bridge and the Garuda building.

A kawedanan was an administrative tier between the regency and the district in the colonial system, and having one in Babat meant that officials and trade for the surrounding area gathered in the town. That function is why a small place on a river bend has a grid of older streets and a set of public buildings from the colonial period.

Babat Station and Gembong Station are the district’s two rail stations. The lines to Jombang and Tuban have gone out of use and are neglected. Current train routes across the province are set out in Trains in East Java: Routes and Planning. A combat engineer company of the army is also based in the district.

Getting There and What to Plan

Babat is reached by road from Lamongan town to the east, from Jombang to the south, and from Bojonegoro and Tuban on either side of the river. The main roads cross in the town, so it is easy to include on a drive between Surabaya and Bojonegoro. Gresik, the port town to the east, is covered in Gresik Regency for travellers combining the north coast with this western edge, and the wider province is introduced in East Java from Bali.

A short visit might begin at the wingko monument and the old station streets, continue to the markets, and end on the Jombang road where the limestone cut is. A longer day could add the river edge near the village of Truni.

Sign In

Babat District, Lamongan: Solo River Hub and Wingko