Batu Layar Tomb: Local History, Sacred Architecture, and Pilgrimage Traditions in West Lombok

Abstract

Batu Layar Tomb is a coastal sacred site in West Lombok whose historical meaning is maintained largely through oral narratives, community renovation, and recurring pilgrimage practices. This study examines the site’s local history, architectural transformation, and living traditions while critically addressing variations in community accounts concerning the person or persons commemorated there. The research employed historical methods through heuristics, source criticism, interpretation, and historiography. Data were obtained from field observation, documentation, material remains, and interviews with twelve village officials, teachers, tomb custodians, customary and religious actors, community members, and youth during fieldwork in June–July 2025. The findings show that local chronology places the emergence of the tomb around 1801, although the identification of its central figure varies among narratives referring to Sayyid Zuhri, Ali al-Haddad, Maulana Syamsuddin, and a Habib associated with a miraculous maritime departure. Rather than invalidating the site’s history, these variants reveal layered collective memory. The tomb developed from a simple earth-and-stone marker into a permanent complex through several community-led renovations. Its sacred landscape is sustained by pre-Hajj pilgrimage, nyangkar, and the ritual use of water from Lingkok Mas or Lingkok Beleq. The study concludes that Batu Layar is best understood as a living historical landscape where Islamic devotion, Sasak cultural memory, coastal identity, and community stewardship intersect.