Pop quiz: How many kings are there now in the ancient sultanate of Surakarta?
Answer: There is no correct answer.
When King Pakubuwono XII died four years ago, he left six mistresses with 35 children, but no wife, no heir and no instructions about the succession in this city in central Java.
He might have guessed what would happen. Two half brothers each claimed the ancient crown and the family split into two bitterly feuding factions.
The oldest half brother and his nine full siblings took control of the palace, a fortresslike complex called a kraton. He barred his 25 half siblings -- the children of the other five consorts -- and evicted those who had made their homes within its walls.
Except for one shouting match when the expelled half siblings stormed the palace and had to be removed by the police, the two factions have not spoken since.
Now people are asking what will become of the centuries-old Sultanate of Surakarta. Also known as the Sultanate of Solo, it has had no political power outside of the thick, whitewashed ramparts of the palace since the Republic of Indonesia stripped all royal families of power in 1946.
But the kraton here sees itself as a keeper of Javanese tradition -- of purity, refinement and cosmic spirituality -- and has continued to perform court rituals and to hold regal processions through the city.
Its royal family, meanwhile, continues to behave as royal families so often do.
"Palaces have many intrigues, you know," one of the evicted princes said.
Shortly after their father died, on June 12, 2004, each contending brother had himself crowned King Pakubuwono XIII.
One coronation was held inside the palace, one outside, at the mansion of a friend.
When the time came to commemorate their father's death, palace insiders say, the princes carried out two tomb-sealing rituals with two teams of masons, two teams mixing cement and two solemn ceremonies.
When the older prince, Hangabehi, 60, expelled the younger one, Tejowulan, 52, a sister who was the keeper of the keys was exiled along with him and hid the keys, a researcher said.
With the keys out of reach, neither those inside the palace nor those outside could open the giant, padlocked doors of the chamber where treasures and ritual objects are, said Soedarmono, a professor at the State University of Indonesia here.
As a result, neither coronation included all the relics needed to anoint a king, he said.
"There is no king," said Soedarmono, who has just one name, like many Indonesians. "Neither one is king. When you write about them, you can just call them mister."
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