Siti Hartinah (Bu Tien)
Siti Hartinah Mrs Suharto was also widely acknowledged to be a close confidant and political advisor to Suharto. Siti Hartinah was distantly related to the Mangkunegaran Royal household. Some commentators state that her honorific title of Raden Ayu was reserved only for faithful commoner courtiers or servants of the Mangkunegaran court. She was married to Suharto on the December 26, 1947 in Surakarta in a traditional Javanese ceremony. The Javanese custom was for the bride's family to pay the bulk of the wedding costs. Suharto apparently drove there in a battered De Soto sedan. Suharto stated that the marriage was initially not one of romantic love, but they did eventually grow to love each other devotedly, a type of marriage that was very common for many Javanese of that era. Three days after their marriage, Siti Hartinah was taken by Suharto to live in his Yogyakarta house at Jalan Merbabu 2. Her marriage to Suharto was initiated by Suharto's foster mother at the time, I...