Saka guru
Saka guru, or soko guru in Javanese, is the set of four main posts which support certain Javanese buildings, e.g. the pendopo, the house proper and the mosque. The saka guru is the most fundamental element in Javanese architecture because it supports the entire roof of the building. Because of its importance, the saka guru is imbued with symbolism and treated with certain rituals. Structure and construction The saka guru construction is employed in buildings that are constructed with a joglo-type or tajug-type (pyramidal) roofs. The joglo type roof is reserved for the houses of the nobility, while the tajug-type roof is used to support sacred buildings such as mosques or temples. In Javanese architecture, walls are merely boundaries of rooms and the exterior with no structural purposes. The main structural columns/posts of a Javanese house (the saka guru) supports directly the roof and not the wall. Each of these four main posts sits on top of an umpak, three-dimensional trapezoidal stone which acts as a transition between the post and foundation. Umpak size varies from 20 x 20 cm2 to more than a square meter, depending on the dimension of the posts, which commonly ranges between 12 x 12