Celebrating Syncretism

4/25/2011

Three big religions encountered a local culture that had been in existence for centuries in Lombok and this resulted in a unique syncretism and cross pollination. Ahmad Subaidi witnessed the Wetu Telu community of the pearl Island’s fascinating Maulid Adat ceremony.

Traditional communities in Indonesia existed long before the arrival of Islam to the country’s shores. When this religion arrived via trade routes, whether or not it wanted to, it had to compromise with many of the preexisting traditions of the society here. This marriage between the sacred values of heaven and more earthly concerns has been tough, and sometimes wracked by conflict. However, as can be seen on Lombok in the West Nusa Tenggara region of Indonesia, religion and culture can indeed work together in harmony to produce a spectacular display that has also become an important tourism asset.
I witnessed an amazing spectacle in the village communities of the Wetu Telu, which are based in Kecamatan Bayan in North Lombok District. To celebrate the birth of Muhammad, the last prophet in Islam, these traditional communities organise the so called Maulid Adat in Bayan Beleq Mosque, which is believed to be the oldest mosque in Lombok.
The presentation of this centuries-old tradition proved to be full of colour and inviolability. The celebration lasted for three nights and reached its peak on the full moon of the fifteenth night of Rabiul Awal, which this year fell on Friday, 18 February. Almost everyone from Wetu Telu took part in the splendid festivities.
The full moon was shining brightly when I arrived at the village of Bayan, a 90-kilometre drive from the city of Mataram, the capital of Lombok and the international gateway to West Nusa Tenggara. The courtyard of the Bayan Beleq Mosque was crowded with the congregation.
There was no electric lighting, as there is no electricity here yet. The main source of illumination was a dile jojor, which is a torch made of bamboo, a cotton twist, and some biji jarak (seeds from a tree used to make castor oil).

The people gathered in a circle and the crowd was really boisterous. I made my way through the throng and found two men fighting. Both were topless and armed with a shield in one hand and a rattan club in the other. They were hitting each other as hard as they could while the spectators cheered them on. Rattan clubs striking shields of bamboo wickerwork produce loud sounds, and it was easy to imagine how painful a hit to the body would feel.
The Wetu Telu community calls this sadistic attraction Perisaian. ”This Perisaian may last the whole night through,” said Yanis, one of the spectators. “This is the evening people really look forward to during the Maulid Adat celebration.”
This tradition does not only belong to the community of Wetu Telu, but has now become a popular attraction all over Lombok and is staged during many holidays, including the country’s Independence Day, which comes around every 17 August. What makes the Perisaian in Bayan Village unique though, are its round shields. The shields used elsewhere are normally square.
For the Wetu Telu community, the Perisaian that happens during the Maulid Adat celebration commemorates the leadership of the prophet Muhammad showed in training his army for the Uhud and Badar wars long ago. ”As with the ‘standard’ Maulid, the Maulid Adat is also held to celebrate the birth of the prophet Nabi Muhammad. However, it is organised three days after the religious celebration,” said Raden Gedarip, a Bayan traditional elder.
Perisaian is not the only cultural attraction that occurs during the Maulid Adat. Before and after the fights, the community organises a kind of ritual that is no less sacred and embodies the values of cooperation and mutual support. This includes the process of menutu or pounding padi (unhusked rice) in the kampu (traditional area). There are several kampu around the Bayan Beleq Mosque, including Karang Bajo, Karang Salah, West Bayan, East Bayan and Loloan.

On Saturday afternoon, dozens of women, under the leadership of the traditional female public figures known as Inak Lokak and Inak Menik, pounded rice together using wooden mortars and pestles. This kind of scene is very difficult to find in big towns, where cooking techniques have been taken over by modern electronic gadgets.
What is unique here is that this feminine tradition is not only carried out by the women. The women’s job is to pound and wash the rice, however the men prepare the livestock and spices, and decorate the old mosque. This cross-gender cooperation is rather rare in characteristically patrimonial Indonesian communities.
The rice that had been husked was then washed in the ritual bisuh menik. Dozens of women wearing the traditional kemben outfit carried the rice and then walked in a procession to a kokok or river about 500 metres away from the kampu. At the same time, the livestock, which included water buffaloes, goats, and also ducks and chickens, was slaughtered by the men.
In the evening, I went back to Bayan Beleq Mosque. It was very noisy there. Hundreds of people from the villages of Kecamatan Bayan had turned up together with the Praja Mulud procession (two pairs of male teenagers symbolising Adam and Eve). Their retinue carried with them food in containers of woven sliced bamboo known as ancak. The Maulid Adat ceremony itself was conducted inside the mosque and led by the kiai pengulu.

In the yard outside the mosque, the people conducted a ritual known as Saur Sesangi which pertains to the fulfilment of pledges. People brought rice, fruit, vegetables and some livestock with them. This ritual is carried out while beating gong gerantung (which are old musical instruments consisting of a pair of gongs and a number of percussion instruments). The rhythmic sounds made the atmosphere seem even more joyous. In Islam, nazar is a pledge of sacrifice made when people want to do or get something. If he gets what he wants, he must carry out his pledge.”What the Praja Mulud bring with them are food and crops as a thanksgiving,” explained the Senaru’s Village Chief, Raden Akria Buana. ”Meanwhile, for Saur Sesangi, people bring whatever it is that they have pledged.”
After the praja mulud procession has been received and the food in the ancak has been eaten by the kyais, the party moves to the kampu of each village where the villagers eat together.
Raden Gedarip, a traditional leader from Bayan Village, explained that Maulid Adat was a ancestral tradition of the Wetu Telu community that had been celebrated for hundreds of years. Praja Mulud, the symbol of Adam and Eve (or man and woman) is meant to show that the Prophet Muhammad was also born to a human couple.
”That is also what we want to convey when we celebrate the birth of our children with red and white rice porridge. The white symbolises man and the red is woman, and a baby is really born pure and without sin,” Raden explained, adding, “It is hoped that this tradition may foster parents’ awareness of raising and educating their children with love and responsibility.”

Almost everyone in the Wetu Telu community of north Lombok is Muslim. However, this fact has not led to them abandoning their ancestral traditions. Instead, they have adapted the old rituals and resituated them within an Islamic context, such as can be seen in the Maulud and Lebaran Adat displays, which never fail to attract tourists every time they are held.
Of course there are regulations that the visitors have to observe. Those who want to see a traditional ceremony in the kampu area or at the Bayan Beleq Mosque are required to wear traditional attire. Men should wear a sarong and sapuk headgear, whereas women should wrap themselves in a kemben.
“When a man dies, we can still find his grave. But if a tradition dies, where will we find it? This is the reason we still work hard to preserve our traditional and cultural norms,” says north Lombok cultural observer, Datu Artadi. He believes that a lot of people incorrectly view the Wetu Telu community as being exclusively occupied with religion. However, Wetu Telu is not just about religion, but is also deeply concerned with a culture rich in values.
Datu Artadi also explained that Wetu Telu is concerned with three areas societal norms, namely religion, governance and tradition. All three must support and strengthen each other in order to create a balanced system of living. Wetu Telu is also focused on three essential relationships, that is to say that between man and God, man and other men, and man and the universe.

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