One Idul Fitri Is Not Enough for the Wetu Telu Community in Lombok

Indonesia has a lot of examples for customs that support discrimination based on race, gender, and religion where people cannot avoid such customs because costs of avoidance would be too expensive (JG Photo/Fitri)

The Jakarta Globe, September 05, 2011

Like most Muslims across the country, those from the Wetu Telu community in North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, celebrated Idul Fitri last Wednesday.

But on Sunday, they took part in a follow-up celebration that has been observed there for the past 600 years, known as Lebaran Adat, or the Customary Lebaran.

The centerpiece of the event has always been the morning prayer, says Raden Ratmedi, a community elder.

Whereas the regular Lebaran prayer is attended by young and old, men and women alike, only the Wetu Telu’s most respected male elders are privy to the Lebaran Adat prayer.

Another key difference with the Lebaran prayer, which is carried out in a single space, is that the Lebaran Adat prayer is held simultaneously at the six ancient mosques in the Wetu Telu’s six villages in Bayan subdistrict.

“The process at each mosque will go ahead at the same time, and although some of the rituals and the sermon vary to some extent between the mosques, the process will be the same,” Ratmedi said.

At the mosque at Sukadana village, the village elders had gathered since the night before, where they chanted the takbiran prayer. No electric lights were allowed for the overnight prayers, only a traditional lantern, in keeping with age-old traditions.

Another tradition is a prohibition on any of the worshipers wearing underwear beneath their sarongs.

With the first rays of sunlight, a procession of men and boys brought various foods and a sacrificial chicken to the mosque.

The elders then slaughtered the chicken, being sure to let it bleed on the ground in front of the mosque, before performing their ablutions using water from specially prepared jars, known as kendi , and going inside the mosque to pray.

Thirty elders took part in the prayer at Sukadana. Ratmedi said many had died or grown too old and no replacements had been appointed. The five other villages taking part in the prayer were Bayan Belek, Barong Birak, Semokan, Sembagek and Labangkara.

After the prayer, a specially appointed cleric read out a sermon from a rolled-up sheet of paper three meters long, which took half an hour to recite.

Following the sermon, the elders then visited each home in the village, where the families had prepared a variety of local delicacies for the occasion. They also oversaw a ritual in which all villagers were anointed over the head with a dye made from crushed betel nut, to protect them from evil.

On the day before the prayer, all 450 households in the Wetu Telu community of Bayan were required to prepare traditional meals, including a jackfruit stew with coconut milk.

All the men in the community were required to pay alms. Known as zakat fitra , these alms are meant to be paid by the head of each household before Lebaran and traditionally consist of 2.5 kilograms of rice — or the equivalent cost in cash — per person in the household.

However, the alms paid on Saturday were double that amount. Villagers also had to submit a live chicken and a basket of whatever crop they farmed. For the Lebaran Adat, no cash may be given in lieu of the items.

Siradi, a Wetu Telu elder, said the Lebaran Adat was not more important to the community than the regular Lebaran, but rather was intended to complement it.

He said it was always celebrated three days after Idul Fitri because of a local belief that it took that long to translate divine will into earthly actions — one day each for the actions of conception, birth and growth.

Siradi said the practice was introduced to the local community in the 1400s by one of the first Islamic missionaries to the area and had been practiced ever since.

Siradi also said influences of other cultures and religions could be seen in various aspects of Lebaran Adat. They included the chicken sacrifice, the betel juice anointment and the unique sing-song lilt in which the lengthy sermon had to be delivered according to tradition.

“Even though the times change and new generations come to the fore, we in the Wetu Telu community will keep celebrating Lebaran Adat as we always have over the years,” he said. “Nothing will change, we will do this until the end of time, until judgement day.” Fitri