Air Anyir society in Bangka Island believe that the last Wednesday in Safar month is the day for God to release 3200 disasters to the world. That belief lets Air Anyir society to perform special ritual Hari Rebo Kasan or last Wednesday in Safar month to far-away them from all disasters.

The ritual is started on 07.00 am when every citizen goes to masque bringing tray with red cover. Inside tray there are 6 plates with ketupat, sayur (vegetables), fish, chicken, cake and fruits. Bangka citizen call the tray as dulang.

One family contributes one dulang. Then all dulang will be collected in the masque to be eat together after ritual completed. This habit in Bangka Island is called as Sepintu Sedulang. Eating together is called as Nganggung. The visitor will get first opportunity to eat the food.

The ritual Rebo Kasan is started with azan announced from the masque, and then followed by praying. Azan and praying are Islamic value which influence Bangka tradition.

At the mid session of the ritual, a paper written by wafak praying will be dipped into water inside ceramic bowl. Wafak praying is written using dawat ink which bought in Mekkah, Saudi Arabia. Water inside cermic bowl is called as wafak water, coming from 7 ceramic bowls representing 7 holy water source. In the end of ritual, the water will be shared to every participant.

Ritual to reject disaster is perform by pull-out the ketupat tolak bala (ketupat for rejecting disaster). The ketupat is unique packing for rice with special processing. But in this ritual ketupat used is only packing without rice inside. The ketupat for this ritual is special because made of 2 coconut leafs. If you pull out every leaf, you can release together its bonding. Each ketupat will be handed by each pair of citizen, then special praying will be delivered with standing position. The praying is to expect God to look after all society and far-away from all disaster such as pain, accident or natural disaster.

Just after the praying completed, all pair of citizen will pull out together the ketupat until the plait is released. This activity will be done together by all society with happy and laughing. All coconut leaf ex ketupat will be collected into special place.

After releasing ketupat is completed, the ritual will closed by eat together or nganggung.

Note; for your info, Bangka island is located in Malacca Strait, close to Sumatera Island. In the past Bangka was a biggest producer (with Belitung Island) of tin.

Reference: KOMPAS Daily Edition 24 March 2007 Page 39, written by L. Andreas Sarwono.

(Osa Kurniawan Ilham, Balikpapan-Borneo, 10 Sept 09)

As I have mentioned in the previous posting, Indonesia culture is very affected by agricultural. In the past, our farmer always called the rain prior to start planting rice or vegetables. However, in modern ages like now, this ritual has been replaced by rain technology, also has been replaced by weather estimation which assist farmers to start the planting.

But, in Banyumas – Central Java the ritual to call the rain is still alive and implemented by society especially in Plana village, Somagede – Banyumas. In this area, agricultural is very depending on the water from raining. Therefore this ritual, called as Cowongan, is still implemented by society.

Cowongan ritual is conducted in September, October or end of Kapat (time calculation as per Java Calendar). In this time, the water source has dried and the villagers has faced a difficulty to find water.

The ritual can be performed may times until rain falling. But, the performance is only allowed in odd calculation such as 1 night, 3 nights, 5 nights and 7 nights. Based on experience, Cowongan ritual usually didn’t performed more than 7 nights.

To perform Cowongan ritual, they use a tools like Jailangkung (traditional game to call spirit, I will write about this later). As a tool, Cowongan use siwur (water dipper) which stolen from neighbor which located on wuwungan (a top of house).

The stolen water dipper shall be stored below banana tree to absorb natural energy in 3 days. Then, the stolen water dipper can be used for ritual.

In this ritual, the players allowed are menopause women, in other villages men are also allowed. Cowongan ritual is started by mantera (magic spells) using the ancient Java language. The magic formula usually is as follows: Sulasi sulanjana. Kukus menyan ngundang dewa. Ana dewa daning sukma. Bidadari temurunan. Runtung-runtung kesanga.

This mantera is request for fairy or angel to come from heaven and enter to siwur which has been made up as cowongan doll like beautiful lady. The fairy or angel is believed as a good spirit not devil. The come of the angel to the earth is expected to deliver message from earth society to God in order to give raining. To ensure the message received by God, close to cowongan doll they burn kemenyan (incense derived from gum benzoin) whose smoke is believed can deliver the message to God.

As I wrote in the previous posting that Indonesia culture is fulfilled with symbolic culture. In this ritual, cowongan is one of example of symbol to represent all ideas and praying to God. The powerful and effectiveness of this ritual is very depending on the faith and believing of the society.

NOTE: this article is adapted based on article in KOMPAS daily edition 19 Aug 2009 page 38 and written by Madina Nusrat with original title “Seni Tradisi Cowongan : Berusaha Eksis tetapi Tetap Eksis”.
(Osa Kurniawan Ilham, Balikpapan-Borneo, 21 Oct 2009)