When the Tutelary Spirit Objected: Conflict and Possession among the Using of East Java, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

This article discusses a case of possession in East Java that took place in the context of an important customary ritual, the seblang dance. In the course of this ritual, villagers meet their obligations to the spirits of fertility that allowed them to use the land on which their village and fields are located. Considerable stress was caused by a potential dancer who, perhaps for religious reasons, declined to dance although she had been specifically chosen by the spirits. This was an unheard of situation, and was feared to put the welfare of the community at risk. Further stress was caused by perceived interference by government officials whose rejection of an alternate dancer for aesthetic reasons caused the village’s tutelary spirit to become angry, jeopardising the presentation of the ritual and thereby the welfare of the community. After two and a half hours of negotiation, during which narratives reflecting both tradition and the current situation were constructed and reconstructed, the village head resolved the immediate problem by appealing to the spirit’s civic position, though leaving the door open for further problems in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• East Java
• Using
• possession
• seblang
• conflict

Acknowledgements

I thank Ibu Sri Hidayati of Olehsari, Drs Kusnadi, M. A. of the Universitas Jember, and Ibu Nahariyah of Jember for their long conversations about some of the things discussed here. Thanks are also extended to Glenn Smith and Hélène Bouvier for their constructive comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and to the anonymous peer reviewers for their insights.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Using (also Osing) are an ethnic group living in the eastern-most part of Java, which used to be part of the kingdom of Balambangan. Though some consider them to be a subgroup of the Javanese, they themselves predominantly claim to be a separate ethnic group whose culture and language differ considerably from those of the Javanese of both East and Central Java (cf. Pranoto 2015, 14–15). For an overview of the history of this area see Kumar (1979), Sudjana (2001), and Sri Margana (2007).

2. Today the ritual is only performed in two villages, Olehsari and Bakungan, both located in the Glagah district of Kabupaten (Regency) Banyuwangi, East Java. For a discussion of these two versions of the ritual see Wolbers (1992, 1993); Wessing (1999). The ritual is now part of what is called bersih desa (the cleansing of the village), though this is a recent change, given that the term is Indonesian rather than either Using or Javanese. It is said that during bersih desa, ideally, discordances that have crept into relations between people, and between people and the spirit world are redressed, rather like the request for maaf lahir dan batin (pardon me, body and spirit) made at Idul Fitri at the end of the Muslim fast of Ramadan. I suspect that in the past the name of this ritual was just seblang.

3. In Bali the gods are said to only possess ‘those who are spiritually pure’ (Hornbacher 2011, 173). In Olehsari the dancer is presumed to be virginal, and in the case of the village Bakungan where a post-menopausal woman becomes seblang, a woman who is no longer fertile and, presumably, sexually inactive. Since the two purities are thought to be linked, abstinence from sex (=physical purity) at least implies spiritual purity.

4. As Domenig (1988) describes it, a trick is played on the spirits. Before claiming the land for human use, a divination takes place in which it is assumed that if the spirits do not give a negative sign, they have given their permission for the occupation of their land. Once the people move in, offerings are made to one of the spirits, making it a cult object, thereby obliging it to make a counter prestation – for example, to protect the settlement (cf. Hillebrandt 1921, 796). The spirit, therefore, is a victim of human wiles and its own greed. As Kapferer (1997, 128) points out for Sri Lanka, the gods (and here the spirits) are vain, and love admiration and being the centre of attention.

5. The founder's leadership position in the spirit’s cult would traditionally also have justified this person’s leadership of the community. Indeed, serving the spirit owners of the land and thereby assuring the fertility of the land and the animals is often the exclusive privilege of the founding line. The spirit beliefs, therefore, help maintain the social structure in which the founding line occupies a privileged position. This privileged position is now in decline (Wessing 2013).

6. It has been suggested that Brata could refer to Bathara Kala, who represents time and death and in Java is often depicted as a man-eating demon (cf. Brakel 1997, 256). Zoetmulder (1982, I, 260), however, glosses brata with ‘mode or manner of life, conduct, custom … religious vow or practice … any vow or firm purpose’ to which Wojowasito (1970, 210) adds tapa (meditation, fasting), which would be more in character for a village tutelary spirit.

7. ‘ …  some [Burmese] spirits are merely horribly dangerous because, as Lords, they are readily offended … ’. ‘Yet, they are not, for all that, evil in the sense of consciously malevolent’ (Lehman 2006, 130–131).

8. This egalitarian spirit is said to manifest itself in the Using language, which is claimed to largely lack the levels of politeness found in Central Javanese, which reflects the hierarchical nature on Central Javanese society (Koentjaraningrat 1989, 15–19; Robson and Wibisono 2002, 8–9; Saputra 2012, 5). The Using language, it is said, only has two levels, namely the Using spoken in daily life, and basa besiki, the language used when one feels one has to be polite, for example, when dealing with officials (Saputra 2014a, 649). This may, in the end, not really be all that different from Javanese, which, as Robson and Wibisono (2002, 8) note, also only has one basic level, namely the ngoko speech of daily life. The other level, called krama they characterise as a ‘ceremonial variant’ of ngoko, used in situations when respectful behaviour is called for.

9. In Olehsari the date is now usually just after the celebration of Idul Fitri, the end of the Muslim fast during the month of Ramadan. This was not always the case, however, as such rituals were traditionally celebrated after the harvest. Here as elsewhere in East Java, the spirit world has slowly tended to adjust its calendar to the Muslim one.

10. Informants in Olehsari cited the case of a previous village head, who had been partially paralysed because he did not treat the seblang properly. Also, previously the dhanyang had requested that a keris (ceremonial dagger) be given to the dancer, as he, Mas Brata, was celebrating a wedding. When this request was ignored, informants said, heavy rains suddenly disrupted the event. At the end of the proceedings, the possessing spirit also declined to leave the dancer who then regained consciousness only after considerable difficulty.

11. The person through whom the dhanyang had been speaking the past few years was Mak Sutrinah (Mak Sut). This woman, a descendant of the founder, who was chosen by the spirit, is not listed among previous dancers (Herowati Poesoko 1992, 59) and is not a professional medium or someone occupying a named role. According to my informants, when the spirit so decides, it can suddenly switch to another person through whom to make its announcements.

12. Tourism and its development in Indonesia are the task of the Ministry of Tourism (Kementrian Parawisata), while cultural matters are seen to by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan). Locally in Banyuwangi these matters are handled by the Dinas Kebudayaan dan Parawisata (Office of Culture and Tourism) (Mr Aekanu Hariyono, email July 15, 2015). Thus, in Olehsari the village head was administratively responsible to the district head (Camat), the regent (Bupati) and in the case of tourism, to local office of Culture and Tourism (Kebudayaan dan Parawisata). It should be mentioned that when this conflict came up in discussion in 2010, a man representing the Banyuwangi tourism office denied that his office had ever intervened in the choice of the dancer and it may just be that someone at the village level had overzealously stressed the government's policy. Such preventative or anticipatory editing of rituals has happened elsewhere as well (Saputra 2013, 22; 2014a, 660, 666). However this may be, the Olehsari villagers were convinced that pressure from the tourism office led to the difficulties.

13. This preoccupation is found elsewhere as well. Foley (1992, 41) reports about a similar dance in West Java that the dancer's ‘age and sexual allure’ may be gaining in importance and that since 1978 she has seen dancers who were ‘clearly post-pubescent’.

14. Hefner (1990, 188) writes about the Tengger area that ‘a new and more serious challenge’ to the cycle of village celebrations now comes from wealthy villagers who consider the rituals to be too expensive, and advocate cutting back on them or even abolishing them.

15. The same thing had, in fact, been done by the Dutch colonial administration (Acciaioli 1985, 159; Volkman 1990, 92), though perhaps not to the degree with which it has been since 1965. But then, the Dutch were not trying to promote Indonesian national unity.

16. Even though there is a great deal of similarity in the beliefs professed in various villages in Java, it should not be assumed that these are identical. The Javanese, in fact, perceive many differences, and especially urban Javanese are uneasy in strange areas because they do not ‘know’ the local spirits (cf. Pemberton 1994, 237). The best way to describe the varied beliefs as a whole is as a ‘polythetic set’ (Needham 1979, 65).

17. Thus allowing a seblang dancer to be present at, for example, the village Alasmalang's keboan ritual, itself already desacralised by an emphasis on tourism (Wessing 2016). Similarly in 2010 I saw the village Kemiren's tutelary barong ‘perform’ as part of Bakungan’s seblang ritual.

18. This is, again, not something unique to Indonesia. See Carlitz (1997) and Nelson (1997) for instances in which in one case spirit beliefs were attacked by the state and replaced by a state sponsored cult, and in the other the spirit beliefs themselves were standardised and placed in the service of national unity and development.

19. See Acciaioli (1985, 160), Anonymous (n.d.), Handler and Linnekin (1984, 280), and Picard (1997, 191). This often involves changes in length or visual presentation to make the event consumable by outsiders such as television, tourists or other audiences (cf. Hutajulu 1995, 641, 645–646; Yampolski 1995, 710, 714–715).

20. While I disagree with Geertz’ (1980) characterisation of old Indonesian (specifically Balinese) states as ‘theatre states’, with the commoditisation of ritual into tourist performance, the regime seems to indeed be taking on the role of impresario. See also Bruner (1979, 7).

21. It is because of this encompassing reality that the adat is a matter of concern to the Indonesian government. Also, as Aragon (1991–1992, 380) writes, altered adat performances may still be perceived as threatening to religious proselytisers and the national government.

22. According to Kapferer (1997, 177) in its perceived perfection, every performance of ‘ … [a ritual] is always a first performance’. It is not a duplication of a previous effort, but rather a recreation of the first perfect performance (cf. Howe 2000, 65–66).

23. This is not to say that tourism cannot at times be advantageous. Nelson (1997, 703) describes how commercial ventures by a Japanese shrine actually improved conditions. The difference is, however, that Japanese Shintoism is a national cult while Javanese village cults are by definition local affairs, often under pressure from Islam as well. Being local and particularistic, there is no unity among them, making them vulnerable to outside pressures.

24. Wolbers (1992, 114, 135 note 24) notes changes between 1985 and 1990 in the clothing of the participants in the ritual, from everyday clothes to new, matching ‘traditional’ ones (cf. Tsing 1993, 245), the tradition here perhaps being a recent construction. In 2010 in Bakungan, the other village where seblang is danced, a variety of extra actors had been added, while the verses (gendhing) to be sung were no longer chosen by the seblang but by a master of ceremonies (protokol), and were sung, loudly amplified, by a single woman rather than by a chorus (compare Wessing 1999, 2012–2013).

25. For many the equivalent of half a day's wage.

26. Mak; lit. mother; here Mrs.

27. This contradicts the stated requirement that the dancer should be a pre-menarcheal girl. Other such deviations were said to have occurred in the past and, although a pre-menarcheal girl is preferred, single, sexually inactive women seem now to be possible substitutes.

28. Wolbers (1993, 36–37) and Murgiyanto and Munardi’s (n.d., 51) statement that Olehsari girls never refuse to dance as it is believed that were one to do so, one would expose oneself and one's family to danger does not seem to be without exception (compare Saputra 2014a, 658; 2014b, 60–61). Wiwin's father was said to have been unhappy when Wiwin's sister had danced and, according to an informant, has gone sort of crazy. ‘Just come back here in a year’, she added, ‘and see if Wiwin has not gone crazy’ (cf. Herowati Poesoko 1992, 61).

29. Ya sudah, diadakan baik, kalau tidak, biar! This disgust echoes that of a dhanyang mentioned by Pemberton (1994, 267) who told the village head ‘I will not be “ritual”-ized!’ before disappearing forever. (The Javanese di‘upacara’kaké, might perhaps have been better glossed with ceremonialised, since it is exactly the ritual aspects that are being eroded.) That some people seem to feel the same way is evident from a statement cited by Picard (1997, 204), asking whether Bali must ‘become a Disneyland, a Hindu Theme Park … ’.

30. It should not be assumed that this opposition to Wiwin's refusal involved an opposition to Islam as well. As was pointed out earlier, the villagers consider themselves to be Muslim and the ritual has been adapted to the Islamic calendar. Furthermore, as Herowati Poesoko (1992, 36) showed, 98.67% of the combined religious leadership of Olehsari and Bakungan, the other village presenting seblang, are in favour of the ritual. Yet, although Islam, in its local Olehsari manifestation, is considered part of the ritual, Muslim purists see this as an improper deviation, which is probably what lay at the base of Wiwin's refusal. Thus, although the villagers are Muslims, they do not necessarily agree with the purist's version of the religion (cf. Beatty 1999). Saputra (2014b, 58) indeed calls them abangan, adherents of an Islam mixed with Javanist (kejawen) practices.

31. Pak; lit. father. Here Mr.

32. The shift from Using into Indonesian here may reflect the fact that the spirit's quarrel was with the village head as a representative of the Indonesian government, whose perceived interference was being objected to.

33. Myself and my colleague Drs Kusnadi (M.A.) of the Universitas Jember in East Java.

34. Before this unscheduled possession, Salwati became very quiet and withdrawn, rubbing her eyes. She then burst out in a loud crying and lost consciousness (cf. Freed and Freed 1964, 153–154).

35. Men, however, can become possessed, either involuntarily especially as a punishment after neglecting to properly deal with either nature spirits or ancestral ones (cf. Wessing 1978a, 103–105), or voluntarily when in such roles as shaman or magician (Wessing 1986, 1996).

36. As Boddy (cited by Nourse 1996, 426) points out, Lewis’ (1989) perspective on possession as a strategy assumes intentionality on the part of women, and underestimates the actuality of the spirits to the people involved.

37. This conflict between adat and religion in East Java dates back to at least the 1930s (cf. Hefner 1990, 139, 197, 203), though its resurgence in the Banyuwangi area seems to be more recent (cf. Beatty 2009).

38. Note that the conflict was at no time phrased as a conflict with Islam, even though Wiwin's refusal to dance seems to at least partially have been for religious reasons. To phrase the conflict in those terms, however, would have left the villagers open to accusations of being against religion, a position which it is wise to avoid.

39. While the Indonesian authorities with which the villagers have to deal cannot be characterised as ‘foreign domination’, they and their concerns do appear as ‘the suddenly visible representatives of imperialism and the world capitalist system’ (Karp 1990, 80), especially in the light of developments on Bali, which is, after all, only a short ferry ride away from Banyuwangi. Yet, as Hellman (2013, 188–189) points out, the voices of the possessed can criticise a corrupt and weak political and religious leadership, contrasting it with the ideal of the community's founders, in Hellman's case the King of Pajajaran.

40. The interference and the attendant changes have indeed been constant. In 2003 there was an attempt to stage a seblang performance in conjunction with the celebration of Banyuwangi's founding day. This attempt failed due to the dhanyang's recalcitrance (Tabalong 2004, 40). In 2005, however, the Olehsari seblang, though not in trance, featured as part of the kebo-keboan, an agricultural ritual in the village Alasmalang, along with other touristic elements like Kemiren's barong (protective spirit) and a reog (tiger-dance) performance. All these were at one time locality-bound presentations that have lost their spiritual moorings in the process of touristification. Recently also the ritual has been moved from an open space in the village to a stage (Tabalong 2004, 42), in the process redirecting it to becoming theatre (cf. Wessing 2012–2013). The stage has since been scrapped.

41. As Magnis-Suseno (1996, 67) points out, the position of village head used to be much more one of primus inter pares among the other villagers than it presently is. The position is now increasingly one of representing the supralocal government. Even though this aspect was not absent in the past, it has in recent times received greater emphasis.

42. The elements of this state philosophy include nationhood, humanitarianism, democracy, social justice, and a belief in a Supreme Deity, the latter not officially specified.

43. This sort of interaction between the community and the spirit or god occurs in Bali as well, and often brings about new (or changed) rituals and instructions for the community's future conduct (Hornbacher 2011, 178).

44. Javanese: kasekten, cosmic female generative power that pervades the universe and is seen as directly responsible for a person's position in society (Anderson 1972). This quality is often attributed to powerful or charismatic persons, though in theory available to ordinary persons as well.

45. Vox Dei, Vox Populi, with apologies to Alcuin (C.E. 735–804) whose letter to Charlemagne (C.E. 800) has over the centuries often been quoted out of context (cf. Roberts 1940, 647).

46. In the case of Salwati's premature possession the next day, it was at first thought that she might be bothered by a devil (setan), until Siti Sundari made her presence known.

47. The fact that one of Wolbers’ (1992, 88) informants called the seblang presentation a ‘ritus kesuburan’ (fertility rite) is an indication that the true meaning of the ritual, or the direct experience of it, may already be in the process of being lost (cf. Firth 1973, 163–164, 200; Kristensen 1961, 7–8). Yet Wolbers does not identify the speaker, and the people I met over the years fully participated in the ritual and appreciated its reality. One voice does not necessarily constitute doom, though it may be a warning of it, especially given developments in Bakungan in 2010 and Alasmalang in 2009 where display has clearly won out over belief and ritual.