Superstition or spirituality, the debate continues
2009.05.01 06:48
(This is Part 2 of kucingputi’s previous post: warung kembang sajen. Enjoy!)
Some say it’s superstition, some claims that it’s a treachery of religious teachings, while most others just practice it out of inherited tradition. And that majority of others are the reason that flower offering traders in several market in the city thrives.
“For me, personally, it is about respecting our own tradition,” said 54-year old Saraswati who believes that before constructing her West Jakartan home, she needs to recite Islamic prayers as well as planting a buffalo head and placing flower offerings on a certain spot.
She’s a practicing Moslem and a director of a renown bank. But, first and foremost, she’s a believer in the Javanese tradition of marking each phase of one’s life with traditional ceremonies involving offerings such as that sold in the Kebayoran Lama stalls.
And most probably, she’s not alone.
It does not matter what your ethnicity is, how well-educated and modern you claim to be or what religion you are. Some Indonesians, except for the extreme left-brainer, are bound to traditions that resort to the metaphysical world every once in a while.
And flowers and fragrance are among the most important elements in reaching the other worldly, be it god or the spirits.
It is perhaps the wonderful scent of the offerings that mankind relates to communication with the profane. But, “the experts” have a different take on what offering is for.
“Flowers and menyan (scented dried sap) are the food for the unseen,” said paranormal Saleh Trisna who opens his practice some 15 minutes away from the kembang sajen stalls in Kebayoran Lama market.
Trisna and the traders sometimes share the same customers. Those who buys the flowers from the stalls and later take them to the 47-year old paranormal as offerings.
“They (the offerings) are not for me. If one wants to look for his stolen motorcycle, for example, I have to ask for assistance from the spirits. They are for them,” Trisna explained.
Believe it, or not, some did find their missing things, he claimed.
For others, offerings are simply representations of the elements of all the human senses and the mother earth. Threads spinned in full circle represent the cycle of life and the colorful flowers cleanse the profane world.
Perhaps, no matter how advanced a society is, human beings will always keep its fascination with the mysterium tremendum, the shrouded unexplained things to resort to when reality bites.
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