The hill of good
fortune
It’s a strange scene – one that would outrage the puritans. The
fact that it operates openly in Indonesia should give cheer to pluralists.
Several Muslim women wearing long skirts and headscarves
walk confidently into a building in the courtyard of a Chinese temple on the
East Java mountain of Gunung Kawi.
They’ve come to have their fortunes revealed through an ancient ritual
known as Ciam Si involving poems based on birth dates.
They’d travelled for five hours from Lumajang, 150
kilometers further east, just to see what 2015 might bring – a practice that
some religious authorities claim is haram
[forbidden].
After buying flowers and old coins as offerings the pilgrims
progressed up the hill, through a mural-clad gateway before entering a darkened
timber room with two gravestones.
Here they meditated alongside men and women who the guards
identified as Buddhists and Christians.
The graves are supposed to encase the remains of Mbah [leader]
Imam Sujono who died in 1876 and his colleague Mbah Djoego, also known as Kiai
Zakaria 11 who passed away five years earlier.
The spelling of the names often differs, and so do the
stories. The principal theory is that both men were supporters, relatives
perhaps, of the high-born Diponegoro who led a rebellion against the Dutch.
The prince was arrested in 1830 at Magelang in Central Java
and exiled to Makassar in South Sulawesi where he died 25 years later. His colleagues fled to Kawi where they helped
restore religiosity and improve cropping techniques.
After their deaths their graves gained a reputation for
bringing good fortune to those who make the pilgrimage – like the ladies from Lumajang.
Does it work? The
best known case is that of Ong Hok Liong who established the Bentoel tobacco
company after meditating on the mountain.
For years he’d unsuccessfully sought the right name for his
cigarettes. Then the sight [or dream] of
a hawker selling edible bamboo roots known as bentoel set the heavy smoker and drinker on the road to creating
the nation’s second biggest tobacco company – and an early death from liver
disease.
At least he didn’t have to sit for hours – or longer – under
the sacred dewandaru [Eugenia uniflora ] tree waiting to catch
a falling leaf, another alleged path to prosperity. If the classification is correct the tree is a recent import from
South America where it’s known as the Surinam cherry.
This slice of science prunes the myth that the shrub was
cursed to stay small by a holy man because it snagged his clothes. The sage was trekking through the area to
divide the territories of King Airlangga.
That was in the 11th century. On Gunung Kawi fiction trumps
facts.
The tree has outgrown the original railings so a bigger
fence has been built to stop the impatient giving the branches a shake to rain
down wealth.
Kawi is an extinct volcano - at 2,551 meters but a pimple on
the topography. It’s not to be confused
with the temple cluster of the same name near Ubud in Bali.
The village on Gunung Kawi’s slopes, just a fifth of the way
to the summit, makes this mountain one of the most visited in Indonesia. At weekends, holidays and certain dates like Jumat Legi [the evening preceding Friday
in the 210-day Javanese calendar] the place is gutter-to-gutter pilgrims, both Indonesian Chinese, Javanese
and occasionally a few overseas visitors.
Pack a backpack of patience and get a massage to harden the
hide before venturing into this cauldron of commerce. Prowling touts pounce the
moment you turn off the asphalt. Have
trouble parking in an empty yard? At
least three men will ‘help’.
Need a ‘guide’ to take you up and down the one sloping
narrow street? Take your pick.
Feel inclined to help the poor? You’ll run a gauntlet of
beggars and kiosks offering everything from cassava [reputed to be the nation’s
finest], flowers and all the knick knacks of numerology, soothsaying and
clairvoyancy.
If you doubt the effectiveness of a donation, the bigger
coins are recommended for the
traditional Javanese kerokan back rubbing
session. This is supposed to draw ‘wind’
or evil spirits out of the body as malevolence is known to be attracted to
money.
Apart from cultural anthropologists and the odd bemused
journalist, everyone else who comes to Gunung Kawi is also drawn by dollars; they’d
certainly not consider their desires wrong – for who doesn’t want good fortune
provided it’s not at the expense of others?
The shopkeepers selling tourist floss seem to be doing well
enough, for many don’t bother opening when the river of humanity drops from a
flood to a trickle during weekdays.
Unless you’re addicted to crowds, this is the time to enjoy
Gunung Kawi without being squashed like an orange. The leaves from the dewandaru waft down to the tiles of the empty courtyard to be swept
up by caretakers. If the story was true
these guys should be millionaires – but at least they look fit. Not all pray
for gold - good health is more precious.
The downside of a visit outside the crushing times is that
the hustlers are hungrier when pickings are few, so tend to be excessively
eager.
There are signs warning visitors against wearing immodest
clothes and taking photos, but the amicable guards are prepared to study the
skyline if camera-clickers ask politely.
This is not an euphemism for bribing.
Gunung Kawi isn’t just for those with faith in the unknown. Sceptics can
also puzzle over human nature while watching heavy business folk exit
their big black limos, snap orders into smartphones, and then abandon logic to
seek a glimpse into the future through rituals bereft of reason. That’s a
matter for wonder.
As is the sight of people of different faiths meditating
together.
How to get there: From Malang a by-pass on the road to Blitar
cuts off the town of Kepanjen and at least 30 minutes of what used to be a
two-hour drive. The landscapes are lush,
the roads reasonable.
(First published in The Jakarta Post 13 April 2015)
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