A House in the Forest

By Kuntowijoyo

There are two inviolable prohibitions for the residents of this village, which is located near a forest.

First, they are barred from marrying people from the village located north of their own. Second, they are not allowed to build a prayer house anywhere within their village.

They believe that any violation of the taboos will anger the ghost who controls their village. Violators face ostracism from fellow villagers.

The first taboo is based on social reality. The residents of this village are farmers while those in the north are traders. Elders of the southern village like to say that they would never be happy marrying someone who is too economical, a dig at the neighboring villagers.

The second taboo is due to the fact that northern villagers are good Moslems. For the sake of maintaining their different identity, the southern villagers distance themselves from religion.

Differences are also mirrored in traditions. To welcome a newborn, the people of the north hold a religious ceremony praising Prophet Muhammad. Those in the south celebrate it in a traditional Javanese ceremony with gamelan music.

But these carefully drawn distinctions were disrupted when Jokaryo, (the name is a corruption of the Arabic Zakariya) suddenly became a devout Moslem. That was not all. He also planned to build a prayer house in his garden. Others complained this would incense the ghost.

And when the building was being constructed, they said the ghost pulled out every block of wood from the prayer house and threw them away. Villagers found some in the jungle and others by the riverbank.

A villager reported one day, after he was possessed by the village demon, that he had received a message that Jokaryo could build a prayer house in the nearby forest but without a mihrab, the corner indicating the direction of the prayer to Mecca.

The people believed that the man had indeed been possessed by the village ghost because all the people affected in the past had been poor peasants, none of them well-educated but, ironically, all could speak old Javanese flawlessly.

Jokaryo submitted to the urgings. He and his friends erected a prayer house in the middle of the forest. After the building was completed, they went for prayers after every sunset. This was followed by a ritual to glorify the name of Allah which went on late into the night. It was a kind of Sufi mystic order.

But the prayer house was neglected after Jokaryo died 15 years ago. Jokaryo's only son had joined the transmigration project in Kalimantan and his daughters moved to other villages after they married.

Village custom ruled a deserted property could be used for the public. The prayer house was used as a resting place for farmers, lumberjacks or passersby. Some continued to believe the house had ghosts as the forest had long been known as a haunted area.

Mrs. Kasno set out to save the dilapidated building. She had it repaired and repainted until it looked like new. She said her spirit partner had told her that was the only way she could get rich.

The villagers were grateful at first for Mrs. Kasno's act. They had started to visit the place. But not all of the local residents were happy. Some came to believe the renovated house was a blight on the village.

They had good reason as it became a popular hangout for drunks and also a makeshift brothel.

Mrs. Kasno said her spirit friend did not mind what she was doing, but she still refused to convert the house into a gambling den because she did not want problems with the police.

Villagers were divided into three groups of opinion about the house. The first believed Mrs. Kasno had gone too far with her project. They said the fact that she was a lapsed Moslem was one thing, but offering prostitutes was another matter entirely.

The latter was, of course, against all customs and not approved by any religion.

But there were also people who welcomed her flesh trade because it provided them with the world's most enjoyable pleasure. They said that as Javanese, they should live as though they were naked in mind and spoke the truth. If they needed something, they said so. For example, a farmer worked in the field, not in the mosque, because it was useless to profess to be devout.

Drinking rice wine and sleeping with prostitutes were not against the law, they argued, because no coercion was involved. Only a few people, mostly those who lived near the house, disagreed with Mrs. Kasno.

They did not understand why the ghost who controlled their village allowed her to commit such shameful activities. The village, they lamented, had tarnished its own image.

Gradually, the villagers changed with the times. They came to believe that it was easiest to simply enjoy the service offered by Mrs. Kasno. First, they downed the alcohol, and then they slept with the hookers.

Even the most timid found that drinking emboldened them and allowed them to flout the limits of courage and freedom. Under the full moon, they would drink before taking a woman into the forest.

The farther they went into the forest, the more comfortable they felt in the place where their forefathers had lived long before morality and manners curtailed their freedom.

The forest, once believed to be haunted, now seemed have been deserted by them as more people flocked to the area.

Mrs. Kasno was believed to have struck an agreement with the demons to let her clients enjoy themselves. In the evening, the former prayer house, now lit by kerosene lamps, appeared quiet even though the situation inside was outrageous.

The people alarmed by the sinful doings were at a loss how to make their protests heard. They did not even dare call the business "prostitution".

Could they register their complaints with the village authorities? No, because it would only open old wounds and many of the officials were frequenters of the brothel.

The most outraged among the villagers was Ustadz (Preacher) Yulianto Ismail. He had come far from his traditional Islamic school to settle in the village and teach religion for free. But he now faced such a great challenge as he saw no way to stop the illicit business.

The situation went on for years and Mrs. Kasno became very rich. She demolished the old hut and built a permanent structure. She also owned three minibuses operating between the villages and the town.

An idea came to Yulianto after Mrs. Kasno's husband died one day. The local people connected his death with her fortune. It was all part of her agreement with her spirit friend, they believed. But she announced she would close the business for a week in observance of his death.

Yulianto worked alone on his scheme because he wanted to keep it secret. He kept watch on the deserted house, dark except for a kerosene lamp hung near the front door.

His plan: he would burn down the house in fulfilling his religious duty.

After midnight, Yulianto set out on his bicycle carrying a can of kerosene. Local residents were fast asleep because they were still exhausted after three nights of playing dominoes at Mrs. Kasno's.

Yulianto left the village after the first cock crowed. Villagers believed that a cock crowing at midnight heralded news of a widow falling pregnant. As he entered the forest, Yulianto lit a match and looked at his watch. It was 2 a.m.

All was quiet and dark. No wind blew and trees were still. He rested his bicycle by a tree and looked around. He was alone.

He approached the brothel and quickly poured kerosene on the wooden and bamboo walls. He had never done anything like this before, but he did it perfectly. He then took the matches from his pocket and prayed.

He struck a match and set the walls on fire. The fire became an inferno. Mission accomplished, he pedaled home. He tried to sleep but it was to no avail.

Early in the morning, when the call for prayer sounded, he performed his ritual ablutions and dawn prayer. He had just finished praying when he heard, "Ustadz, the house in the forest has burned down. Thank God".

The crowd rushed into the forest to see what had happened. The fire had already died down. Suddenly, a man's shout rang out: "There is a body here."

Almost simultaneously, someone else shouted "There are two of them. A man and a woman".

They dragged the bodies out. A woman pushed herself to the front of the crowd and gazed at the women's body.

"Oh, dear, she is my daughter. Oh, you were so obstinate. Forgive me, dear."

The dead were a local girl and the man was her lover from the northern village. The girl's parents had opposed her liaison with the young man but the couple had persisted.

They must have met secretly in the house that night. But the people believed they had set the house on fire to commit suicide.

Yulianto appeared shattered at the sight of the bodies.

"Astaghfirullah (Forgive me, God)," he murmured as he fainted.

-- Translated by TIS.

The writer was born in Yogyakarta on Sept. 18, 1943, and is a history lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in the Central Java city. He started writing when he was a senior high school student and began writing plays after enrolling in university. His short stories have been printed in Horison and Sastera literary magazines. He has also published collections of poems, dramatic works, novels and nonfiction on history and culture. Since 1995, Kuntowijoyo has won successive first prizes in the annual short story competition organized by Kompas daily. This short story appears in Anjing-Anjing Menyerbu Kuburan (Dogs Stormed the Grave). It is printed here courtesy of Kompas.