Celebrating Muharram is an art

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesians are known for their culture and art. They celebrate their religious ceremonies and festivals with great enthusiasm. One of these celebrations is the Muharram festivity held in different parts of the country. It is similar to the Muharram celebration in Iran. According to Shia tradition, the Muharram celebration is a token of love for Ahl Al Bait (family of the Prophet Mohammad), and a remembrance of the martyrdom (shadat) of Hazrat Imam Hussain (grandson of the Prophet). It is held during the first 10 days of the Moslem New Year, which this year fell from May 19 to May 28.

The Shia traditional celebration is held in Pariaman, West Sumatra, Bengkulu and Pidie in Aceh, as well as Gresik and Banyuwangi and other places in Java. In Java, Muharram is called Bulan Suro (Month of Ashura). In Aceh people call the month Bulan Hasan Hussain (Month of Hasan and Hussain), and among the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra the month of Muharram is called Bulan Tabuik (Month of Tabut).

During the first 10 days of Muharram, the Javanese and Sumatrans prepare a special dish resembling the aash dish of Iran. In Java it is called Bubur Suro (Ashura dish). Its contains a variety of peas, grains, corn and coconut milk. The dish is covered with shredded coconut. This dish is offered to poor and needy people, family members and friends, in the name Hazrat Imam Hasan, another grandson of the Prophet, and Hussain.

In Aceh, this dish is called Kanji Ashura (sweet dish of Ashura). There, it is prepared from rice, coconut milk, sugar, shredded coconut, grains, sweet potatoes, and fruits like papaya, pomegranate and banana. Kanji Ashura is prepared for the whole village and is taken to the mosque or village center for the doa (prayer).

During the first 10 days of Muharram in Aceh, marriages, important duties, and paddy planting are suspended. People believe anyone who violates the taboo will suffer a mishap.

According to Sejarah Malayu, the classical history of the Malays, the King of Malacca, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah, appointed his son as Shahbandar (chief) of Pariaman seaport. He propagated Islam here from the Shia school of thought. He established a religious school in Pariaman. Known as Sheik Burhanuddin Tuanku, he played an important role in the propagation of Islam in the land of the Minangkabau. The Grand King of Minangkabau embraced Islam in 1581 and was given the new name Sultan Muhammad Alif. After this Islam reached every corner of the Minangkabau region.

Most of the Acehnese kings were Shia and they supported the propagation of Islam in Minangkabau. The traditional school of theology of Sheikh Burhanuddin quickly turned into the first Islamic University in Pariaman. Here most of the teachers were learned scholars. Some of them were foreigners. In the month of Safar (second Islamic month), a large number of people visit the king's tomb in the same way as the Shia people visit the tomb of Hazrat Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet in Najaf, and the tomb of Hazrat Imam Hussain in Kerbala, Iraq.

It is believed that the Fatimid Army from Egypt introduced the Shia sect of Islam to the archipelago. This army occupied Minangkabau for more than 200 years (1128-1339). Once in history, the Minangkabau was a very rich and strong Shia kingdom. It had very close relations with the Islamic Kingdom of Aceh.

In the beginning of the 19th century, a large Shia community of Minangkabau became the victim of the reformist movement known as Perang Padri (puritan movement influenced by the Wahabi Movement in Arabia), which was later crushed. After 1824 most of the Shia people of Minangkabau accepted the Sunni, Shafaiite school of thought. It is believed that there are still Shia people living in the coastal areas of West Sumatra, especially in the region of Pariaman.

Persian thought and literature has had a considerable influence on Indonesian classical and mystical thought. In the Javanese Islamic Kingdom of Pajang in Central Java, the Shia doctrine of Nur Mohammad was developed. The Persian popular mysticism of Wahdatul Wujud of Al Hallaj was once strongly rooted in Aceh. It was developed here by the first mystical Malay poet Hamzah Fansuri. A deep Persian influence can easily be traced in his all poetical works: Sharab al ashiqeen, Israr Al Arifin, Al Muntahi, and the Rubaiyat couplets. It is believed that he was well versed in Persian and Arabic languages. Later on, the Wahdatul Wujud order was transferred to Java, and was practiced by the sufi leader Hazrat Sheikh Siti Jenar. Later on he was considered heretic and was executed by the Walisongo (the group of nine sufi leaders of Java), in the same was as Al Hallaj was executed. Sheikh Siti Jenar was called Al Hallaj of Java.

'Tabuik'

In Pidi, Aceh the Keling people of South India and local people prepare tabuik (Taziah or shrine), a box-like wooden structure decorated with colorful paper. The miniature of Imam Hussain tomb is carried on their shoulders all day through the streets on the 10th of Muharram. In the evening it is floated out to sea.

In Bengkulu and Pariaman the tabuik celebrations were introduced by the South Indian Moslem soldiers called Sipahis in the first half of the 19th century. These people came during the British occupation of Java and Sumatra, when Sir Raffles was Governor during the years 1811 to 1816. It is said that though these soldiers had come from southern India, they were Shia and originally belonged to Kerbala in Iraq.

In Pariaman the tabuik is prepared from wood, bamboo, rattan, cloth, colored paper and silver leaf. The attractive tabuik designs have interiors like buraq (unicorns). Wooden structures decorated with colored paper prepared by experts sit above the buraq. A Pariaman tabuik costs Rp 3 million (US$ 1,500).

Not long after arriving here, the Sipahi people in Bangkulu and Pariaman started making the tabuik and introduced the Muharram celebrations. A local Shia in Pariaman, Kadir Ali, studied the art of making the tabuik from the Sipahis and mimicked the Sipahis celebration in the Minangkabau Shia community. The tabuik celebrations are now entrenched in Minangkabau tradition, especially in Pariaman.

Minangkabau people return to their hometown for the celebration. Those who cannot make it send donations to the chief organizers of the ceremonies.

The Pariaman people start the Muharram celebration on the first day of Muharram, it climaxes on the 10th of Muharram. The tabuik celebrations are centered in the market district of Pariaman, and the Jao Town of Pariaman.

The tabuik ceremonies start on the first Muharram by taking the mud from a river at midnight. The mud collectors wear white. The mud is placed in a pot covered with a white cloth. Then the pot is taken to a place called Daraga (Bargah or Dargah in Persian, meaning coffin) measuring nine square meters, covered with a white shroud. Taking the mud from the river symbolizes the grave of Imam Hussain. The white shroud symbolizes the holiness, birth, bravery and death of Hazrat Imam Hussain in the way of Allah.

On the fifth day of Muharram, a banana stalk is cut from a garden. It must be cut in one attack with a sharp sword. This act symbolizes the bravery and mastership of sword of Hazrat Qasim, a family member of Hazrat Imam Hussain, in the battle of Kerbala. On the seventh Muharram, at 12 p.m., Panja (hand of Imam Hussain) is taken to streets in a pot called usungan along with the daraga. Seeing this, the people weep with grief remembering the historic tragedy of Kerbala, where Imam Hussain and his family members and 72 friends were martyred fighting the cruel regime of Yazid, son of Muawiah. In the morning of the ninth Muharram, a white turban, symbolizing the turban of Imam Hussain, the defender of the truth, reality and Islam, reminds people of the bravery and sacrifice of Imam Hussain.

On the 10th of Muharram the tabuik celebrations reach the peak. People from all over the Minangkabau region come to Pariaman to take part. Attractions such as debus (stabbing sharp iron bars through the belly), silat (traditional martial art), and a randi (boat race) from a nearby island to Pariaman are also performed. There are many Minangkabau sayings about the tabut celebrations.

It is said that if a husband does not take his wife to see or take part in the tabut celebration on the 10th of Muharram, she becomes very angry and will ask for a divorce.

Youngsters also select their life mates at the ceremonies because nearly the whole Minangkabau community gathers at once. When these young people return home after the celebration, they ask each other "Lai dibao tabuik tu pulang?" (Did you find your life mate during the tabut celebrations?).

On the tenth Muharram the tabuik, daraga, panja, and the turban of Imam Hussain are taken through the streets in a procession of tens of thousands of people. This procession starts from two places, the market district, and Jao Town of Pariaman. The mourners and onlookers move slowly and cry "Hoyak Hussain. Hoyak tabuik! (Ya Hussain!)."

The two groups roam different streets all the day and then join each other in evening. Some of the people weep hysterically upon seeing the tabuik. At the end of the day the procession goes to the seashore of Pariaman to throw the tabuik in the sea. Before throwing the tabuik in the sea, all the precious decorative clothes, papers and other costly materials are removed and saved for the next year.

Throwing the tabuik in the sea marks the end of the ceremony, and the departure of the Imam Hussain's buraq to the sky, where it meets with Hazrat Ali (father of Imam Hussain) and then it proceeds to paradise. The tabuik slowly sinks among the waves. The evening gets darker and darker. The darkness gives way to dawn and the celebrants return to their homes chanting Ali Bidaya! and Ya Hussain!