Celebrating Muharram is an art

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!