Cok Sawitri reveals the spiritual path of Dirah

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

Silence engulfed the darkened stage when three male performers made their presence in a carefully paced, slow stride. On their shoulders were three female dancers leaning sideward as if they were void of any vital energy. White wooden masks covered their faces.

The performers carefully placed the dancers at the center of the stage before disappearing back into the darkness.

Later on, the three dancers danced slowly, very slowly, in a series of movements and gestures that reminded people of certain yoga postures and signature motions of sacred Balinese dances of Sanghyang and Rejang Dewa.

In the background, the bamboo flute of Suling Gambuh let out a continuous, melancholic tune while Cok Sawitri reciting the ancient mantra of summoning Durgha, traditionally believed to be the Goddess of Death.

The hauntingly beautiful performance on the closing night of Ubud Writers' and Readers' Festival was the latest work of Cok Sawitri.

Titled Badan Bahagia (Body of Happiness), the play explored Sawitri's reinterpretation of Durgha as the Mother of Universe, the Shakti (creative force) of creation and enlightenment.

"In this context, Durgha is not the Goddess of Death, but the savior of the world," Sawitri said.

Badan Bahagia is the sub-chapter of Wisuda Bumi (The Induction of the Earth), the first chapter in Sawitri's play Pembelaan Dirah (The Plea of Dirah).

The last three chapters are Kawean, Namaku Dirah (My Name is Dirah) and Jalan Maya (The Path of Maya).

The performance was a small part of a long, arduous creative journey that Cok Sawitri has been taken since 1990 when the theme of Rangda ing Dirah (The Witch of Dirah) started haunting her mind.

"There was an obvious contradiction between the traditional interpretation of the story and the actual use of the story in the purification rituals of Balinese Hindus. That was the thing that motivated me in the first place to explore this theme," she said.

Traditional interpretation placed Dirah as the queen of black magic who wreaked havoc on East Java's kingdom of Kediri. Having been socially chastised by the people of Kediri, Dirah took revenge by releasing a deadly plague over the kingdom. Fearing that his kingdom would be decimated by the plague, King Airlangga sent his best warriors to assassinate her. Yet, none of them could match the supernatural power of Dirah.

In desperation, the king summoned the help of a powerful priest, Mpu Bharadah, who later sent his son Mpu Bahula to Dirah's camp to steal the sacred text, the source of Dirah's powerful magic.

Eventually, Mpu Bahula fell in love with Dirah's daughter Ratna Manggali. Dirah, out of her love to Manggali, gave the sacred text to Bahula, thus, surrendered her life to Bharadah.

This interpretation formed the main plot of Calon Arang, one of the most popular semi-sacred traditional dance drama in Bali.

Sawitri has her own interpretation of Dirah. In 1992, Sawitri completed her poem Namaku Dirah (My Name is Dirah) and began to read it at various literary events. The poem portrayed Dirah as a widow, whose life and family had been destroyed by a cruel, manipulative king.

Four years later, a theatrical adaptation of the poem was performed in Denpasar under the title Pembelaan Dirah (The Plea of Dirah).

"Rangda ing Dirah was a female Mahayana Buddhism priest, a practitioner of the Path of Awareness. Her teachings, which urged mankind to take the path of truth instead of the path of power, were considered as a threat by King Airlangga," Sawitri said.

It was a battle between a feminine side of religiosity, which taught mankind to seek knowledge, spiritual fulfillment, peaceful and harmonious relationships with the Nature, and the masculine side of religiosity, which seek power, worldly possession and authoritative control over the Nature.

The king defeated Dirah in the traditional interpretation. Sawitri, however, stressed that Dirah's demise was a testimony of her firm belief in the path of non-violence.

"Dirah gave Bahula the sacred texts because she believed that the unity between Mahayana Buddhism and Siwa-Siddhanta, the feminine and masculine, would be achieved through Bahula and that would be the ultimate victory of her path," Sawitri said.

History showed that it was Bahula's grandchild Mpu Tantular, who composed the important text Sutasoma. The text proclaimed the unity between the two philosophies.

Sawitri treated the texts and the performance with utmost reverence.

"It is not just a piece of entertainment. It is my spiritual path, through which I train and discipline my body, heart and mind," she said.

To compose the play, Sawitri read five different versions of ancient Calon Arang lontar (palm leaves) texts. She also studied the esoteric Durgha Tantra texts, which detailed the ways of summoning the power of Durgha.

Upon learning of Sawitri's fixation with the "black magic" texts of Calon Arang and Durgha Tantra, her royal family of Jro Gde Sidemen asked Sawitri to undergo Mewinten Agung, a purification ritual usually reserved for a high-priest's candidate.

"Learning sacred texts without prior purification might damage the body and soul,"she said.

Sawitri also spent a considerable amount of time consulting Siwa and Buddha high-priests, the keepers of the secret teachings of Durgha, in various parts of Bali.

Moreover, Sawitri also practiced numerous mental and psychical disciplines outlined in the ancient texts or suggested by the high-priests. The disciplines included chanting, meditation and fasting.

"Even the masks and costumes have been prepared and purified in accordance with the ancient texts," she added.

It was no wonder that all the dancers fell under the state of trance during the performance. When, in the end of the performance, the masks were taken off, all of them still had that serene look -- eyes half-closed and they smiled benignly -- the look of happiness.

"The thing that set Sawitri apart is her firm belief and commitment to treat the spiritual teachings of Durgha not only as a source for creating art pieces but also as a manual for her daily life. In this sense, she comes closer to the ancient ideal of using literary texts as a tool of achieving spiritual realization," praised another playwright Mas Ruscitadewi.