Kutai culture festival draws to wet, wild end

Kutai culture festival draws to wet, wild end

Pandaya, The Jakarta Post, Tenggarong, East Kalimantan

People gathered in Tenggarong burst into cheers throughout Sunday
as tens of thousands of people took to the streets, laughing,
singing, dancing and good-heartedly dousing each other to mark
the end of this year's Kutai culture festival, Erau, in East
Kalimantan.

Revelers coming from as far away as Balikpapan, three-hours
drive to the south of the town, streamed in as early as Saturday
morning, and packed every inch of the main streets around the
palace overlooking the Mahakam River to see the closing
ceremonies.

Ignoring repeated court officials' calls to restrain from
dousing each other until the court ritual finished in the
afternoon, youngsters armed with water bags started playfully
squirting water at each other even before the sacred court ritual
began at 10 a.m.

Two low flying motorized gliders dropped leaflets calling for
the crowds to follow the rules of the much awaited Belimbur wet
festivity: no dirty water, no hard feelings, no dousing of
professionals (including police) on duty.

Regent Syaukani promised TV sets, refrigerators and gas stoves
to people who found five leaflets bearing his signature.

"It's fun, I love it," said Novi, a high school student from
the provincial capital Samarinda, who came to Tenggarong with
three friends. Traffic was unusually light and people were out in
casual clothes.

The festive mood already filled the air on Saturday night when
Tenggarong's streets were jammed with traffic. Cheap hotels were
fully booked and many of the would-be revelers were happy to
spend the night in their trucks parked on main streets.

The eight-day Erau Festival, which was combined with the
Jepen/Zapin International Festival, ended with a sacred ceremony
called Ngulur Naga (releasing dragons) at the Old Kutai Palace,
hosted by Sultan Aji Muhammad Salehuddin II and officially closed
by Yurnalis Ngayoh, East Kalimantan vice-governor.

Ngulur Naga is a ritual dedicated to the founders of Kutai
Kartanegara in the 5th century. Two 10-meter dragon statues were
taken by an army of palace family members and servants along with
Dayak tribal customary figures in their colorful attire to Kutai
Lama, or Old Kutai, the site of the early Kutai kingdom, near
Samarinda.

The giant dragons were loaded onto the roof of a decorated
traditional ship that would dump it into the Mahakam River as
sacrifice after a two-hour journey on the vast river. The ship
came back with a pot of holy water (air tuli), which was used to
usher in the dousing party.

The ritual follows the mythology about the birth of Kutai
kingdom. The myth has it that a pair of dragons appeared from the
bottom of Mahakam near what is now Kutai Lama on a stormy day. On
their back was Lembu Suana, a mythical ox with an iron gong on
its head containing a baby girl wrapped in yellow cloth.

Found and raised by a couple in the village, the girl, Putri
Karang Melenu, later married a knight named Aji Batara Agung Dewa
Sakti. They became queen and king.

After transferring power to their heir many years later when
they were too old to reign, Paduka Nira Dewa Sakti disappeared
into the forest and Putri Karang Melenu into the Mahakam where
the dragons and the ox were awaiting.

The Erau was completed last night with the next sacred ritual
in which tiang ayu, a wooden heirloom stick erected on the palace
verandah at the beginning of the festival, was removed.