Looking at the future through shrouds of cotton

Looking at the future through shrouds of cotton

By Tarko Sudiarno

YOGYAKARTA (JP): It was a few minutes after midnight and it was getting darker and colder. It was not yet quiet in Girisekar village, in the Seribu mountain range, Gunungkidul regency. The later it got, the more people gathered at the residence of the late Ki Rono Pawiro. It was Tuesday of Kliwon Mongso Kapat in the Javanese calendar, a traditional rite of unwrapping Cupu Kyai Panjolo.

Cupu Kyai Panjolo, an heirloom inherited from a mystic figure, Kyai Panjolo, and comprising of three ceramic jugs, is now kept by the family of Ki Rono. These three jugs, each the size of a fist, are kept in a wooden box and placed in a special room. They are called respectively Cupu Kenthiwiri, Cupu Palangkinantang, and Cupu Semarkinadhu.

The box where these jugs are kept is wrapped with a shroud made of unbleached cotton. Every year, this box is unwrapped and new shrouds are added in a number conforming to that of visitors making a special request/prayer through Cupu Kyai Panjolo.

At present the box, measuring about 20 cm by 15 cm by 10 cm, is wrapped in 600 shrouds so that it looks as if it were wrapped in a very thick blanket. In the box-unwrapping rite, as many as 72 new shrouds, locally called singkep, were to be unwrapped.

It is believed that the new singkep will contain an image of what is going to happen in the next year in this country.

In last year's rite, one of these shrouds of unbleached cotton showed an image of an island split in two and, coincidentally or not, East Timor has separated from Indonesia. Also in the same year, another shroud showed an image of tobacco leaves. This year the price of tobacco went up.

The symbols found in the pile of shrouds are usually used by the local people, particularly the descendants of Kyai Panjolo, to foresee rice planting.

However, the symbols have been construed as also predicting social development. The present uncertainty has made the community long for the arrival of certainty and it has pinned its hopes on these symbols which contain information about the future.

Although it is now the era of freedom and transparency, certainty is conspicuously absent. Therefore the locals have discarded the symbols of modernity and returned to the traditional symbols of their ancestors.

"I've come here with a group in a minivan to see whether Ibu Megawati will be the next president," said Suparno of Klaten. He had never been to Girisekar village until earlier this month and wanted to find out whether his idolized figure, Megawati, would be elected Indonesia's next president. He arrived with 30 other people, most of whom wore attributes of PDI Perjuangan and a medal with the picture of Megawati.

It turned out that most of the other visitors were just like Suparno and his colleagues -- they were curious about the same thing. When a member of the Ki Rono family announced through loudspeakers that from the singkep was already unrolled, one could see on both the eastern and western sides an image of the same woman. Thousands of visitors shouted "Mega, Mega, Mega."

It was clear that those crowding the house and the yard of the Ki Rono family wanted Megawati to be the next president as they spontaneously shouted her name. When another singkep was unrolled and there was a clear image of the letter "M", the visitors talked loudly to one another about this symbol. "As for me, I just believe Ibu Mega will be our president," said a woman from Bantul.

The rite of removing the cover of the heirloom itself began at about 2:30 a.m. and was completed by 4:15 a.m. It was led by Dwijo Sumarto, 48, one of the seventh inheritors of Cupu Kyai Panjolo. As for the preliminary rite, it began about 10.00 p.m..

As many as 36 offerings were placed in front of Cupu Kyai Panjolo, which was placed in the sentong (the interior room in a Javanese Pendapa-typical house). The offering that each person carried comprised of one shroud of unbleached cotton, one basket of rice, one chicken cooked in coconut milk, one dish of raw vegetables and a number of flowers.

The offerings which had been blessed with a prayer were then distributed to all visitors, except the shroud, which would be used as a new cover for the box containing Cupu Kyai Panjolo.

The procedure of shroud-unrolling began with a prayer and the distribution of rice. This rice, called nasi berkah (blessed rice) was distributed only to visitors who were inside the house and the requirement was that one plate of rice had to be eaten by two people. After the rice eating session was completed, Cupu Kyai Panjolo was taken to the audience hall of the house.

In the meantime, close relatives on duty sat cross-legged around a big bundle of cotton about half a meter high. Before the bundle was unwrapped, one of them announced the conditions and the prohibitions which had to be complied with by visitors.

These requirements have been passed from one generation to another and cannot be violated. The prohibitions are, among others, that a visitor inside the room is not allowed to stand, a visitor who is still a virgin is not allowed to be in the southern part of the house, a male visitor who has never undergone circumcision is not allowed to touch the cupu and the singkep and photographs cannot be taken inside the room.

Afterwards, the wrapping of the heirloom was removed, witnessed by the visitors that packed the audience hall of the house. Loudspeakers were provided for the visitors outside.

The first to be removed were some 600 old shrouds and then the new ones were unrolled. The first image that could be seen on the singkep was that of a snake head with an open mouth, facing south. The picture of the head of a snake appeared in the south- eastern part of the rectangular cloth measuring about 1 m by 1.5 m.

The next shroud showed a person who had been hanged, the Arabic inscription of Allah, the dome of a mosque, a monkey sitting facing west, a person raising both hands with three stars and stains of blood close to him, a trace of a fire in the northeast direction, a pair of human soles and many others, including the image of a grain of rice.

The removal of singkep went on until the box was completely unwrapped. Then it was opened and shown to the audience by passing it round. The audience touched and felt the heirloom.

Afterwards, the Kyai Panjolo was wrapped again with shrouds. Outside these new shrouds the old shrouds were used. According to the locals, if the rolls of singkep are too thick, some of the oldest singkep will have to be thrown into the South Sea.

As for the pictures on the singkep, they are not as perfect as a drawing. It is only a sort of crude drawing resembling certain objects. The pictures or symbols appearing on this white cloth look like drops of water or metal rust, or perhaps like a stain made by saliva on a pillow. This is what happens to the white cloth surrounding the heirloom which is left untouched in a dry, protected place.

As for the history of the tradition of Cupu Kyai Panjolo, not many people are aware of it, not even the family and inheritors of the heirloom.

"Our father, grandfathers and great grandfathers never told us the story about the origin of this heirloom and about the Cupu- unwrapping rite. We, the present inheritors, do not know much about Cupu Kyai Panjolo and we are prohibited by our ancestors to tell stories about it," said the ceremonial master of the rite.