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.