Mama Terate trains herself to become a soothsayer
By K. Basrie
JAKARTA (JP): Mama Terate, 79, has developed herself into one of the country's senior soothsayers.
Born as Lee A Kioek, alias Seruniati Arief, she has worked as a soothsayer for over two-thirds of her life.
She said she has had supernatural energy since she was a little Chinese girl in Bogor, West Java.
"I could easily determine what people walking in front of me were going to do," Terate recalled.
One day, she said, her neighbors apprehended a man for trying to steal something from a house in their neighborhood. Shortly after, Terate informed them that the stranger was a thief.
"I don't know where the power came from, but I believe that it came from my great-great grandparents and my own long-time personal experiences," she said.
Since then, she has read a lot of books about the supernatural and related sciences to enrich her knowledge.
Today, she offers personal consultancy services at her house, located in a small alley of Gang Rembang near Jl. Blora in Central Jakarta. She also advertises her service though several local media in the city.
"Practice makes expertise perfect," she said.
Besides "seeing" people, she also claims to be able to detect and will away "unlucky" marks, such as poor eyebrows and moles, from someone's body.
She also offers various kinds of traditional herbs for numerous purposes, such as to cure the tiredness suffered by the elderly.
Terate also offers stones pasted in priceless rings to her clients. The color of the stones depends upon the needs of the patients.
"Such stones are meant to help stabilize patients or dispel any existing negative influence in their bodies," she said.
According to Terate, the cost of her service is not so important. "I don't need money from the poor people, but it will be most unpleasant if rich clients don't give me money for my service," she said.
Personality
Terate was cooperative in revealing all details about her service, but she would become frigid when replying to questions related to her personal background.
"That's a stupid question about my personality and family," she said.
Our interview almost changed into a heated argument when she kept on calling me a "stupid reporter" while trying to avoid my questions about her history and relatives.
"Your readers have no business with my personal background," she argued. "They only want to know the details of my service."
"Then, what's your reason to use the name Mama Terate (Mother Lily), instead of your original name?", I asked further, hoping for a friendly response.
What was her answer?
"It's none of your business. I could use whatever name I want," she said.
She requested that I not ask too many things about her background.
"Asking too much could harm yourself," the soothsayer reminded me.
That's why I would like to suggest to those who want to ask for her service to be prepared for a harsh response from her.
The words might not harm you, because her advice might be more valuable to your needs.
"I'm not a witch. My advice doesn't come from myself, but it's an inspiration conveyed to me from God," she said.
Service
In providing her service, she usually asks her clients to sit down on a chair in the living room of her house.
The living room, about four meters long and two meters wide, is packed with old books and papers related to her profession.
After asking several questions about her clients, she then closes her eyes for a few seconds and starts to reveal the "status" of the patients.
Sometimes she shapes her hands like binoculars to spot part of a client's body to see the details of his/her character.
Since working in this profession, Terate has served thousands of people coming from various walks of life.
Among them was the wife of the late former vice president, Adam Malik.
She hopes she could continue the profession until God takes her life one day.
"I'm happy as what I am now, and I won't change my profession until the day I die," she said, asking me to leave her house immediately.
"That's enough. No more questions from you," she said.