Offerings a must before the sugar mill rolls

Text and photos by Bambang Muryanto

KARANGANYAR, Central Java (JP): So, the machines are all installed, the workers are organized and ready to start -- now it's time to take care of the spirits.

Producing sugar in Java is not merely about logistics and the bottom-line. Mill administrators continue to hold onto an old belief, that a sacred ritual must be held for good luck before the sugar mills start rolling.

Cembengan, also known as selamatan gilingan or pesta giling, is performed to ask for God's blessings and those of the spirits who guard the mills to ensure the safety of the workers and the smooth running of the machinery over the following months.

Tasikmadu sugar mill in Karanganyar, Surakarta, is one of the mills that continues to practice this age-old ceremony.

"We don't dare to give up this ritual," said the plantation's director, Heri Krismanu.

The origin of the name cembengan is unclear. Some believe it is from the Mandarin, jing ming, the time of the year when the Chinese pray to their ancestors. During the colonial period, so the story goes, many Chinese were employed as cooks in sugar mills and the name they called the ceremony was later altered to cembengan by the Javanese.

Mill director H. Soeroto HS said the ceremony has been performed at Tasikmadu since the sugar mill's foundation, 131 years ago. It was built by the ruler of Surakarta, Sultan Mangkunegoro IV, in 1870 and named Sondokoro sugar mill. It was later taken over in 1957 and renamed by the Indonesian government as a state enterprise.

This year the ceremony was held over five days in late May, beginning with a visit by officials from the mills to the graves of Mangkunegoro IV and his noblemen in Mengadeg, Giribangun, as well as other graveyards in Boyolali and Wonogiri.

But the central focus of the ceremony is the Midodareni Tebu Temanten, held on the eve of the wedding of a "sugarcane" couple in Alastuwo plantation, eight kilometers north of Tasikmadu sugar mill.

Two sticks of sugarcane were taken from Alastuwo plantation to Heri Krismanu's house. The sticks were decorated and a doll of a male Javanese groom was placed on top of one stick while a doll of the bride was placed on the other. The cane is taken from a different plantation every year.

"It depends on the supernatural message received by Mbah Ahmad Ismail, the gatekeeper of the Mangkunegaran royal graveyard in Girilayu, Karanganyar," Heri Krismanu said.

The message is believed to come from the spirit of Mangkunegoro IV. There is a new name for the bridal couple every year; Mbah Ahmad Ismail chose Sri Sadono Dadi for the bride and Sri Mulyaningsih Sejati for the bridegroom this year.

During the ceremony the mill's yard became a lively night fair, full of locals and mill-workers. Street vendors had set up shop with everything from children's toys to household goods. There was traditional theater and shadow puppet plays, as well as movies screened outdoors.

"For us, Cembengan is a place to have fun," said Suharno, a security guard at the mill.

Heri Krismanu said the night fair was organized to replace the gambling that, in the past, traditionally followed the ceremony. At that time, workers, especially men, would work under contracts at the mill.

"After they had lost all their money, they would work at Sondoroko sugar mill to get some of it back," Heru Krismanu said.

Offerings

Offerings are placed at sites in the mill in the morning after the bridal couple have been decorated.

The offerings are presented in exact numbers, such as 30 joli (a type of small bamboo house), nine buffalo heads, 18 wedding decorations, bunches of bananas and dishes of food.

All of the offerings were paraded from the house of Sunarso, a 66-year-old former mill worker, in the village of Suruh, 1.5 kilometers from Tasikmadu. Sunarso inherited the house from his father and grandfather. The crowd along the road to the mill cheered Suruh's young relatives who carried the offerings.

When they arrived at the mill, the lead carrier set down his offerings at the locomotive monument on the right side of Tasikmadu. It is said that Mangkunegoro IV always rode this locomotive when he made inspections of the sugarcane plantations.

The rest of the offerings were presented to H Soeroto HS, who then gave them to his staff to be placed at strategic locations in the mill, such as the electricity section, milling section, hammer-shredding section, can-cutter section, the area for burning limestone and at the corners of the building.

A joint prayer was then held and an eerie atmosphere took over the mill with the burning of incense. Part of the mill machinery looked like a giant watching over the participants.

At 6 a.m. the next day the parade of the sugarcane couple, followed by 30 "escorts", began around the complex, ending at the home of H Soeroto HS, who received the "couple". From there the figures were taken to the mill and placed onto the conveyor belt that then took them into the milling machinery. The ceremony must be conducted on Friday pon on the Javanese calendar, the day believed to be Mangkunegoro IV's birthday.

It was followed by a reception, with dancing and other cultural performances. Once finished, with the workers and administrators confident that the spirits were taken care of, the factory was ready for June 9 when the mill commences its operations for the following 77 days.