Trusting in the mysterious healing power of snake parts
Text and photos by Ahmad Solikhan
YOGYAKARTA (JP): The cobra bared its fangs, a warning that it was angry and poised to expel its lethal venom. But there was no trace of fear in Wagiyah's face as she grasped it firmly in her right hand. Like an executioner, she raised the knife in her free hand and stabbed the snake, cleanly draining its blood into a glass.
It was all in a day's work for the 57-year-old alternative healer. She uses the blood, gall, flesh and oil from up to 16 snakes daily to cure a host of ailments.
Her home at Dusun Mandungan in Marguluwih village near Yogyakarta doubles as her practice. There is no sign outside and she does not advertise in newspapers, but the curing powers of her tonics are well known. Her 10 to 15 patients each day may come from all over Java, Sumatra, Bali, East Timor and Irian Jaya.
"The patients are usually people who have given up on conventional medication, or people who can't afford the expensive medical treatment provided by doctors," said the mother of four.
Different parts of the snake's body are believed to hold individual curative powers. Flesh and oil are touted for skin diseases and allergies.
The gall is considered a potent cure-all and is prescribed for a cornucopia of complaints -- heart ailments, diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, uterine cancer, hernia, liver disease, hemorrhoids, rheumatism, paralysis, epilepsy and infertility.
Wagiyah's brand of alternative medicine also draws in use of traditional Javanese herbal remedies, or jamu, and her supernatural powers. Some patients are healed in only one visit, others over the course of three treatments.
"I spent many years going to a skin specialist to cure my skin disease, but it never healed," says Ratna. The mother of three said she spent heavily on doctors' bills before she decided to see Wagiyah.
She says her disease was cured in just one visit to Wagiyah at a cost of Rp 10,000. She drank a cobra's gall mixed with wine and honey, and was instructed to apply cobra oil on her skin. Her condition healed in several days.
There is no scientific proof of curative benefits of using medicines made from reptiles, according to Bambang Sumiarto, a veterinarian from the School of Veterinary Sciences, University of Gadjah Mada. He said snake meat contains large amounts of protein, carbohydrate, fat and minerals, but "this (medicinal) power of the cobra is only a traditional believe".
Wagiyah has an elementary school education and followed in the footsteps of her father, Jonawi, a famed healer in his village. She began helping her father in his practice, always sure that one day she would take over. But, unlike her father, she decided to use her supernatural gift to help the sick.
Wagiyah is also careful in following dictates in maintaining her powers. She fasts every Monday and Thursday, or eats only fruits, vegetables or rice according to traditional Javanese dietary proscriptions. She sometimes locks herself in self- seclusion or goes a day without speaking. She visits sacred burial grounds, including royal ones at Imogiri, to derive divine inspiration.
She obtains the up to 600 cobras she uses each month from dealers in Central and East Java. A member of the common cobra species cost from Rp 5,000 to Rp 7,500 each, but a King Cobra is priced between Rp 75,000 and Rp 125,000, the expense due to its rarity and stronger healing powers.
No part of the snake is wasted. Skins are dried, to be sold to shoe and bag manufacturers in Jakarta for Rp 1,000 to Rp 2,500 each. Leftover meat is dried and shredded for sale to local supermarkets for Rp 7,000 per 10 grams. Cobra oil is sold in 50 ml bottles for Rp 5,000.
Even the cobras' heads are used, sold to local owners of fighting cocks. "They believe the cobra's head can strengthen a rooster's stamina," Wagiyah says.