While the Tengger Hindu community in East Java look forward to celebrating their ancestors each year with the ritual of Yadnya Kasada, other less fortunate people who can barely make ends meet await the event and its accompanying blessed offerings with impatience.
During the ritual, members of the Tengger Hindu community bring sacred offerings such as agricultural produce and cattle in a cart and dump them into the crater of Mt. Bromo, located between Malang and Lumajang.
Before the offerings are thrown into the crater, they are handed over to dukun or shamans to be blessed in the Luhur Poten Shrine. Some of the offerings are later brought home by the Tengger ethnic group from Lumajang to be thrown into several water springs in Argosari village. It is believed this ritual while bring bumper harvests to the Tengger people of Lumajang.
According to an ancient legend, Dewa Kusuma, the son of Rara Anteng and Jaka Seger, the Tengger ethnic tribe’s earliest ancestors, was sacrificed to calm the spirits of Mt. Bromo. The Tengger people reenact this sacrifice each year with offerings to the Almighty God, in order to be blessed with fertility and protection and to celebrate harmony between human beings and the Creator.
It is believed Kasada will bless Tengger community members in Probolinggo, Lumajang, Pasuruan and Malang.
This year, Agus Setiawan, a 12-year-old junior high school student in Probolinggo, who is not a member of the Tengger Hindu community, attended the recent Kasada ritual.
“I skipped school today to help my parents earn some money,” Agus told The Jakarta Post. Before dawn, Agus and dozens of men and women headed for Mt. Bromo, preparing nets, cloths and sarongs to collect offerings dropped into the crater.
Catching the offerings while standing on a 70-degree slope holding a net is no small feat for Agus. Not only does the pungent smell of sulfur irritate his eyes, but he is also dangerously close to a deadly fall into the crater when bending over.
Last year, Agus earned Rp 30,000 from selling the vegetables he caught with his net. This year, he could only secure half the amount of vegetables. He was however still able to help his father, Sarut, who earns Rp 10,000 a day from selling grass.
Sukemi (45), one of the Tengger people, said he found the behavior of people like Agus and his father Sarut — who put their lives at risk to catch the sacred sacrifices as they were dumped in the crater — disturbing.
A social and cultural observer from Airlangga University, Surabaya, Bagong Suyono, said the fortune seekers’ behavior highlighted the loss of interest in the cultural value of the ritual. “This kind of behavior can be seen elsewhere, during other traditional rituals,” he said.
Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Mt. Bromo, East Java | Fri, 11/12/2010 9:45 AM | culture
— Photos by JP/Indra Harsaputra
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