Javanese Beliefs of Supernatural Beings

WHEN I entered the auditorium of building 4 of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia (FIB UI), the strong scent of incense mixed with jasmine that were placed on each chair welcomed me. Sunu Wasono's doctoral promotion, the event that day on December 22, 2015 was a bit creepy. The doctoral candidate wore black clothes and a blangkon, a traditional Javanese headdress worn by men.

The incense and jasmine were perhaps Sunu’s offerings to make the event run smoothly, as his dissertation was on tales of lelembut (spirits) in Penyebar Semangat magazine.

This study, says Sunu, shows how lelembut stories demonstrate Javanese beliefs about death, as well as the existence and involvement of lelembut in human life. Of the many types of lelembut, he only studied two stories, namely about haunting spirits and genderuwo (a mythical creature from Java in the form of a tall human-like monkey).

"The deep-rooted beliefs about lelembut in Javanese people are used as a source of inspiration and creation by writers. Hence, stories about people who seek wealth through the help of lelembut, stories of lelembut who like to mislead people, stories about lelembut who kidnap people, stories about wandering spirits, and so on," said Sunu, who teaches Indonesian literature at FIB UI.

Helpful and Disruptive Beings

Prapto Yuwono, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia's Javanese Literature study program, confirms that Javanese people believe in spirits because they believe that all creatures who are created by God, both visible and invisible, have the right to live.

"Because they live together in the universe, they can help each other, greet each other. This form of greeting is, for example, by giving offerings. Certainly, if someone has any intention, a big intention, be it economic or power, he will think of involving these other creatures," said Prapto.

Humans ask for help from spirits such as Nyai Loro Kidul, Nyai Blorong, tuyul (an undead infant), dedemit (a malicious spirit or evil being that enjoys bothering people), and danyang (spirits that protect a place or region). Other types of spirits, such as memedi and lelembut, usually like to disturb humans.

According to anthropologist Niels Mulder, the supernatural realm is inhabited by all sorts of spirits, whose intentions and powers can be both beneficial and destructive, but what is certain is that their powers affect life in the real world.

"People are therefore enticed to obtain blessings from those who can protect them and to develop their inner potential," Mulder wrote in The Inner Space of Indonesian Society.

Traditional societies often need explanations through the supernatural, but what is interesting is that they see one as good while the other is bad.

However, according to historian Ong Hok Ham in Dari Soal Priayi sampai Nyi Blorong (From Aristocrats to Nyi Blorong), the help of spirits, such as tuyul and Nyai Blorong to gain wealth, is negatively judged by the Javanese. In contrast, Javanese people positively valued Javanese kings who allied with and received help from Nyai Loro Kidul or Sunan Lawu or the spirits of Majapahit kings.

Ong explained that due to the agrarian background of Javanese society, people have a negative view of people who are rich because of the help of spirits or rich because of trading. Javanese farmers live in a state of subsistence or cekap (enough). Agricultural experts liken Javanese farmers to people who are submerged in water up to their lips. If the wind blows, then they will take in water and sink. Every wave of water will jeopardize their existence. These waves come not only from crop failures, fluctuating prices of crops, fluctuating goods from traders, rising interest from moneylenders, but also from state taxes. All these might affect the plight of the peasants, who had small plots of land.

Strangely, Ong said, while among Javanese peasants there was such sentiment against the exploitation of merchants, this was not the case against the rule of the king or state. In fact, the king could also jeopardize the lives of subsistence farmers through taxes, forced labor, compulsory warfare, and so on. "However, the king's power seems to be legitimate with all the burdens imposed on the people," said Ong.

By comparing the legitimacy of political power or kings involving in the supernatural world, such as Nyai Loro Kidul, Sunan Lawu, or through revelation (pulung), with economic power or rich people through spirits, such as tuyul and Nyai Blorong or other demons, means that political power is more legitimate than economic power in the eyes of the Javanese.

"Traditional societies often need explanations through the supernatural, but what is interesting is that they see one as good while the other is bad," Ong explained.

The Answer to the Problem

The poor and impoverished Javanese peasants are easily influenced by the strange and the supernatural. "The emergence of belief in the jinn, for example, is only a substitute for fear. For example, if the harvest fails, they are afraid of starvation," Ong said in Warta Parapsikologi magazine, No. 4 Year III, 1986.

Harvest failure due to pests, for example, is considered by farmers to be the work of spirits. Therefore, Van Hien in De Javaansche geestenwereld (The Javanese world of spirits), includes the pests mentek (rice disease), walang sangit (sting grasshopper), and lembing (rice bug), as types of spirits.

In The Religion of Java, anthropologist Clifford Geertz also asserts that the function of belief in supernatural spirits such as bangsa alus (supernatural beings), memedi (spooks), genderuwo, lelembut, satan, jinn, tuyul, and danyang, "provide for those who believe in their existence a set of ready-made answers to the questions posed by puzzling experiences."

Similarly, anthropologist Koentjaraningrat in Beberapa Pokok Antropologi Sosial (Some Principles of Social Anthropology) states that belief in spirits is "because man fears crises in his life, or man believes in the existence of phenomena that cannot be explained and controlled by his intellect, or man believes in the existence of a magical power in nature, or man is overwhelmed by the emotion of unity in his society, or man gets a word from God, or all of the above reasons."

Indeed, says Sunu, some have suggested (such as Ong, Geertz, and Koentjaraningrat) that the Javanese belief in spirits is an escapism from their life problems.

"But the belief in spirits can also be unrelated to that, because Javanese have a strong belief in the invisible life, that there is another world that controls our world. This is strongly believed," Sunu concluded.