Selametan Sawah, Pleading for Abundant Harvests

Name: Selametan Sawah, Pleading for Abundant Harvests
Uploaded: 2020-08-24T05:04:56Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: An agrarian community usually has its own way of building good relations with everything related to the environment.

An agrarian community usually has its own way of building good relations with everything related to the environment.

ANGGER PUTRANTO

· 5 minutes read

An agrarian community usually has its own way of building good relations with everything related to the environment. A notable way is Selametan Sawah or rice field thanksgiving ceremony held by farmers of the indigenous Osing ethnic group of Banyuwangi in Kemiren village, Banyuwangi regency, East Java.

Samsul, 34, a resident of Kemiren village, has seven plots of rice fields and plantations measuring about 60 by 45 meters. Apart from paddy, various plants like pungent bean, mangosteen, string bean, cucumber and peanut are also grown there.

On Monday (17/8/2020), coinciding with the National Independence Day anniversary, Samsul invited a number of relatives to take part in Selametan Sawah that he was going to conduct in the middle of his plots. At around 07:30 the ceremony began. As a host and initiator of the ritual, Samsul marked its opening by conveying his wishes.

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“Hun pengen panenan melimpah, iso dadi berkah nggo keluarga ambi tonggo-tonggo (I wish to be endowed with abundant harvests, which can be a blessing for families and their neighborhood,” said Samsul.

Thereafter, four readers of lontar or palm-leaf manuscripts were sitting face to face. Before them was a white pillow as the base on which a book in the form of a copy of Lontar Ahmad, locally known as Lontar Hadits Dagang, was laid down.

Nor far from them was a small table with an earthen flask containing water, a brass bowl containing flower-strewn water under a white-cloth cover, wanci kinangan (accoutrements for areca nut and betel leaf chewing with lime), pengasepan (brazier for charcoal burning) and bitter coffee.

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While lontar was being read out, the bowl with flower-strewn water was passed around. The lontar readers, rice field owner and his relatives took turns to collect a bit of the flower water commonly called banyu arum.

Some of them drank the banyu arum while others rubbed their faces, heads and hands with the water. Local residents believe this water can get rid of evil, have a healing effect and bestow a blessing

After the Lontar Ahmad reading, host Samsul prepared a traditional dish, petheteng or pecel pitik, which is a typical specialty of the Osing ethnic group mainly composed of free-range chicken.

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The chicken was stretched and clamped in bamboo sticks for grilling, after which it was shredded to be further mixed with Osing sauce concocted from candlenuts, fried peanuts, salt, big chilies, roasted shrimp paste, garlic and grated coconuts.

The neck, head, wing, leg and tail parts of the chicken were separated and put into a banana-leaf container. Samsul later combined the chicken with rice and other complementary side dishes

The most important moment of Selametan Sawah was when Samsul carried the chicken with rice and other dishes to uwangan (point of water flow into rice fields). Samsul also brought along pengasepan to burn incense and coconut shells to be laid down there.

In this tradition, the rice field owner put all the food and burned incense at the uwangan. Before leaving the pengasepan and food offerings, Samsul again prayed to express his wishes as he did in the opening

When this was finished, Samsul returned to his relatives to savor the chicken that was not taken to the uwangan together.

In the Osing community’s life, every stage of agricultural activity is indeed almost always marked with a ritual or prayer service and a feast. This indicates that Osing people keep trying to maintain good relations with the Creator, ancestors, fellow humans and the environment.

This tradition also serves as a symbol of human endeavor to maintain relations with the Creator, forebears, fellow humans and nature.

Secretary of the Alliance of Nusantara Traditional Communities (AMAN), Osing Regional Board, Wiwin Indiarti, said Selametan Sawah or Selametan Kebonan (for plantations) had been preserved by the predominantly agrarian Osing population, with some differences in its implementation.

Citing an example, she mentioned some villages conducting the ritual with another traditional food, jenang (thick sticky rice porridge), which is smeared on the trees of their plantations.

“Despite the variations in executing Selametan Sawah, all of them have the same aim of pleading for abundant harvests. This tradition also serves as a symbol of human endeavor to maintain relations with the Creator, forebears, fellow humans and nature,” she said

According to Wiwin, everything in this tradition has important value and significance. Sajen or offerings, for instance, become a manifestation of compassion for fellow living beings in the universe.

The offerings are laid down at uwangan because it is the spot where water first flows into all rice fields. It is hoped that the good prayers and wishes in the beginning of the water flow will go along with the stream into the whole rice field area.

Even the pecel pitik to be enjoyed together is also meaningful for Osing people. “Pecel pitik implies mugomugo barang hang diucel-ucel dadio barang hang apik (hopefully everything that is strived for will be fruitful,” said Wiwin.