How can a tomb become a sacred tomb or holy tomb to which it is important to do a pilgrimage?
By
Ahmad Najib Burhani
·6 minutes read
SALOMO TOBING
Ahmad Najib Burhani
One of the religious traditions that strongly lives in Indonesian society is the grave pilgrimage. This is not only done by Muslims but also followers of other religions. This tradition is very visible just before Ramadan, in the month of ruwah in the Javanese calendar, during Idul Fitri and also during Christmas. People gather in a certain place or come to the grave to read the Quran, pray for ancestors, perform tahlil (recitations), while cleaning the tombs and placing flowers on them.
In addition to holidays, some people in Java also make a grave pilgrimage every Friday or when having certain intentions or needs, such as to do well on school exams or before marriage and other life ceremonies. Even though there are some religious groups, both in Islam and Christianity, who do not do visit the graves of family members or even oppose the practice, this tradition carries on, is cared for and develops in other groups of people.
The tradition of pilgrimage to the graves of parents or family members mentioned above is actually only one type of grave pilgrimage tradition in Indonesia. Other grave pilgrimage traditions are carried out to sacred tombs, the tombs of ulemas, wali (saints) and national figures or other important figures in local and international communities. Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid and Zuhairi Misrawi, Indonesian Ambassador to Tunisia, are included among those diligent in the grave pilgrimage. Some Indonesians even make pilgrimages and pray at the tomb of Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje in the Netherlands or the tomb of Martin Heidegger in Germany.
The tradition of pilgrimage to the most famous wali’s graves is of course pilgrimage to the tombs of the wali sanga which are spread across Java. This is a routine spiritual journey that is mostly done after Idul Fitri, especially during the haj season, which in 2023 falls in June. This pilgrimage of wali sanga is even combined in spiritual or religious tourism, which is usually followed by a group on buses from many regions.
Because spiritual tourism, such as the pilgrimage of wali sanga, is quite large in demand by our society, as written by Syaifudin Zuhri in his book, Wali Pitu and Muslim Pilgrimage in Bali, Indonesia: Inventing a Sacred Tradition (2022), there has emerged the wali pitu pilgrimage to the tombs of Islamic figures in Bali. In the last decade, several Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and Javanese people flocked to this pilgrimage.
Spiritual tourism, such as the pilgrimage of wali sanga, is quite large in demand by our society.
Not only to Bali, the gravesite pilgrimage also enters neighboring countries, such as Singapore. One of the visited is the sacred tomb of the Habib Noh, whose full name is Sayyid Noh Bin Sayyid Mohamad bin Sayyid Ahmad Al-Habshi, at Palmer Road. The figure, called the Grand Saint of Singapore, has become a tourist destination for Indonesians and has been regularly visited, especially during the tradition of commemorating his death, which is held once a year.
When a grave becomes a spiritual tourist destination and brings economic benefits to the surrounding community or the government, there appears a concept called by Syaifudin Zuhri as wong kang mati nguripi wong kang urip (the dead person who gives provides for people who are still alive). This is perhaps the concept that can be used if we want to see the emergence and development of spiritual pilgrimage from the economic or market side.
REBIYYAH SALASAH
Husen Maksum (left) and his twin brother, Hasan Mahmud, pray for the souls of the pilgrim families at the Karet Bivak Public Cemetery, Central Jakarta, Wednesday (15/3/2023).
An academic question is how can a wali pitu appear in Bali that is similar to the wali sanga in Java? Or a more basic question: How can a tomb become a sacred tomb or holy tomb to which it is important to do a pilgrimage?
The question above brings us to the classic debate between Mircea Eliade and Jonathan Z Smith about the sacred space. Eliade in The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (1987), and of course some religious people believe that the holy places they visit, including the sacred grave, are holy or sacred because God has indeed made it holy through his verses, or thanks to the existence of a noble body buried there, or indeed the land keeps elements of purity and features that are different from other land.
How can a tomb become a sacred tomb or holy tomb to which it is important to do a pilgrimage?
Or, as called by Joel P Brereton in his article on The Encyclopedia of Religion entitled "Sacred Space" (1987, Vol. 12: 526), objectively, and not only subjectively, a holy place is different from the surrounding area because it is not indiscriminately made or as anyone wishes it to become sacred. A place that becomes holy is not entirely the creation or choice of humans. It becomes sacred because its character is indeed unique. The character or feature cannot be given solely by human actions or creation, but it needs other strengths.
Different from Eliade and Brereton, Smith does not believe that a holy place is indeed "since the time of beginning" is holy. There is an inventing process or construction and innovation to make a place that was originally ordinary then can be considered sacred. It becomes sacred because of certain processes that change its status from an ordinary tomb.
In the book To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual (1987, 104), Smith says there are no graves or other places we are currently consider inherently sacred or profane. Holiness and sacredness are not a substantive category but a situational category. Sacredness, above all, is the placement category made by humans.
Therefore, an error can occur. Some of Gus Dur's jokes mentioned the story of the process of creation and invention of sacred tombs like that. One tomb that was believed to be sacred and which many people visited to pray at turned out to be empty or the tomb of an ordinary person. The tomb of Kiai Haji Ahmad Dahlan in Kampung Karangkajen, Yogyakarta, for example, was only built later and many Muhammadiyah people were doubtful whether it was true that he was buried there. Likewise, the tomb of Sheikh Yusuf Al-Makasari is in five places, including in Cape Town, South Africa, and Makassar.
Syaifudin Zuhri, in the book about wali pitu, also wrote about the process of how the creation of a sacred tomb occurred. In short, there are three stages, namely memory-making, canonization and branding. Memory-making is done, for example, with the creation of identity equipped with stories about wonders or privileges. Canonization is carried out through a mediatization process such as the one described by the author of the Wanaqib Wali Pitu book, materialization by selecting or building or decorating the physical tomb, visualization with the manufacture and dissemination of photos similar to the row of wali sanga for wali pitu in Bali, and ritualization with prayer writing and ritual stages. The next process is to make a branding related to the Islamic spiritual tourism to Bali.
AHMAD NAJIB BURHANI, Research professor at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN)
