Circumcision Ceremony (Malaysia)

In Malay tradition, circumcision ceremony is called khitan, male circumcision entails the removal of the penis foreskin. The surgery is usually performed on children ranging from newborns to adolescents. When a child is growing into an adult, he is ready to be circumcised, and his parent will decide an appropriate time of conducting the circumcision ceremony.

The circumcision ceremony is also known as “kenduri besar” in which all relatives, friends and neighbors are invited to enliven it. But unfortunately, in these present days, such ceremony is scarcely found, especially in the areas of big cities. The glittering circumcision ceremony is often performed in rural villages. This portal explains all matters that are related to the ceremony.

1. Equipments

There are several equipments that should be prepared before performing the circumcision ceremony:

• A long white cloth about 5 hasta (length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger).
• A cock
• A pail
• A trunk of banana plant
• A complete of sirih box (gifts brought as a sign of respect)
• Amount of money provided is dependent on the financial situation of the family.

2. The Way of Performing the Ceremony

When the day of the ceremony is decided, the family invites all relatives, neighbors, event distant friends. In an initial ceremony, before the kid is being circumcised, he is washed and confined to house. The ceremony is merrier when the kid is brought around the village by wearing a Malay wedding custom. After that, he enters a prepared room and sits for a while, and then sits cross-legged on a plaited mat in front of the honorable guests. On that special place, the kid reads several short Quranic verses.

After all above, he sits on a decorated bridal dais. From this place, the kid distributes tabak eggs to the guests. While his parent presents a set of Malay dress to the teacher of his kid. In the last of this phase, the kid shakes all guests‘ hands. This phase is then closed with eating and drinking together.

On the next morning of the ceremony, the family prepares both the water and the chanted water. The kid will perform a special ablution as required in the tradition, and later he is splashed with the chanted water when he takes a seat on the stage. Some people accompany him sitting on the trunk of banana plant with the two legs open wide apart, and Tok Mudim circumcises him fast. Tok Mudim then comes bringing and putting a cock in front of his circumcised penis. If its neck feathers stand and looks ready to fight, the kid is considered as a health and normal kid, he is not impotent.

Tok Mudim holds a responsibility on the kid‘s health during three days after the circumcision ceremony. And beginning from the fourth day, the kid is totally under the control of his parent.

Several Malay communities perform such ceremony together with the ceremony upon completion of reading of the Quran if the kid has completed the reading of it. The performing ceremony is clearly indifferent from the ceremony explained above, but the reading of the Quranic verses performed in an initial ceremony is intended for suggesting the ceremony upon completion of reading of the Quran.

3. Prayers

This part is still in the process of collecting data

4. Cultural Value

This is also still in the process of collecting data

Sources:

1. http://www.ashtech.com.my/adat
2. http://www.malaysiana.pnm.my
3. Syed Alwi bin Sheikh Al-Hadi, Adat Resam Melayu dan Adat Istiadat, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Kepementerian Pelajaran Persekutuan tanah Melayu Kuala Lumpur, 1960.

Credit photo : malaysiana.pnm.my

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