1. The Origin

The death of one family member does not break the relationship with the relatives who still alive. The death is believed as a “stage” of long passage that must be stepped. With regard to the passage, the family members of the deceased person have to perform particular ritual. It is believed that the soul will go easily to the creator. If the passage of the soul is going well, it will help the family members who still alive in attaining the success and keeping away from the sufferings. On the contrary, if the passage of the soul is not running well, it will harm the family members who still alive. This belief can be found in Welu Telu Muslim community in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.

The Wetu Telu Muslim community in Lombok believe that the soul of the deceased person can determine positively or negatively the circumstances of the family and the community life. Therefore, if one of the family or community members dies, his relatives will perform tolak bala ritual. For instance, if there is one of the family members who dies outside the village and will be buried in the village, the relatives have to perform selametan mengasuh ritual before the funeral. This ritual is done due to the Wetu Telu Muslim`s belief that who dies outside the village will bring the illness and the suffering when buried in the village.

In order to eradicate the epidemic of the deceased person, the dead body has to be cleaned and purified from illness and suffering. The selametan mengasuh ritual is done to fortify the village from suffering, illness, and bad lucks.

The Epen gawe (the host) of the selametan mengasuh is the relatives of the deceased person. In this ritual, they will sacrifice an animal to be eaten together (pariapan selametan mengasuh).

2. The Equipments

The selametan mengasuh ritual is performed in the house of the family members of the deceased person. This ritual requires some equipments as below:

• An animal which is sacrificed to be eaten together in the pariapan selametan mengasuh ritual.
• Service dish for eating
• Lekesan.
• Incense.

3. The Way of Performing the Ceremony

When a person dies outside the village, the dead body has to be purified and cleaned before its funeral. This ritual is done due to the beliefs of Wetu Telu Muslims that human who dies out of his village will bring the illness and the suffering. Therefore, according to them, the ritual of selametan mengasuh must be performed.

The selamaten mengasuh ritual has to be done before burying the dead body. In other words, before the dead body is laid on the earth, it must be purified and cleaned. To perform the ritual, the family members of the deceased person have to slaughter an animal for eating together ceremony which is called as pariapan selametan mengasuh.

The way of the performing of selametan mengasuh ritual might be described as below:

• After the coming of the dead body, one of the family members has to slaughter an animal as the selametan`s side dish. 
• The epen gawe will ask someone to invite Kiai, Pemangku, Toaq Lokaq, nobleman, and indigenous people to come in the selametan mengasuh ritual that will be performed after Magrib prayer.
• After all of the invited guests are present, the incense is burned, and the penyilak will give a speech about the intention of this ceremony: keeping and making welfare for the village`s inhabitants.
• Afterward, the Kiai will recite the prayer to seek God`s blessing.
• Eating together
• After completing this ritual, the corpse will be buried as soon as possible.

4. The Prayers and Mantras

The prayers which are recited by the Kiai in the selametan mengasuh ceremony are short Arabic prayers (the text of the prayers is still in the process of collecting data).

5. The Cultural Values

On one side, the selametan mengasuh is a ritual to express the belief that human who dies outside the village has to be purified and cleaned before its burying in order to get rid of the illness and the suffering. It is believed that the illness and the suffering are brought by the deceased person. In other words, the suffering and the illness will move from one body to the next body when it is not cleaned and purified.

On the other sides, the performing of selametan mengasuh ceremony is the way of the Wetu Telu Muslim community to prevent bad effect that may appear from the deceased person who dies outside the country. In addition, the performing of this ritual is an evidence that  the communality values of the Wetu Telu Muslims have the important role in their way of life. It can be seen on the tolerance of the community to share each others in praying and gathering for eating together.

Therefore, this ritual is a response to sacred phenomenon influenced by local factors. The attitude of the community will be different when they come from different socio-cultural backgrounds. The last question is why there is a belief that human who dies outside the country will bring the illness and the suffering. (TN/trj/17/10-07).

References :

• Erni Budiwanti, 2000, Islam Sasak, Wetu Telu versus Waktu Lima, LKIS, Yogyakarta.
• Bale Beleq, Sentral Tolak Bala, from http://www.suarantb.com/2005/04/ 30/wilayah/Mataram/detil3.htm, retrieved at September 24, 2007.

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