A. The Origin

The Sakai tribe is an indigenous tribe of Riau Province. They live in the hinterland of Riau Province. Socially and politically they are often attributed as a marginalized community because they are not subjects of development. Therefore, they continually move from one jungle to another to find fresh pasture without permanent home (nomad). So far, few detailed information about the origin of this tribe are found, but here, at least there are two versions telling about it.

The first opinion on the origin of the Sakai people states that the Sakai originates from a race that is the mixture of the Veddoid and Proto-Malay races. In early time (2,500-1,500 B.C), the Nusantara (Malay Archipelago) was populated by two main races of Veddoid and Austroloid, which were characterized with sturdy and black-skinned body. Their survival strategies were mainly from hunting and gathering which required to move from one place to another ( nomad). Those two races then met with a new herd of race, called the Proto-Malay race. Hundreds years later, during 400-300 B.C., once more a new race called Deutro-Malay came to and settled in Riau Province. The arrival of Deutro-Malay race then pushed the Proto-Malay race to the hinterland of Riau Province. That was because the Deutro-Malay people possessed advanced technology to underpin their living, by which marginalized Proto-Malay. In the hinterland of Riau Province, the Proto-Malay race established socio-cultural assimilation with the Vedoid and Austroloid races that later on resulted in the ancestor of the Sakai people as in the present (Suparhan, 1995: 39-40).

Another opinion on the origin of the Sakai tribe reveals that the Sakai people‘s ancestors are believed to be from Pagarruyung and Batusangkar. The Sakai people in the past were the migrant inhabitants of Negeri Pagarruyung. One day, the king of Pagarruyung Kingdom assigned 190 envoys to seek for possibilities of settling a new settlement located east of the kingdom. In a short, they arrived at the riverbank of the Mandau River and built a new settlement on that place upon consideration that the location promised a better life. Amongst the Sakai people in the present, they do believe that their ancestors were originally from Pagarruyung. (Ibid: 73-74).

For some Malay people, excluding the Sakai people, the word “SAKAI” is an abbreviation for Sungai (river) Kampung (remote area) Anak (kids) Ikan (fish). Those people embed such an abbreviation after observing the fact that most of the Sakai people live in remote areas, as at forest around the riverbank, where they can get some waters and fishes in ease. However, the attribute is rejected by the Sakai people. It is a humiliation to the Sakai people as the real fact in the Sakai society shows the different. The Sakai people are fairly open to any advanced technology and constructive development (http://www.katcenter.info/detail_artikel).

Another negative image of the Sakai people, in the perspective of the Malay people, is their system of belief, in which the Sakai people are still practicing animism in this modern age. Hence, the elements of ancient animism can still be found in the Sakai society wherein the belief to magical powers and ghost are practiced almost every day. The core of such a belief system is the belief to the existence of “antu” (ghosts). They do believe that antu are just like a human being as normal and can be social creatures as well as human being. Suparlan notes from the Sakai people that there is a group of ghost settling in certain location, especially amidst the thick forest where only few people can reach it (Suparlan, 1995: 197). For that reason, this article is aimed at revealing the perspective of the Sakai people about the existence of this ghost.

B. Antu (Ghosts) in the Sakai People Perspective

For the Sakai people, antu (ghosts) live in a different dimension of world that is believed to be parallel with the human‘s world. They do believe that antu occupy the same place where the human may live within. For example, Antu live in big trees, rivers, swamps, forests, and within ordinary people‘s settlements. In this world, antu are capable of seeing and feeling the human‘s existence, but human cannot. Only few people with distinctive supernatural powers may be able to communicate with the antu.

According to the Sakai, antu possess two fundamental natures; good and bad. Only if antu would like to cooperate with the Sakai people then they call it as a good antu. But, bad antu are accused of being bad creatures that may cause ill or make Sakai people suffering. For that reason, very often a dispute appears amongst the Sakai society regarding the different interpretation on the nature of antu. Of course, every single person bears their own versions about antu‘s whether co-operative or uncooperative as there is no strict rule to say one antu is good and another is bad. Likewise, such a dispute often lights up fair conflict amongst the dukun (shamans), especially in the case of tenung (black magic) or healing (white magic).

According to the Sakai people, one‘s death is often related to antu‘s involvement. For example, in the case of conflict amongst the Sakai people, very often believed, that one party involved in clash asks for help from antu to defeat the opponent. When there is a deal between an antu and a person involved in dispute he/she must give some offerings to the antu as the return. The offering can be in the forms of ketan (black sticky rice), rice, eggs, and roosters. This offering is a kind of payment to the antu that has already given a service to the human being who utilise antu‘s power.

Suparlan notes that no matter how powerful the antu is, someone who is pious and obediently practices a religion will be able to escape from the antu‘s evil deeds. Otherwise, someone who is lack of religious belief and those who break the existing adat law, will be easily suffered from misery caused by antu (Suparlan, 1995: 200). However, there is no strict rule to judge whether one antu is bad or good. Such a thing is still debatable since one side receiving assistance from an antu will say the antu is good, but not for the opposite side.

In the perspective of the Sakai people, the spirit of deceased person will be certainly part of antu. For that reason, the Sakai people scare of antu coming from one of their family members, but they don‘t scare with antu from a baby and kid. For them, someone who has just recently dead will not directly go to the heaven. The spirit of the deceased people will be flying around the settlement of the Sakai, even be amongst their families in the world, and be still taking part in the families‘ mundane businesses.

The spirit of the deceased people is assumed of still existing amongst its family in the world, but there is no two-way communication between the remaining family members with the spirit of the deceased people (antu). Therefore, the existence of antu in the world is judged as a mere cause of suffering and unluckiness. To avoid this, the Sakai people customarily leave their homes for a week after one of their family members passes away. That is an effort to run away from the existence of antu amongst the family in the world. The only way to escape away from antu is going away to a place across a river. According to Suparlan, the Sakai people believe that antu or the spirit of deceased person is not able to fly across a river (Suparlan, 1995: 199).

C. Social Implication

According to Sulistyawati and Arif (2007), the Sakai‘s system of belief, which puts highly antu or ghost on it, makes it possible to drive to two social implications; preventive and curative. The existence of antu amongst the Sakai people is natured to be preventive from social disorder. Antu for the Sakai people is capable of guaranteeing social harmony in their society as a logic consequence of punishment as well as misery caused by antu just in case the Sakai people no longer obey the adat law. Antu can likewise be natured to be curative since it has capability of healing someone as long as some offerings are available. Such a system of belief can be interpreted as both image of the Sakai and its social implication. It depicts the fact of how the Sakai establish communication and interaction with their environment. For that reason, the Sakai‘s system of belief tends to be a local-natured matter, either on its territorial or religious matters.

As mentioned above, the Sakai people justify antu as either curative or preventive natures. This article will be focusing on the explanation of how both curative and preventive natures of antu can imply the social living of the Sakai people. Antu‘s preventive nature encompasses two things as noted by Sulistyawati and Arif (2007).

First, antu plays significant role to the implication of an unwritten law in the Sakai society. The unwritten law rules about the urgency of keeping and preserving the Sakai‘s environment as a prerequisite of being guarded by antu. Just in case the Sakai damages the environment, thus antu will get anger and make the Sakai‘s life a misery. The logic consequence of this implication is the awareness of environmental preservation and natural resources exploitation. The Sakai people keen to guard and preserve their forest by applying forest classification dividing the forest into three parts; the adat forest, the forbidden forest, and the agricultural forest. At the adat forest, the Sakai people can only exploit certain resources such as rattan, dammar, and honeybee. And the forbidden forest is the place where none of the Sakai people may derive something from it. Timbers at the agricultural forest may be pruned in term of conducting the farm rotation. Not only do the Sakai people apply such a forest classification but likewise, they are very selective towards the woods that may be cut down. In addition, the only several kinds of wood that may be cut down are sialang and kapur woods as well as fruit trees.

Second, antu can be educative, especially to the Sakai children. The Sakai children get used to be aware of the surrounding ecosystem. They are taught to keep the forest in pristine because the logic consequence of running a life is respecting to other creatures, including antu. For the parents, antu is a means of frightening their children in hope that the children tend to be more aware of the surrounding situation, especially when they are playing outside their homes.

A Sakai Kid

Antu‘s curative nature is materialized in the Sakai‘s traditional healing. There is an Antu that can be functioned as medical doctor to heal someone who is ill because of black magic from opponent. In this case antu is a medium of negotiation between the sick person and the bad ghost occupying the sick person‘s body. Likewise, antu can be preventive to the black magic aimed at disturbing other people. According to Suparlan (1995: 202-210), at least there are three types of traditional healing of the Sakai people that employ antu; they are Uras, Jungkkul, and Zdikir healings.

In the Uras healing, the sick person is brought to the nearest bomo (shaman). One of the sick person‘s relative presents a silver ring to the shaman, and then the shaman give it back to him/her. Silver ring is only a symbol of exchange but in reality the shaman ask sum of money from the sick person‘s relative. After that, the shaman gives some mantras to be recited by the sick person‘s family members, and writes up a medical prescription made of the following ingredients:

1. Belum bangun leaves, anuti leaves, papaga leaves, and ibu-ibu leaves,
2. Glutinous rice that is fried off in sangan method (without oil), wet rice or randang rice fried off in sangan, and turmeric rice (common rice submerged in turmeric water),
3. Meals made of yellow sticky rice and a boiled egg,
4. Candle wax made of the damaar wood.

The Sakai people are picking some ingredients needed to make the medicine

After all ingredients have been completed, those leaves are boiled up; then the water is used to bath the sick person, usually conducted at night. The candles are lit up all night long, and put next to the sick person‘s bed, near his/her head and foot. It is suggested that there are some offerings, made of sticky rice, wet rice, and turmeric rice, put nearby the candles. The sick person then must eat the offerings while the other family members are reciting some prayers. For about three days ahead, such an order of healing process must be accomplished. Just in case the above order ends in failure, or in another word the sick person is still in sick, hence the Jungkul healing is highly recommended.

The Jungkul healing is little bit different from the previous Uras. The Sick person is brought to the nearest shaman. Soon after arriving at the shaman‘s house, the sick person‘s family presents a silver ring called “cicin serah” that literally means the “presented ring.” The ring is tied up on the hand of the sick person using a rope. Due this, the ring‘s name changes become “cincin semangat” that loosely translated into English “the ring of motivation.” It bears a philosophy of casting away antu‘s bad spirit from the sick person‘s body. For a long term of healthy, the sick person is suggested to keep wearing the ring on his/her hand. Just in case the ring is taken off from the hand of the sick person, the sick will be getting worse.

As well as in the Uras healing, the Jungkul healing requires some ingredients. The ingredients needed to accomplish the Jungkul healing are listed below:

1. Replicas of house, ship, and palace made of asam paya woods and woven young coconut leaves. The shape of the replicas is based on the shaman‘s instruction,
2. Big torches lit up during the ceremony of meeting the king of antu,
3. Randang rice, yellow sticky rice, and wet rice,
4. Boiled egg, and
5. Leaves as needed in the Uras healing.

The Jungkul healing, as well as the Uras healing, is conducted about three days at night. Those replicas are put at the center of the sick person‘s house and at the front of the house. Around the replicas are put some dolls resembling dayang (lady-in-waiting), and some offerings made of the above ingredients. Then, one of the sick person‘s family members bathes the sick person before being laid him/her down inside the house. The candles are lit up, and put nearby the sick person‘s head and foot. After that, the remaining family members along with the shaman recite some prayers addressed to the antu with hope that the evil spirit inside the sick person will be going away soon. The shaman recites some mantras to the offerings and gets the sick person to eat the offerings. Then, the shaman gets the ring taken off from the sick person; hence the Jungkul healing is over. In return to the shaman‘s help, the sick person‘s family presents a white cloth, usually measured at one a half meter, to the shaman. Just in case the Jungkul healing ends in failure, the Zdikir healing is suggested.

Percussions used during the Zdikir healing

As well as the previous healing methods, the Zdikir healing is almost the same as the two explained above. The only differences are the use of percussions and the shaman‘s way of healing, in which the shaman will dance during the healing. In this ritual of healing, the shaman dances around the sick person followed by the playing of the percussions. When all completed, those tools are thrown to the back of the house. The shaman asks permission to go home after symbolically presenting the further treatment to the family. It is recommended to hold the Zdikir healing just in case the sick person keeps on sick. If the sick person‘s health gets worse, thus nothing can be done by the family except surrendering and submitting the sick person‘s fate to antu.

Afthonul Afif (bdy/06/01-09)

Translated by Irfan Nugroho (ter/99/02-09)

Reference:

• Suparlan, Parsudi. 1995. Orang Sakai di Riau: Masyarakat Terasing dalam Masyarakat Indonesia. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia.
• “Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Suku Sakai”. Available online at http://www.katcenter.info/detail_artikel.php?id_ar=44 retrieved on January 2^nd, 2009.
• Sulistyawati, Agnes Rita, & Ahmad Arif. “Runtuhnya Kearifan Masyarakat Sakai”.  Kompas Daily dated on April 25^th, 2007.

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