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Tsunami victims turn to mystics
18/01/2005 22:13 - (SA)
Burt Herman
Banda Aceh - Tengku Jafar sways and moans the name of Allah, dips the blade of his wooden-handled knife into a freshly blessed bottle of mineral water and makes the pronouncement that Fatimah has been waiting to hear: Some of her 11 missing relatives are still alive.
Survivors of the tsunami have scoured refugee camps and morgues, placed ads in newspapers and posted fliers on storefronts and telephone poles in search of the more than 12 000 still missing from the disaster in Aceh province, the hardest-hit area of all the shorelines ringing the Indian Ocean.
Having exhausted all means in the mortal realm, people here are turning to the world beyond and consulting mystics, who are a part of life here, despite Aceh being one of Indonesia's most conservative Muslim regions. Locals call them
"dukun" - meaning someone possessed by black magic - or even use the English word "paranormal."
Many people here already shun medical doctors in favour of treatment by faith healers for ailments from simple aches to broken bones. Since the December 26 tsunami, they are crowding into darkened rooms for enlightenment on whether those swept away by the waves will ever be seen alive again. 'Some survided. Some didn't' Fatimah, who came from the city of Sigli on Sumatra Island's northern coast to search for relatives, already consulted two other mystics before coming to Jafar's garage-turned-clairvoiyant's den just outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. She clutches a crumpled list with the names of 11 people missing from across Aceh, reading them eagerly to Jafar as he sits cross-legged on the floor, wearing a purple sarong wrap and traditional black Indonesian peci hat.
"Can you find a nail or stone?" Jafar asks. Yes, Fatimah brought them, having heard they would be required.
Jafar hands them back to her one by one, instructing her to burn some and keep the others with her at all times.
Her niece, Marleni, 30, runs out to buy a bottle of mineral water to be blessed by Jafar, who tells them to drink it whenever they think of their lost relatives.
"Some of them have survived and some of them didn't. But if Allah wishes it, you will find them," Jafar says, declining to elucidate who exactly is still alive. Bad news
Across town, through a maze of dirt roads lined by palm trees, Nyak Ateuk Laura - a female mystic - takes a couple of pebbles from another woman, also named Fatimah, seeking the fate of her missing 22-year-old son, Safruddin.
He was studying at an Islamic school in the coastal city of Lamno, and Fatimah's other son Abdullah spent four days searching there but didn't find a trace.
Fatimah shows Laura a picture of her son standing next to his sister, Darlina, 30, who survived. Fatimah has also been to two other mystics, one of whom said Safruddin had survived.
But the news here isn't good: After placing the pebbles onto a leaf, Laura promptly pronounces that Safruddin was killed in the second wave of the tsunami after being struck by a piece of wood.
"He is dead," she says. "Now you should just pray to God."
But Fatimah remains skeptical, saying Laura's sixth sense may be impeded because she is pining for a lost son, Sarbini, a police officer serving along Sumatra's western shore.
Back at Jafar's garage, Marleni says the family also questions the value of the clairvoyants' advice - but still will go back for more counsel from dimensions beyond.
"We don't actually believe it but this is the only way we know," she says. "We'd rather do this than just sit at home and worry."
- AP
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