The Importance of Dutch and German 19Th-Century Sources
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206 Berichte und Kommentare The Importance of Dutch and German (Pijnappel 1860: 305, 343; Riwut 2003). The vas- 19th-Century Sources salage and dependence upon the ruling house of Banjarmasin and Kotawaringin began with the ap- Martin Baier pearance of a certain Raja Tanga (before 1680 a.d.; Pijnappel 1860: 282, 304). He was of princely birth from Johor and tried to rule Seruyan2 and Sampit The most recent publications on the Kaharingan re- in the Kotawaringin area. Raja Tanga had only one ligion in Central Kalimantan insist that the origi- descendant, the Princess Putri Bui. She married a nal tribal religion of the Dayak Ngaju is the oldest Banjarmasin prince. Therefore, the Kingdom of religion of the world and the most original, ortho- Banjarmasin got influence over the western part of dox, and standing religion of mankind. The belief southern Borneo and the independence of the Dayak is that God himself manifested this religion as the tribes ended (Pijnappel 1860: 278, 304). The influ- world religion, that is the “compass,” the guiding ence of Banjarmasin in Southwest Borneo is a his- line for human life; and that in the future Kaharin- torical fact, but the part of Putri Junjung Buih is gan will probably spread to the whole of mankind.1 legendary. Nevertheless they are the earliest hints to Thus many educated Dayak from Central Kaliman- the famous Putri Junjung Buih, the ancestress of the tan are convinced that the Kaharingan religion is an Banjar Kingdom.3 In many Malayan and Indonesian equally monotheistic and as important a religion as princely chronicles one finds Putri Junjung Buih as are Islam and Christianity. The former pastor and an ancestress of regional kingdoms, at least from lecturer with the theological academy STT-GKE in Sumatra/Malaya as far as the Celebes Sea.4 Accord- Banjarmasin, Dr. Marko Mahin, urges the churches, ing to Overbeck’s translation, the Sejarah Malayu especially the GKE Church, to do penance and con- narrates: “Once upon a day a mass of foam came fess their fault of discrimination against the Dayak floating down from the upper waters of the river. religion and culture. The Gereja Kalimantan Evan- Inside the foam there was a nice small girl, who gelis (GKE) is a result of the missionary work of was adopted by the ruler ‘Sang Si Perba of Palem- German and Swiss missionaries beginning 1853. It bang’ who called her ‘Putri Tunjong Bueh’.” 5 Sang is the biggest and most ineradicable church of the Si Perba had four children. The emperor of Chi- Dayak tribes in Central Kalimantan. But is this kind na sent a delegation to Palembang to ask the hand of religion, Kaharingan, really a homogeneous doc- of one of his daughters for marriage. The envoy of trine from the very beginning of mankind? Educated this delegation got the ruler’s assent that his old- Dayak in southern Borneo only know the oral tradi- est daughter would become the emperor’s wife. She tions from their ancestors. The only written source sailed to China, but the ruler gave Putri Tunjong they know about is the dubious book “Ngaju Reli- Bueh in marriage to the young envoy. Many authors gion” from 1963 by the Swiss missionary Schä rer. tell that the young Chinese who married Putri Tun- In fact, much older written sources give a quite dif- jong Bueh, was appointed by Sang Si Perba as the ferent origin of the Ngaju tribal religion. Here, I se- ruler of Palembang’s inland and of all Chinese in lect two sources only, a Dutch and a German one. Palembang. All rulers of Palembang are descend- ed from him up to this day. Also, the saga of Ban- jarese Putri Junjung Buhi (or Buih or Bueh) shows I the same characteristics: the princess in the foam, floating down from the upper waters of a river, her The Dutch historian on “Indies” history, J. Pijnap- husband from a kingdom beyond of the sea, from pel, – actually the German geologist and metallur- Majapahit, emerging sitting in a gong at the mouth gist H. von Gaffron, whose language and writings of Barito River. confused the Dutch scientist – wrote a very pro- The more ancient the source and tradition about found essay on southern Borneo (1859). In 1853, H. von Gaffron travelled in the western part of 2 Formerly known as “Pembuang,” because Raja Tanga was southern Borneo and collected important facts/ma- expelled from this area as well as some time later he had to flee from Sampit to Java (Pijnappel 1860: 304, 311). terial about nature, people, history, and religion. 3 Eisenberger (1936: 4); Schwaner (1853/I: 46 f.); Rees (1865/I: He reports, that before 1846 the Dayak were politi- 14 f.); Cense (1928: 14 f., 125–128); Ras (1968: 27, 29, 60– cally and economically independent and with their 62, 93 f.). own ships bartered with the Malays in Singapore 4 Sejarah Melayu: Overbeck (1927: 131 f.); Mees (1935: 34 f.); Ras (1968: 86). 5 Literally translated from ancient Malayan: The princess, the 1 Lembaga Pengembangan (2003: 15; 2002: 27, 30); Baier lotus in the foam, in modern Indonesian: The princess, lifted (2008: 44 f.); Mahin (2009: 217 f., 334 f.). up by the foam. Anthropos 110.2015 https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2015-1-206 Generiert durch IP '170.106.202.126', am 01.10.2021, 05:37:14. Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig. Berichte und Kommentare 207 this ancestress, the more it is domiciled in the west mouth of the river. There she met the male ancestor of Southeast Asia, the nearer it is to India and Hin- “Manyamei Tunggul Garing Janjahunan Laut, Sa- duism. Thus, Ras insists on the connection with the hawung Tangkuranan Hariran,” freely transcribed as Indian goddess Lakshmi (1968: 439; 1973: 184 f.). “The Great-Grandfather, the stump of the ivory-tree According to Rachel Storm (2000), Lakshmi rised which emerged from the sea, the godlike Sahawung from the milk ocean when it was boiled by the De- from the manifold treasures of the sea.” This an- vas (gods) and the Asuras (demons). This myth also cestor entered the world in the sea and sailed with reports that Lakshmi sitting in a lotus flower rised a boat to the coast, where he met the Kameloh.7 from the water and selected Vishnu as husband. Thus, when we consider sources and their informa- Palembang and Johor, which dominated East Su- tion about the past, we are able to widen our ho- matra as far as the frontier of Minangkabau in the rizon and would be saved from one-sidedness and 16th and 17th centuries (Cribb 2000: 80 f.), are re- faults. We see that this stands also for the knowl- gions from where the legend of Putri Junjung Buih edge of one’s own culture, especially when there entered Borneo. Because there are several other im- are no written sources about the past of religion and portant names of deities originating from Hinduism, culture of the Dayak Ngaju. such as Mahatara, Dewa, Dewata, Jata, Naga, and others, it is obvious that some of the main notions do not originate from the Dayak but are adopted II from Indian Hinduism. The tradition is still alive that the Tumon Dayak from the Delang River and The second kind of sources only gives short notices the Blantikan River immigrated from the Minangka- about an established custom which belongs to the bau area (Mallinck rodt 1924: 399; Kato 1997: 620). service of the priestesses (blian or balian) of the It is a fairly obvious inference that these influences Dayak Ngaju religion: to be available as “hierod- from India and western Southeast Asia began to en- ules” (in ancient Greece and India temple slaves and ter Kalimantan during the thalassocracy of the Srivi- prostitutes) during their ritual feasts. The German jaya Empire and its non-islamic succession states. missionary Denninger reports in 1853: The widow Now then, we find the Putri Junjung Buih leg- of a chief in the Paju Epat village Murutuwu (Hud- end and its characteristics in many so-called “high son 1976: 27 f.) arranges a cultic feast “and called cultures” of the coastal kingdoms in the Malay Pen- for a blian from Ja-ar in Patei because the people of insula, Sumatra, and Borneo. But do we find them Sihong [formerly identical with Paju Epat] … don’t also in tribal oral cultures? Hans Schärer was prob- have prostitute blians” (Denninger 1854: 341). That ably the only scholar who tried to find the Dutch is true, the priestesses of all Ma’anyan tribes are structuralism of ancient Javanese and Balinese cul- married women who live in their families with their tures (in the first half of the 20th century popular own children. in the Netherlands) in a tribal culture, in the Dayak In the 1840s, these bilians (according to Schwa- Ngaju culture.6 But Schärer failed totally in his en- ner 1853) were working as common prostitutes in deavor. The repeated ritual verses with other words the Ngaju area (Lower Barito, Pulau Petak, Kapuas do not relate to two moieties of the Ngaju tribe but River, and Kahayan River) besides their tasks in to the art of recitatives of Ngaju ritual poetry (Baier the cult prostitution. They were respected, even es- 1987: XII, XV; 2003: 69; 2008: 31). Otherwise we teemed, in society (Schwaner 1853/I: 185 f., 1853/II: find the mythology or the Putri Junjung Buih leg- 114; Commissie voor het Adatrecht 1917: 132). The end exactly in the myth of origin of the Ngaju.