Weathering the storm: Indonesia's rain shamans
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Loading... - Amina Bakar
- 04 Apr 2022
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Damai Santoso, who also uses the name Amaq Daud, lives 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the Mandalika International Street Circuit which hosted the MotoGP Grand Prix earlier this month on the Indonesian island of Lombok.
The MotoGP, the first time Indonesia had hosted the race since 1997, went viral thanks to an unexpected interlude by 39-year-old Rara Istiati Wulandari, who took to the circuit barefoot and armed only with a singing bowl and incense, as a thunderstorm battered the track.
The ritual was one that Santoso knows well, as he and Mbak Rara – as Wulandari is affectionately known in Indonesia – are pawang hujan or rain shamans, tasked with controlling the weather so that it does not ruin anyone’s big day.
“Rain shamans traditionally ‘move’ weather from one place to another,” Santoso told Al Jazeera. “We do that by praying to God and asking him to help move the clouds. If lots of people ask for it at the same time, they will be heard. God is always close and he will deliver.”
Santoso knows the Mandalika circuit and the surrounding area well as he has lived and worked there since he was born. Every time there is a big event in the area like a party, wedding or a grand opening, he is the man that people call.
Originally from the Sasak Indigenous group in Lombok and a devout Muslim, he has been practising as a rain shaman since he was 20 years old. Like almost all shamans, his gift has been handed down over the generations, although not everyone in his family has the ability to control the rain. Santoso, who is now 50, has six brothers and seven sisters but he is the only one in the family in this line of work, and has decided not to pass his knowledge on to his children because it is too “heavy”.
“You have to fast and you can’t go to the toilet when you are working. You have to be as pure and clean as possible before and during a ritual,” he said. “We won’t be heard by God if we are considered dirty.”
The fact that Santoso is Muslim sometimes raises eyebrows, and some online commentators were quick to blast Mbak Rara’s appearance at the circuit as one at odds with religious norms in Indonesia. Read More...
