Home ATTRACTIONS City/Village Nyobeng Sebujit Gawai Ritual Festival Part 2: Spiritual Healing & Cleansing

Nyobeng Sebujit Gawai Ritual Festival Part 2: Spiritual Healing & Cleansing

December 13, 2015

Location : Dusun Sebujit, Desa Hli Buei, Kecamatan Siding, Kabupaten Bengkayang, Kalimantan Barat, Indonesia.

The night event started with offering to the guardian spirits of the village where dog was sacrificed.

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Gawai visiting took up much of the night until 12am when the healing ceremony started with more offerings and dancing to invite the spirits from the mountain to perform healings for both visitors and residents. Fresh coconut water was poured into a coconut spathe acting as a trough and this coconut water was allowed to trickle onto the top of the recipient’s head. More spiritual cleansing continued with Pak Amin going round brushing everyone with coconut inflorescence, chanting the healing mantras at the same time. Powerful indeed.

Healing Ceremony

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The last ceremony started at midnight and ended with the feeding of the skulls.

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But unlike other villages, it was quick and a little too secretive perhaps. The skulls, which we could not see or shoot, inside a wooden box was taken out from the upper tier of the baruk and offered some food prepared earlier and quickly put away. Despite my earlier request with Gunawan, we could not be granted that favour as there were too many outsiders watching. They preferred this part ritual to be kept as private as possible. Oh well, different village different concept.

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What a day it had been. Too many things to learn with too little time. Time to put the whole day’s experiences behind and get a good sleep with live band music blasting away catering to the young ones. What a contrast.
The good weather continued till the next morning with the noisy ojeks having a busy time ferrying guests hurrying home. We had our last get together below the baruk for a farewell miring before senior representatives from both the visitors’ and host’s sides gave their farewell speeches expressing their heartfelt gratitude for the fellowship and a well organized Gawai. One last dance before we parted ways with the taste of Sebujit’s ginger tuak still lingering on our tongues, awesome. See you in Kampung Padang Pan in 2016.