Sedekah Gunung ; A Ritual Ceremony on Mount Merapi

 

Merapi volcano is located 40 kilometer north of Yogyakarta and included one of the most active volcano in the world. It erupts on average every 5-10 years and is feared for its deadly pyroclastic flows - avalanches of hot rocks and gas that are generated when parts of new lava domes constructed during eruptions in the summit crater collapse and slide down the mountain's steepflanks. The local people call this pyroclastic flows in Javanese Wedus Gembel (Wedus – a sheep; gembel – thick curly hair), as it looked like.

To keep the volcano quiet and to appease the spirits of the mountain, the Javanese regularly bring offerings on the anniversary of the sultan of Yogyakarta's coronation.For Yogyakarta Sultanate, Merapi holds significant cosmological symbolism, because it is forming a sacred north-south axis line between Merapi peak and Southern Ocean (Indian Ocean). The sacred axis is signified by Merapi peak in the north, the Tugu monument near Yogyakarta main train station, the axis runs along Malioboro street to Northern Alun-alun (square) across Keraton Yogyakarta (sultan palace), Southern Alun-alun, all the way to Bantul and finally reach Samas and Parangkusumo beach on the estuary of Opak river and Southern Ocean. This sacred axis connected the hyangs or spirits of mountain revered since ancient times—often identified as "Mbah Petruk" by Javanese people—The Sultan of Yogyakarta as the leader of the Javanese kingdom, and Nyai Roro Kidul as the queen of the Southern Ocean, the female ocean deity revered by Javanese people and also mythical consort of Javanese kings. 

The Javanese believe that the Earth is not only populated by human beings, but also by spirits (makhluk halus). Villages near Merapi believe that one of the palaces (in Javanese  Kraton ) used by the rulers of the spirit kingdom lies inside Merapi, ruled by Empu Rama and Empu Permadi. This palace is said to be a spiritual counterpart to the Yogyakarta Sultanate, complete with roads, soldiers, princes, vehicles, and domesticated animals. Besides the rulers, the palace is said to also be populated by the spirits of ancestors who died as righteous people. The spirits of these ancestors are said to live in the palace as royal servants (abdi dalem), occasionally visiting their descendants in dreams to give prophecies or warnings.

Merapi Mountain ceremony performed every 1st Sura with the aim to ask the God a salvation for people who live around Mount Merapi and be protected from natural disasters arising out of Mount Merapi. The ritual is a traditional cultural performed by communities around Merapi and it’s been done for generations since the time of the ancestors to the present. This is a very interesting tourism attraction in Indonesia specifically in Yogyakarta and Central Java.

People here are not likely to leave the ritual ceremony because it is merged with local custom. Therefore, every citizen who will have their own celebration usually initialed with a traditional ceremony to make offerings of food available in surround the mountains. As such, they will be given safety and agricultural products are abundant and prosperous life as a result of soil fertility from Mount Merapi.

The ritual procession that followed thousands of residents of local communities and from outside the area began with buffalos paraded around the village before it was slaughtered and sacrificed the head into the crater of Merapi. the buffalo head wrapped in white cloth is completed with offerings such as tumpeng gunung (cone shaped rice) made from corn, and brubus from Lumbu leaves. In addition, there is also gomok, acung-acung, Bothok sempurno with crops, klobot cigarettes (made from corn’s ear), bananas raja, kantil flowers, turmeric, egg and cash Rp100. 

Meanwhile, before the head of buffalo and offerings are thrown into the crater of Merapi at 00:10 am, the people is firstly sing songs to praise and prayer (hymn) to the God to avoid disasters due to the mountain. The Buffalo’s head that will be sacrificed then taken by four men who wear traditional Javanese clothes to the crater at the peak of Merapi which is about four kilometers and will take approximately four hours. After the buffalo head is appointed to the top of the mountain, thousands of people who follow the procession are competing to get the offerings, the cone shaped rice from corn which is the typical food people on the slopes of Merapi.

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