Chapter Five - Sando and Spirit Possession: Engaging with the Spirit and Healing the Sick

Summary

This chapter demonstrates the negotiation of the different interpretations of belief in supernatural beings and of the practice of healing rituals among Muslims in a village. It provides a basis for understanding the relationship between the belief in jinn, ghost, devils, spirit possession, sickness, spirit-possessed victims and healing practices in Bima culture. I show how Bima healers cultivate personal relationships with spirits to help individuals with their healing skills and mediumship, which are within the framework of Islamic teachings but in defiance of the religious reformism of the Muhammadiyah. This chapter questions a range of theoretical ideas to reach an understanding of the phenomenon of spirit possession from the specificities of locality of Bima. What are the local terms for spirit possession, mediumship, healers and ritual healing? How do the people in Bima describe and understand the relationship between supernatural beings, spirits, ghosts and sickness? How do the practices of the local healers intersect with the concepts of religion and modernity?

In March 2012, Firdaus finished his sunset prayer (Ind.: ṣalāt maghrib) in the Masjid Al-Muwahidin, in the village of Pane of Rasanae sub-district (my neighbourhood). He sat on the terrace of the mosque for a little while and conversed with others. Firdaus (pseudonym), a fifty- year-old man, seized the opportunity to spend time on the mosque terrace while waiting for evening prayer. It is common for local Muslims not to go home straightaway, as the interval between the sunset and evening prayer is only one hour. Firdaus invited me to have a seat and join the chat with others. I had met Firdaus several times previously, but this was the first time he introduced himself as a healer.

Right in the middle of our conversation, a sixty-year-old woman wearing a red veil dropped in and asked Firdaus to visit her house to deal with an emergency. Firdaus grabbed his motorbike and asked me to accompany him to the woman's house. When we arrived, a young girl was holding her stomach as it felt very painful. The woman told Firdaus that her daughter was menstruating but the stomach-ache she was suffering this time was unusually severe. Therefore, she asked Firdaus to cure her daughter, whom she believed was possessed.