When an earthquake hits, Yosep Sarokdok remembers what his father and mother used to say when he was just a little boy back in his hometown in the remote Sarokdok hamlet on Siberut Island, one of the main islands in the Mentawai chain, West Sumatra.
He said that when an earthquake struck at dawn or in the morning, his parents would say sipenanduk or durian harvest since the tremor made many durians fall to the ground.
“When the disaster struck in the afternoon or at night, they would say udduat [edible ground mushroom] is growing,” the 32-year-old, who lives in the West Sumatra capital of Padang, told The Jakarta Post.
He recalled that after an afternoon or evening earthquake, his parents would tell the children to pick udduat close to their home where the mushroom used to grow.
A boy (right) poses in Mentawai’s traditional costume after taking part in a dance festival in Padang, West Sumatra.
“When I went to the place the next day as instructed by my parents, there were many mushrooms ready to be picked,” said the activist of Citra Mandiri Mentawai Foundation non-governmental organization.
Another story, conveyed from generation to another in the hamlet – located in the heart of a forest with plenty of big trees — advises people to head to a banana plantation, considered safer than the hardwood trees, when an earthquake struck.
The message is related to the construction of uma — traditional Mentawai houses.
According to the story, an orphan named Ulu Taek was told to dig a hole for a main pillar for the traditional house by his two foster brothers.
Ulu’s brothers, who did not like him, tried to kill him by placing the sharpened pillar into the hole, but Ulu escaped by fleeing from the hole. They continued to try to kill him but failed.
Ulu Taek then told his wife and children that he would create an earthquake to sink parts of the uma into the ground and told them to run to a banana plantation.
When his brothers tried to kill him again, Ulu created an earthquake, which sank part of the uma, and killed his brothers. His wife and children survived.
“The message from the story is that when a big earthquake strikes, you should run to banana trees. It’s how the story goes,” said Yosep, who became coordinator of Lumbung Derma, a coalition of dozens of nongovernmental groups in West Sumatra to assist tsunami victims in Mentawai.
He said that another Mentawai folk tale advises people not to place house pillars on the ground but to sink them into the ground to ensure their homes are not damaged by earthquakes.
Another folk tale is related in a song, titled Teteu Amusiat Loga – which literally translates as “at time of earthquake, squirrels make shrill sounds”, by Mentawai tribes people in Siberut for the children with a message to pay attention to animal behavior before an earthquake and tsunami strike.
Teteu Amusiat Loga
Teteu.../Teteu amusiat loga/Teteu katinambu leleu//Teteu girisit nyau’-nyau’/ Amagolu’/Teteu tai pelebuk/ Arotadeake baikona//Kuilak pai-pai gou’-gou’/Lei-lei gou’-gou’/Barasita teteu /Lalaklak paguru sailet.
(Earthquake.../Earthquake, squirrel shrills/Earthquake, roaring sounds come from the hill/Earthquake, land subsides and sinks/God of coral reef is angry/Because baiko tree is felled/Chicken’s tail is moving/chicken run/because the quake has shaken/people run to safety)
Nikman Sanene said that when he was a child, older people used to sing the song. He lived in his hometown, Saibi Samokop village, in the south of Siberut Island until he finished senior high school.
“The song is in the old Mentawai language. The precise meaning is hard to grasp but I agree it relates to earthquakes, only it is usually sung in a merry tone,” the 30-year-old told the Post.
The thing is, the word teteu has several meanings, depending on the context. The word can mean grandfather or grandmother or a spirit of a grandmother. But it may also mean earthquake.
Most Mentawai people, however, agree that the word means earthquake in the song.
Mentawai people, who number around 50,000, have rich folk tales — which they call pumumuan — compared to other ethnic groups across the country.
Two other Mentawai folk tales relate to earthquakes and tsunamis. One is the story of the parting of Pagai Island into two, north and south, and the story of how Beriloga and Sanding Islands became separated.
According to the tale, the two Pagai Islands, which are separated by a 770-meter-wide strait, was cut into two when a giant tree — the home of a man-eating giant bird — was felled by people.
Another story says that Beriloga Island was separated from Siberut by a powerful man named Paggetasabu, believed to be Mentawai’s first sikerei (shaman), who moved a bay to the middle of the ocean at his nephew’s request. The bay later became an islet.
The folk tales may be far from reality, but the fact is that the Mentawai people in the past never established villages near the shore.
Legend has it that the hamlet of Mentawai people was deep in the interior of Siberut Island and was known as Simatalu hamlet. They traveled around Siberut and to other islands, Sipora and Pagai Islands.
They then set up villages deep inside the forest, far from the shore.
Several villages were reportedly moved near the shore in early 1914 by the Dutch and Zending Protestant mission, but it was not until the 1970s that the villages were coerced into moving to coastal
areas during the government’s welfare supervision project for isolated commu-nities.
“There must have been a reason for our ancestors to live far from the sea despite living on islands.
Probably they were afraid of tsunamis,” said Kortanius Sabeleake, a Mentawai community leader and former Mentawai Islands regency legislative council speaker.
Historical records show that in 1797, a quake, with its epicenter located in the eastern part of Siberut Island, triggered a tsunami that devastated Padang and Pariaman cities. Another earthquake in 1833 also caused a tsunami. However, no records mention the impact on Mentawai Islands.
Although traditional Mentawai people did not write down their history, their folklore – from tales, songs, names and traditions – serves as a record of past events.
— Photos by JP/Syofiardi Bachyul Jb.
