Ascendant: A seven-month-old child is helped to “climb” stairs in a Javanese ritual called tedak siten.

One Javanese tradition rarely observed today is tedak siten, a ritual for babies turning eight months old, or pitung lapan.

The ritual marks the occasion when a seven-month-old touches (tedak) the ground (siten or siti) for the first time.

Symbolizing the preparation of a child for life, the event is celebrated with a thanksgiving ceremony. “The ritual also serves to express gratitude for the child’s initial steps to learn to walk and look around. It’s one of a series of Javanese birth rituals,” said Kanjeng Pangeran Winarno Kusumo, an official at the Surakarta Sultanate.

Winarno said that in the past tedak siten was common because parents believed the ritual could offer an idea of the future occupation or position of a child, particularly through the entry procession when an article is selected from inside a cage.

If a baby chooses a book from the cage, then in the future the child may be a teacher. If a kitchen utensil is selected, the child could be a chef, a housewife or perhaps a restaurant owner.

According to Winarno, the ritual has six steps: The child walks on seven colorful glutinous rice cakes (jadah), goes up cane steps, walks on the ground and plays with both feet, picks an item in a chicken cage, gets coins and flowers from parents, and takes a bath with water strewn with seven kinds of flowers.

“A baby in a cage represents the period when a child is fully protected or is being carried by parents,” said Winarno, who is known for conducting the ritual.

The child is guided when treading on the colorful cakes, representing overcoming impediments in life, and while going up cane steps, suggesting the path to be taken in the time to come.

After playing on the ground and entering a decorated cage containing various items, the child’s parents toss udik-udik of coins and different flowers. The processions end with the child being bathed with water bearing seven-colored flowers.

Today, those practicing the tradition are usually limited to relatives of the royal family and members of the Javanese nobility. Among them is the family of Mingky Anjar Setadi and Tri Wiji Lestari, who held a recent tedak siten for Gabri Alexa Niavicky.   

“I live within Javanese circles steeped in tradition so I continue to observe such ceremonies. Something would seemingly be missing if I abandoned this ritual,” said Mingky amid his child’s ritual in the subdistrict office of Kepatihan Wetan in Jebres, Surakarta.

The offerings prepared included cone-shaped rice with chicken, flowers, cooking spices and a betel-chewing set for ancestors, rice bran porridge of baro-baro for the baby’s placenta, and traditional snacks like getuk and tiwul (made from cassava) and other tuber cakes as well as fruits in mountain-shaped piles.

Finishing the phases of cake treading and cane stairs climbing, Gabri was helped to enter an adorned cage where she then selected a pen. Both parents later scattered coins mixed with yellow rice for anybody to grab. In the final procession, Gabri had a seven-flower bath.

Fragrant: A child is bathed in water strewn with flowers of seven different colors in a ritual that is now rarely performed in Java. The ritual was also enlivened by a parade of gamelan instruments as an heirloom of Surakarta King Paku Buwono  X, as well as mountains of fruit. Several traditional art troupes also performed.

Starting from Kepatihan Wetan, the parade passed major roads like Jl. Sugiyo Pranata and Jl. Urip Sumoharjo, and later returned to the subdistrict. Lasting for about two hours, the ritual covered a distance of 7 kilometers.

Along the road, traditional attractions such reog (tiger mask dance), barongsai (lion dance), local dances and martial arts entertained the thousands of onlookers who lined the sidewalks along the route of the rare march.

At the peak of the event, the piles of fruit were rushed at by spectators as the parade reached the subdistrict office. People believe this fruit will bring blessings because delegates of the Surakarta palace had earlier prayed over the offerings.

“The more people observe the tedak siten ritual the more prayers they will say in the baby’s favor so that this child will enjoy a smooth course of life,” said Kepatihan Wetan subdistrict head Tuti Orbawati, who had directed the parade.

— Photos by Ganug Nugroho Adi