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Petik Laut, offerings for a bigger haul
On the move: Dancers are taken to the wharf at Sendangbiru as part of the petik laut festival
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On the move: Dancers are taken to the wharf at Sendangbiru as part of the petik laut festival.
Sendangbiru is a fishing village in Tambakrejo in Sumbermanjing, East Java, about 70 kilometers away from Malang, the nearest big city.
Apart from the charms of the southern sea, Sendangbiru has an annual event called petik laut, when residents have a four-day beach party, featuring music performances, a dusk-to-dawn shadow puppet show and, to cap things off, the floating of offerings into the sea in a ritual called the labuh semboyo.
'The activity has been held since 1983,' said Sumaji, chairman of the organizing committee for this year's event. The ritual is performed to express thanks to God for abundant fish catches and to pray for safety on the water in the year ahead.
During the petik laut, fishermen show respect for the sea, halting work temporarily to allow for the restoration of polluted waters and marine resources, which have been cleanly managed to date.
Sumaji said that there were about 5,600 fishermen in Sendangbiru who contributed Rp 3 billion a day to the local economy. 'It's even more in this case, as the fish are currently plentiful.'
The high price of fish is one reason for the brusque business. The extensive coverage provided by local fishermen is another. Among the fish the men bring in are skipjacks and tuna, which can sell for as much as Rp 40,000 per kilogram ' with individual specimens topping the scales at 80 kilograms.
For the petik laut, ritual offerings were prepared in the house of Haji Atmo Usmail, a local elder. The preparations crossed ethnic boundaries, as those from Javanese families with a long history in Sendangbiru mixed with more recent arrivals from Bali, Madura and Makassar to decorate a giant tumpeng rice cone and a small gitik sesajen boat.
'This tumpeng needed 75 kilograms of rice,' said Atmo's wife, Hajjah Madinatul Munawaroh.
The cone was garnished with red crabs, vegetables, fruits and noodles arranged to look like a fishermen's hamlet, with a chicken at its top.
Meanwhile, the offerings to be carried by the gitik sesajen comprised jenang sengkolo, a type of bubur (rice porridge) made with brown sugar, believed to provide security and ward off evil. Also included were roasted chickens, rice cakes, yellow rice, smaller tumpeng, gourds, coconuts, bananas, tubers and, to top things off, a goat's head.
A pair of statues called loro blonyo were included. The figures depicted two characters from Javanese mythology, Raden Sadana, a manifestation of Vishnu, who preserves the universe, and Dewi Sri, the goddess of fertility, as husband and wife.
'The offerings will be distributed to the fishermen,' according to Munawaroh. 'Only the tumpeng and the gitik sesajen will be left to be sink.'
Munawaroh said that the labuh semboyo ritual might cost Rp 17.5 million to stage, while the price tag for the whole four-day program might be Rp 140 million.
'Thank God, we've secured the funds needed from fishermen's contributions, regional government aid and sponsor donations.'
The rituial also celebrates another figure from Javanese mythology: Nyi Roro Kidul, the Queen of the South Sea.
To honor the queen, who is still revered as the protector of fishermen, a young girl from the village was dressed up as Nyi Blorong, one of the Roro Kidul's guards.
Later in the afternoon, the petik laut parade got underway, with fisherman carrying the giant tumpeng, the offerings, Nyi Blorong on her winged dragon throne and finally, the statues of Vishu and Dewi Sri.
People thronged the streets to welcome the parade as it headed to the wharf.
The procession halted for a moment at the village's new Fish Auction Center (TPI), to be inaugurated along with the group's send-off by Malang Regent Haji Rendra Kresna.
Following several prayers, the parade marched to the wharf, where the tumpeng and dragon throne were put aboard a getek raft, while the gitik sesajen boat with the offerings and statues sailed ahead, tugging the raft behind it.
As the boats put out to sea, fishermen swarmed the vessels to get their share of the offerings. After 15 minutes, the statue and the tumpeng were abandoned at the sea.
Rendra, who watched the ritual procession, described the petik laut as an attempt to preserve local traditions and promote tourism to benefit the fishermen.
The regent claimed that the local fishermen were catching less than five percent of the total potential fish available in a year, saying that the administration has strived to help by providing infrastructure like the TPI, the wharf, fishing boats, generators and other equipment.
'The major constraint to be overcome at present is power supply, which has remained inadequate,' Rendra said.
' Photos By Nedi Putra AW
