R

io Afrianshah arrived at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) sports complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, before 3 p.m. on Sunday to watch the closing ceremony of the Asian Games. He was dressed comfortably in a shirt, jeans and cap to counter the intense heat.

As he arrived, strong winds and heavy rain struck the area.

Rio and thousands of others rushed to get into the main stadium, trying their best not to get soaked by the falling rain.

They were there to witness the closing ceremony of Asia’s biggest multisport event where some of the performers were literally singing in the rain.

It was the first rains to hit the event in two weeks.

The heavy rain, which soaked Greater Jakarta, got people like Rio thinking: “The sudden change in weather had us asking the question: ‘Why didn’t the organizers hire a pawang hujan (rain shaman)?’” he recalled on
Monday.

The services of pawang hujan are commonly used by people in Indonesia who plan to have weddings, gatherings or big events such as the Asiad.

Those who hire them hope that their events will proceed without being hindered by rain.

Pawang hujan Eko, who was not involved in the closing ceremony, claimed that he had predicted there would be a heavy rain in Jakarta on Sunday afternoon because “the cloud is intense but the color is white”.

Eko, who has been a pawang hujan since 2007, said what happened on Sunday was called a “blessing rain” because it covered the entire city and not even pawang hujan could anticipate it.

They are said to have the power to shoo rain clouds away from designated areas where events are held.

“It’s not magic,” Eko said. “It usually takes me a week to do the job. I can’t do it in an instant,” he told The Jakarta Post.

He explained that he took a spiritual and religious approach by chanting dzikir (praises to God). A week before an event, he also goes out to observe the sky — to check the shapes of the clouds, the wind speed and others.

And then he will pray, asking a higher power to move the cloud to another place.

Not all of his attempts are successful and he has a failure rate of around 10 percent.

“It doesn’t mean that we are bad at the job, it’s just the rule of the universe. Humans may try, but the decision is in the hands of the Almighty,” he said.

Eko added that he and his fellow pawang hujan often coordinated while driving away rain clouds in the city even though they worked at different events.

Such coordination is needed to prevent their prayers from contradicting one another.

“Let’s say I’m moving the rain cloud for an event in East Jakarta, but my friend is doing the same thing for Central Jakarta. If that’s the case, then we probably would agree to pray for the cloud to move out to sea,” Eko said.

Meanwhile, the heavy downpour caught organizers and spectators at the GBK off-guard.

Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee (INASGOC) ceremony director Herty Purba said it had hired a pawang hujan to prevent the rain from covering the stadium.

She shrugged off critics who said the rain had disrupted the event.

“We took it as a blessing in disguise though. The rain made the ceremony very dramatic because as the performers were singing and dancing, the spectators and VIP guests were shouting enthusiastically in the rain,” she added.

At least 6,000 raincoats were distributed to athletes, officials and volunteers to keep them dry.

Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency spokesman Harry Tirto said the rain was not an anomaly because September was when the season normally transitioned from dry to wet.