“Don’t ever underestimate our local shaman or faith healer ‘manang’,” said a good friend and cousin Datuk August Buma, who retired three years ago as Sarawak’s director of Labour.
He narrated to me a number of ‘belian’ (healing with sing-song chanting) incidents in Bintangor, Julau and Sarikei where some patients were miraculously cured by their local ‘manang’ after failing to be rid of their illnesses by doctors. There have been similar happenings in Saratok as well as in Betong.
In my case, my mom dreamt of me being only accorded a short life. That was in 1966 when I was just 12. My dad took no time in leaving our hovel up the Melupa River in Saratok to look for his old friend and contemporary Manang Chundi who resided in dad’s original longhouse at Munggu Embawang, just about 30 minutes on foot from our residence at Bukit Tinggi.
That same evening, Manang Chundi performed the ‘belian’ at our hovel in the presence of my elder brother Jon, my parents, my maternal grandma Kejuang, my paternal granddad Jembu whose hearing problem was similar to the deaf, and myself.
Prior to the sing-song chanting in the evening, Chundi took my right finger and thumb stretch (jengkal) measurement on a ‘buluh bala’ (yellow bamboo) using white markings of a local sulphur. Jon climbed to our ceiling to put the bamboo up and visible throughout the ‘belian’ ceremony all evening long.
It was after the sing-song chanting at dawn that Jon climbed again to dislodge the marked yellow bamboo from the ceiling. Manang Chundi told me to stretch my same finger and thumb over the marked bamboo. The others there and I were taken aback but totally delighted when my ‘jengkal’ outdid the last evening’s one by at least an inch.
“You will live long,” Chundi happily said.
It was really astounding and this far I am still well and hoping to celebrate at least 20 more birthdays. Nevertheless, Manang Chundi, my aforesaid grandparents and parents all have gone but all lived over 90 except for poor mom who died at 72.
Over the years there were stories of miraculous healings by ‘manang’ plus some antics too. One shaman, Manang Sigan in Bintangor was said to be weird and capable of doing some magic. He used to dress in loin cloth, putting a hat anchored with empty cans on his head and sometimes walking shirtless in Bintangor town, when it was still named Binatang.
He was once said to have sold a live goat to a town shopkeeper. After getting paid and gone from the premises the goat turned into just a bale of old newspapers.
Another ‘manang’ in our old Kedap longhouse in Saratok, namely Manang Imung, suffered from acute aqua phobia and was said to be very smelly as he seldom took his bath. At night he would leave his bed, leaving his wife alone.
He said he was going ‘hunting’ but in actual fact he was going with the demons and giants looking for ‘preys’ but many a time some of his sick relatives were ‘saved’ from harm by Imung, also known as Apai Intih, who told others in his ‘hunting’ gang their intended preys were his people or relatives.
His wife said when Imung came back from the ‘hunting’ trips their bed would always be sandy and smelly. Indai Intih, his wife, was still around when I was five or six years old.
The highest level of curing ceremony by the ‘manang’ is the ‘belian bebunuh’ (fight to the death), namely a ‘belian’ ceremony where the shaman would need to kill the evil spirit causing the sickness. This is to cure the patient and rid the source of her or his ailment.
I saw this curing event performed at our old longhouse circa 1965 by Manang Chundi. It failed to cure the patient.
In another healing event some 20 years earlier, Manang Imung used a blowpipe that he directed from the longhouse’s open platform ‘tanju’ towards the evil spirit at night during his sing-song chanting.
In the morning, the longhouse folk discovered that two darts from the blowpipe was stuck to a smoked enemy’s skull two doors away from the healing premises. The sick child was reportedly totally cured.
Two days ago I encountered a retired teacher Andrew Dang Luyoh, 79, at Saratok town. He said he used to read my columns online and said some interesting items pertaining to his late dad Manang Luyoh Bajing of Tanjung, Awik in Saratok.
Dang said his father performed two vital ‘belian bebunuh’ in the early 1950s. The first one was to cure a patient at Sungai Antu along the Krian River above Saratok town.
In this episode of the ‘killing healing’, Luyoh said during his trance he managed to call the culprit, a crocodile and succeeded in inflicting a deep wound on its neck.
The reptile was later found dead by the riverbank. He performed the second one at Disso, Saratok and succeeded in curing another female patient.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
