The Spirit-mediums of Singkawang: Performing Peoplehood of West Kalimantan

• Main Author: CHAN, Margaret
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: Chinese; Indonesia; spirit mediums; religious processions; Asian Studies; Religion
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1056; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/2312/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Chinese New Year in the West Kalimantan town of Singkawang is marked by a parade featuring hundreds of possessed spirit-mediums performing self-mortification and blood sacrifice. The event is a huge tourist draw, but beyond the spectacle, deeper meanings are enacted. The spirit-medium procession stages a fraternity of Dayak, Malay and Chinese earth gods united in the purpose of exorcising demons from the neighborhood. The self-conscious presentation of the Chinese as brethren among pribumi [sons-of-the-soil] Dayak and Malay, proposes the Chinese as belonging to the ‘peoplehood’ of West Kalimantan.