Traditional Medicine among the Ngaju Dayak in Central Kalimantan
The Borneo Research Council deserves credit for welcoming in its Monograph Series such a piece of raw ethnography, which would otherwise have had little chance to reach a general audience. In 1935, the late Johannes Salilah, then an assistant nurse at the hospital of the Basler Protestant mission near Kuala Kapuas, was encouraged by a Swiss sister to compile a text on traditional medical practices. Some sixty years later, this manuscript, written in the Ngaju language, was handed over to Arnoud H. Klokke, himself a former medical doctor in the same province, now Central Kalimantan and long time connoisseur of Ngaju oral and material arts, who now presents us with an annotated translation.
By PASCAL COUDERC
Salilah is no stranger to students of Ngaju culture: as Anne Schiller mentions in her preface to the book, he began his long career as a head priest officiating at secondary death rituals, before serving as a respected damang, a regional officer in charge of customary law. At about the time when this mansucript was written, Salilah also began a fruitful collaboration with the missionary-cum-ethnologist Hans Schärer, who was the first of three generations of researchers to rely on Salilah's encyclopaedic knowledge.The book, covering six different topics, is complemented by a very useful list of plant names in the vernacular, with a tentative botanical identification for some of them. The translator has fulfilled a difficult task, given the abundance of descriptive vocabulary in the original text. Older sources on the Ngaju language were of precious help in this regard, especially in the translation of words which have since become obsolete. In a few instances, the extensive reliance on these sources has led to slight inaccuracies (for example, p. 69, the pangolin anteater, Manis javanica, is described as a 'land iguana').
Intended to familarize the staff of a Christian hospital with their patients ways of coping with disease, it may not be surprising that the text pays only secondary attention to shamanistic curing techniques, the lasting vitality of which is still attested to by recent reports. Out of the 54 diseases or symptoms listed with their appropriate medications in the first chapter (a more systematic inventory than in any monograph on traditional medicine in Borneo, Klokke stresses in his introduction), only a few are explicitly ascribed to the action of supernatural forces, and in only one case (convulsions) to damage inflicted on the patient's soul by a spirit. One might be tempted to think that Salilah deliberately avoided a delicate subject and chose to shift the focus to the traditional pharmacopoeia; remedies he provides are indeed reminiscent of a physician's prescription. But the detailed description of magic charms (ch. 2) and smoke producers (ch. 3) does not really support this hypothesis. The efficacy of such devices is directed more often against specific agencies - predatory spirits, but also poison, witches, spells, thiefs - than against determined symptoms. Malevolent spirits are again mentioned as the principal cause of miscarriages in a section dealing with pregnancy and childbirth (ch. 4).
Then a chapter is devoted to a healing practice that, although presumably of Malay or Banjar origin, is in fact very close to mainstream shamanism (ch. 6). The main difference is that the spirits called up to heal the patient bear Malay names and speak Malay. Otherwise, the curing session, which is vividly described by Salilah, unfolds in a familiar way: the scattering of husked rice to summon the spirits; the possession of the officiant by his main spirit associates and others (notably blood-drinkers) who descend into him in turns, each dancing to a specific drum beat and conversing with the audience; healing of the patient by the possessing spirits who suck the disease out of his body; the checking of the rice containing the patient's soul, reintroduction of the soul in the patient's head, etc. We are in the presence of an interesting case of ritual syncretism and medical pluralism.
Jealous spirits
Other southern Borneo peoples, such as the Ot Danum, have also incorporated Malay (speaking) spirits into their shamanistic rituals. This results from a wider process of cultural assimilation in which the same figures of otherness are also integrated, say, into oral epics. But here the tukang badewa (contacting Malay spirits) and the tukang panyangiang (contacting 'autochthonous' spirits) are different practitioners; moreover, the two categories of spirits are jealous of each other and should thus be kept carefully separate. It seems that the sphere of competence of the tukang badewa was in the process of expanding, as Salilah mentions as new a number of religious ceremonies that these specialists were performing for a cheaper fee than traditional priests. It would be interesting to know whether this alternative ritual system still survives today.
So, the picture has to be turned upside-down: what is highlighted by the virtual absence of soul-related explanations of diseases in the rest of the book is instead the variety of non-shamanistic curing methods in traditional medicine. It is precisely these methods, based on the use of plants and other empirical means that have suffered most from the competition with modern pharmaceutical medicines. In this respect, one of the book's great lessons is to put right the impression one can get while doing fieldwork these days in Borneo, namely that (1) traditional medicine can be more or less equated to shamanism, and that (2) people turn to it either in despair when all else has failed, or if their disease is classified as 'village' or 'upriver illness'. The Ngaju did know about a wide range of more pragmatic, instrumental treatments for various kinds of illness, such as dysentery, malaria, and several types of skin disease. According to Klokke, some are pure common sense while others are counterproductive. Some indications sound a little comic (p.37: 'Kill a mouse every day; lace it up on a stick, and roast it till the flesh becomes dry; eat this once every three days'); some defy the imagination, like the one that prescribes killing a buffalo and spending a day and night in its belly to cure oneself of leprosy. Most are based on plants, often to be taken in decoctions, or applied or rubbed on the body part concerned. Ngaju or Arabic incantations are sometimes uttered to ensure the efficacy of the treatment.
This book contains a wealth of information that will enhance the already considerable body of ethnographic knowledge concerning the Ngaju peoples. It will also be useful to students of ethnomedicine and religion in Borneo. One final regret concerns the poor quality of the editorial work. *
Reference
- Klokke, A.H. (ed. and transl.)
Traditional Medicine among the Ngaju Dayak in Central Kalimantan:
The 1935 writings of a former Ngaju Dayak priest, Phillips: BRC Inc.,
Borneo Research Council Monograph Series Volume 3
Pascal Couderc, doctoral candidate, research associate at the Institut de Recherches sur le Sud-Est Asiatique (IRSEA) in Marseille, France.
E-mail: pcouderc@globetrotter.qc.ca.