Tag: Pusat Tasek

The Koboi Returns 2023 – 11

~ The Koboi Project

In the Malay cosmology, 5. Kayangan is located above the Pokok Pauh Janggi which rises through the 2. Pusat Tasik Pauh Janggi, which is directly above the 6 Dasar Laut or ‘underworld’. The downward spiral of the Pusat Tasek and the upward thrust of the enormous Pokok Pauh Janggi both pass through the 1. Dunia, combining to create the axis mundi of the Malay cosmos. In the Islamic cosmos (see Jachimowicz) the force of creation moved down from the Throne of God, through the planetary spheres to the sublunary realm where its moment stirs the elements into becoming the manifest world. A line of force is drawn from the highest heaven down to the sublunary region echoing the axial function and dynamics of the Pokok Pauh Janggi.

Image: Diagram of the physical cosmos from Jachimowicz, Edith (1975). Islamic Cosmology/ The Malay Cosmos diagram is adapted after Md. Salleh Yaspar in Malaysian World View edited by Mohd Taib Osman.

https://books.google.com.my/books?id=-AR-V3ymAzoC&pg=PA274&lpg=PA274&dq=mohd+taib+osman+pusat+tasik&source=bl&ots=Ck_2ts5cvN&sig=ACfU3U189ige7-t0nqKA3yKcLDIurDnuoQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi688zh_sDmAhVT8XMBHaXlC1QQ6AEwAXoECAwQAQ#v=onepage&q=mohd%20taib%20osman%20pusat%20tasik&f=false

Jachimowicz, Edith (1975). Islamic Cosmology. In Carmen Blacker, Michael Loewe & J. Martin Plumley (eds.), Ancient Cosmologies. Allen & Unwin.

The Koboi Returns 2023 – 4

~ The Koboi Project

According to Malay folklore, in the far depths of the ocean, there is a great whirlpool known as the ‘Pusat Tasek’ or the ‘navel of the seas’. At the centre of this whirlpool, there is an enormous tree known as the Pokok Pauh Janggi. At this place, identified in Malay Cosmology as the Pusat Tasik Pauh Janggi, is inhabited by Nagas, Jins, Garudas and other such creatures. One of these creatures sits on the ocean floor, at the base of the tree blocking the a gigantic opening opening in the roots of the tree. This opening leads further down to the nether world of the Dasar Laut inhabited by Raja Lebis. Further, according to Anker Rentse, it is from the Dasar Laut, that the swirl of the Pusat Tasek rises in the course of ocean water draining down the opening. In some versions of this cosmology, a dragon guards this hole and its body also blocks the hole, preventing the ocean from running dry. In other accounts it is not a dragon but a giant crab that holds the waters up. It is the daily movements of this crab, unblocking and reblocking the hole, that cause the movement of the waters that we humans expirence as currents and tides. The above Kelantan Wayang Kulit puppets of the Pokok Pauh Janggi and the giant crab were collected by Walter William Skeat from a Tok Dalang in the late 19th Century.

https://books.google.com.my/books?id=-AR-V3ymAzoC&pg=PA274&lpg=PA274&dq=mohd+taib+osman+pusat+tasik&source=bl&ots=Ck_2ts5cvN&sig=ACfU3U189ige7-t0nqKA3yKcLDIurDnuoQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi688zh_sDmAhVT8XMBHaXlC1QQ6AEwAXoECAwQAQ#v=onepage&q=mohd%20taib%20osman%20pusat%20tasik&f=false

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47873/47873-h/47873-h.htm

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41559822?seq=1

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Lament for Anwar

~ The Koboi Project
9 Melarut Kekotoran. https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/sialjambalang

Malaysia has recently been beset by an epidemic of betrayal and disloyalty in the political arena. There seems to be no penchant for integrity in the accelerating realignments of opportunity. In this never ending saga, this interminable tragedy, that is contemporary Malaysian politics, one figure stand out as a complex of qualities. A relentless fighter, a hopeless loser, beacon of hope, a focus of hatred and an object of ridicule, Anwar Ibrahim is all of these in one. He seems to be all things to all Malaysians, and while he is still the leader of the parliamentary opposition, his recent u-turn on around challenging the incumbent Bersatu-led government on the budget vote may signal an the end of his long and arduous quest to become Prime Minister.

Anwar purports to stand reform and unity over corruption and ethnocentric politics, but his past and his present actions indicate that this may just be the position he finds himself in. Anwar began as a firebrand Malay/ Islamic youth leader in the late 1960’s who was co-opted to the mainstream of Malaysian politics by Dr Mahathir Mohamed in 1982 and then dramatically ejected from his place of power in the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and imprisoned on the basis of a sodomy conviction, arguably under the auspices of by the very same Dr M in 1993. His recent return to a place of power has, once again, been on the coat-tails of Dr. M and, once again, he has been severely let down. This recent collaboration between these two bitter political political foes was arrived at on the basis of the utter repugnance and destructiveness of the present UMNO leadership. Now, in the increasingly fragmentary and multivalent political scenario, there is some well reasoned speculation that Anwar is contemplating alignment with these very folks. As the Financial Times puts it, some might say that his journey “has been Janus-faced and opportunistic.”

The Asia Times suggests that Anwar faces such a situation today, that he might prefer to “choose to withdraw PKR from the PH coalition to stand in the general election on its own, affording him more room to negotiate with UMNO or form a new coalition with whichever parties are expedient depending on the outcome of the polls.” Disappointing though this all is from the point of view of the mandate and manifesto, I suggest that, either by reason of true conviction or pure circumstance, Anwar Ibrahim remains the best hope for a progressive and inclusive Malaysia. I am not, however, optimistic that, if Anwar pursues such a hardcore realpolitik , it will play out for the good of all the rakyat.

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Antara Saudara Mara 17

The above image from the from the Panji Pauh Ulong Series was shot in on the Lumut Waterfront, Perak in the course of the Dari Pusat Tasek performance presented by Percha Artspace on 25th Dec 2019. A 15 ft banner image of Anwar Ibrahim was raised on an 18ft flagstand in a performance that was loosely based on a Perak Malay cleansing ritual using cut limes. After 7 points of my body were rubbed with lime, I faced East and spat 7 times. I then threw the remains of the limes in the Westerly direction saying, “Pergi-lah semua sial jambalang daripada badan aku dan dari tubuh negara, pergilah ke Pusat Tasek Pauh Janggi“ (‘Misfortune and spirits of evil begone from my body and from the body of the nation, begone to the Navel of the Seas!). Water was then poured over me in order to complete the cleansing.

https://www.ft.com/content/8d5407c8-b262-11e2-8540-00144feabdc0

https://asiatimes.com/2020/12/first-notes-of-anwars-swan-song-in-malaysia/

Dari Pusat Tasek 32

~ The Koboi Project

The downward spiral of the Pusat Tasek and the upward thrust of the enormous Pokok Pauh Janggi combine to create the axis of the Malay cosmos (ontology). Anker Rentse explains, from ethnographic notes that seem to have been made in Ulu Kelantan “Shurga, Heaven, is on the top of Pauh Janggi, and Nuraka, Hell, is down below its roots. A gigantic hole between the roots causes the ocean water to disappear into hell’s big boiling-pot, kawah nufaka , whence the whirl-pool. Underneath the pot burns everlasting fire. A dragon guards the hole, the gate to hell ( pintu nuraka) with its body in order to prevent the ocean from running dry. In Pusat Tasek an account is kept of the good and the bad deeds of every human being in the world. The accountant in Heaven is Ka’ Tebir, and in Hell, Kiraman. The last one is said to be so busy on occasions, that he gets angry, throws his pen on the floor and declares, Ini sekarang sudah chukup!”

https://www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/stable/41559847

https://books.google.com.my/books?id=-AR-V3ymAzoC&pg=PA274&lpg=PA274&dq=mohd+taib+osman+pusat+tasik&source=bl&ots=Ck_2ts5cvN&sig=ACfU3U189ige7-t0nqKA3yKcLDIurDnuoQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi688zh_sDmAhVT8XMBHaXlC1QQ6AEwAXoECAwQAQ#v=onepage&q=mohd%20taib%20osman%20pusat%20tasik&f=false

Dari Pusat Tasek 30

~ The Koboi Project

In the Dari Pusat Tasek performance, I was assisted by Sang Nabil Utama who is musician, sound engineer, sonologist and a committed Malay culture activist. We were introduced by Azizan Paiman the afternoon before the event at which time we first discussed the underlying ideas and possible controversies of the performance. We refined and rehearsed the performance that night, and went on to execute the event the next afternoon (25 Dec 2019).

This intervention in the public space of the Lumut Waterfront, which was based on a Perak Malay cleansing ritual, was grounded and given poignancy by the fact that Sang Nabil Utama is a native orang Perak. It was also great working with Nabil as he showed great sensitivity to my approach and generously offered his own ideas about Malay ritual form in a way that brought the best out of the performance.

Dari Pusat Tasek 29

~ The Koboi Project
Ariffin Mohd Dahlan with some of the flags representing Jins he found on the Beting Beras Basah

According to researcher Ariffin Mohd Dahlan, in 1528, on the request of some Perak nobles, Sultan Mahmud Shah, the deposed Sultan of Malacca, sent his son Raja Muzaffar to take over the Sultanate. As he made his way with the Malacca Royal accoutrements such as the nobat (drum), naifiri (woodwind), pedang Chura Simanjakini (sword) and the cop mohor halilintar (seal) and several other tools his vessel was hit by a storm as passed Pusat Tasek  (Navel of the Seas) which was near the Beting Beras Basah at the mouth of the Perak river, and his vessel ran aground on the sandbank. They discarded all many weighty items and even the acctruments, but the vessel would not move. Finally, the Jin of the Navel of the Seas instructed the Raja to, throw his crown to the sea. Only when the Raja obliged the Jin, did the storm subside and the vessel move on to its destination.

According to some versions of this dynastic legend, the Raja had to dive into the sea at the Pusat Tasek and spend 7 days and 7 nights in negotiations with the Jins and other supernatural beings before this arrangement was arrived at. The prince was installed as Sultan and to this day the air to the throne of Perak is known as the Raja Muda (Young Raja) and not the Raja Mahkota (Crown Prince). It is also known that mysteries still abound in the area of the Beting Beras Basah which is a place where any new Sultan of Perak must perform a rite of passage (Istiadat Mencecah Kaki) in order to take up the throne.

https://sifuliterapi.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/beting-beras-basah-pusat-kerajaan-jin-dunia/

http://tengkusyah.blogspot.com/2015/05/istiadat-mencecah-kaki-ke-beting-beras.html

Dari Pusat Tasek 24

~ The Koboi Project
Anwar Saji Lagu Tamil

The 12th series in the Koboi Project, ‘Dari Pusat Tasek”, consists of a pair of photographs titled Naan Anaiyttal and Rockin Cowboy taken in Kampung Indian Settlement, Batu Caves and on West Broadway, Mount Pleasant, Vancouver, respectively. Naan Anaiyttal presents the Koboi standing before a hoarding of 12 meter cutout of formerly jailed Deputy Prime Minister and Parti Keadilan leader, Anwar Ibrahim. The Koboi stands gesturing forwards and upwards with a green skinned mango in his right hand. The cutout was initially erected around the 2008 election but taken down in the context of political controversy and  fears that the structure would be vulnerable to weather conditions. It was put up again for the 14th general election which took place in May 2018. The Koboi photograph was taken in 2018.  Naan Anaiyttal is title of a song from M G Rmachandran’s hit film Enga Veettu Pillai (1965). MGR was of course to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the song has populist and egalitarian theme. Anwar Ibrahim, in turn is, however tenuously, in line to be the next Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Naan Anaiyittal
Athu Nadanthuvittal
Ingu Ezhaigal vedanai padamatta
Uyirullavari oru thunbamillai
Avar kanneer kadalile vizhamattar

If I were to rule
and if it comes to pass
The poor will not suffer
As Long as they live they will feel no pain
They will not fall into the sea of tears

or in Anwar Ibrahim’s summation –

​Kalau aku diberi kuasa
Tidak ada lagi yang derita
Tidak ada lagi yang miskin mengalir air mata

Dari Pusat Tasek 22

~ The Koboi Project
1. Dunia is inhabited by Man, animals, plants, objects, spirits; 2. Pusat Tasik Pauh Janggi is inhabited by Nagas, Jins, Garudas; 3. Padang Jauh dan Puncak Gunung is inhabited by Giants, jins; 4. Pulau Buah is inhabited by Ancestral spirits; 5. Kayangan is inhabited by Dewa, Perman; 6. Dasar Laut is inhabited by Raja Lebis. Modified from a diagram by Md. Salleh Yaspar.

The combined downward spiral of the Pusat Tasek and the upward thrust of the enormous Pokok Pauh Janggi combine to create an axis of Malay Ontology or cosmos. Anker Rentse explains, from ethnographic notes that seem to have been made in Ulu Kelantan“Shurga, Heaven, is on the top of Pauh Janggi, and Nuraka, Hell, is down below its roots. A gigantic hole between the roots causes the ocean water to disappear into hell’s big boiling-pot, kawah nufaka , whence the whirl-pool. Underneath the pot burns everlasting fire. A dragon guards the hole, the gate to hell ( pintu nuraka) with its body in order to prevent the ocean from running dry. In Pusat Tasek an account is kept of the good and the bad deeds of every human being in the world. The accountant in Heaven is Ka’ Tebir, and in Hell, Kiraman. The last one is said to be so busy on occasions, that he gets angry, throws his pen on the floor and declares, Ini sekarang sudah chukup!”

The Dari Pusat Tasek exhibition will run at Percha Artspace, Lumut Waterfront, till 19 JAN 2020  Photographs of the Lumut performance will go towards making the 13th series of the Koboi Project tentatively titled Badan Aku Tubuh Negara. The draft of this work can be viewed at  https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/sialjambalang

https://www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/stable/41559847

https://books.google.com.my/books?id=-AR-V3ymAzoC&pg=PA274&lpg=PA274&dq=mohd+taib+osman+pusat+tasik&source=bl&ots=Ck_2ts5cvN&sig=ACfU3U189ige7-t0nqKA3yKcLDIurDnuoQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi688zh_sDmAhVT8XMBHaXlC1QQ6AEwAXoECAwQAQ#v=onepage&q=mohd%20taib%20osman%20pusat%20tasik&f=false

Dari Pusat Tasek 21

~ The Koboi Project
Nenek Sepit Pentala Naga | Tuan Puteri Ikan Selar Banum | Hanuman Kera Putih | Hanuman Ikan

In the Mak Yong Endeng Tajali, when the Great Raja dies, his sons the Elder Raja, the Middle Raja and the Young Raja fight for the throne. The Elder Raja is victorious and Middle Raja flees to the forest to became a Jin Gergasi haunting the land, while the Young Raja goes to the Laut Buih Gelombang Tujuh to become the Nenek Sepit Pentala Naga. At the centre of this lautan is, of course, the Pusat Tasek Pauh Janggi.

In the Kelantan Wayang Kulit at the bottom of, presumably, the same Pusat Tasek, there also lives a Nenek Sepit Pentala Naga. He is the Raja of the Negeri Lautan Buih. He has a beautiful daughter, the Tuan Puteri Ikan Selar Banum who marries the great warrior, Hanuman Kera Putih and has a child named Hanuman Ikan.

https://peabody.yale.edu/

http://rahimidinzahari.blogspot.com/2009/03/kembara-kata-di-balik-warna-rahimidin.html

Dari Pusat Tasek 18

~ The Koboi Project

The Dari Pusat Tasek, exhibition at Percha Art Space runs till 19 JAN 2020.

The enormous tree at the centre the ‘Pusat Tasek’. is an known as the Pokok Pauh Janggi. While I have been insisting that this is a mango tree, I have to acknowledge that the more commonly held view is that it is a coco de mer palm. Still, pauh is the Malay word for ‘mango’ and as Paul Kekai Manansala suggests janggi, probably, derives from the Toroja word ‘djjandji’ which, like the Malay ‘buah’, means ‘fruit’.

The Toraja are a people from the Sulawesi island, to the Southeast of Borneo, whose ancestral myths seem to claim origins from an island somewhere to the north where there is a powerful current, which could possibly be the Pusat Tasek. In the Taroja language taripa djandji means ‘mango tree,’ where or taripa  means ‘mango’ and djandji , derived from djampu means ‘fruit’. In suggesting that the Toraja taripa djandji is the more original form of Pauh Janggi , Manansala points out that among the Bare’e people, also from Sulawesi, taripa djandji is the common way of saying ‘mango tree.’

Manasala also notes that Antonio Pigafetta, a mariner on Ferdinand Magellan’s  pioneering voyage of ‘discovery’ (1518-1522), mentions local tales of an island surrounded by whirlpools, somewhere north or south of Java Major (Borneo), called Puzathaer (Pusat air?) on which there was a very large tree in whose branches perch enormous birds called Garuda. The fruit of this tree was said to be ‘larger than a cucumber.’ This size comparison, which must surely be with the in terms of the chayote cucumber from the Americas, suggests that the tree concerned was, indeed, a mango tree. The nut of the coco de mer is very much larger.

In Malay, of course, Pokok Pauh Janggi refers only to the mythical tree. A quotidian Mango tree would be pokok pauh and the coco de mer is referred as kelapa laut. While none of this is conclusive, in my understanding of language and of myth, the fact that, even when the signifier ‘Pauh Janggi‘, is understood as an index for the signified ‘coco de mer‘, the fact that it is indexed via the word ‘pauh‘, confirms that the root of chain of signifieds or similes is, indeed, the ‘mango’.

http://sambali.blogspot.com/2008/04/kuroshio-current-and-navel-of-sea.html

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