The growing interest in the history of Indonesia has made it desirable to have an English summary of the principal works of the Dutch historian Dr H. De Graaf, who in several books and articles published between 1935 and 1973 has given a description of the development of the Javanese kingdom of Mataram, based both on European and in digenous material. His works form a substantial contribution to the study of the national history of Indonesia.
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The Summary contains references to the paragraphs of the Dutch books and articles. This makes it easy for those readers who have a know ledge of Dutch to consult the original texts. The List of Sources for the study of Javanese history from 1500 to 1700 is composed of the lists in the summarized books and articles, and the Index of Names refers not only to the present Summary but also to the eight original texts. Many names of persons and localities in the Index have been provided with short explanatory notes and references to other lemmata as a quick way to give some provisional information on Javanese history.
Yang terlintas ketika mendengar nama Mak Lampir mungkin adalah sinetron Misteri Gunung Merapi yang dibintangi oleh Farida Pasha. Tokoh Mak Lampir sendiri, kerap digambarkan sebagai sosok mistis yang jahat serta memiliki wajah dan tawa yang seram Tapi, sudah tahu belum sih kalau ternyata Mak Lampir sendiri bukan dari Gunung Merapi, melainkan adalah legenda yang datangnya dari.
CHAPTER VII SUPER ATURAL POWERIntroduction The local is never static; its boundaries, both temporal and spatial, are subject to ceaseless change. It is characterised by a web of power plays, agonistic interests, pluralized histories, and struggles over polysemous and asymmetrical exchange. The local is constantly transforming and reinventing itself as it seeks to reach beyond itself and engage the translocal.1Culture is constantly being reproduced in complex social processes. The sinetron reflects these constant processes of cultural reproduction.
As a television film, it is a cultural text, cultural statement and cultural carrier which communicate to huge and diverse audiences. What is interesting about studying cultural change in Misteri Gunung Merapi is that it conveys images of the complex symbiosis between localism and globalism. The global flows of technology and media communication, engaging with local traditions, produce a complex negotiation of these traditions. This chapter develops a cultural analysis of this sinetron’s representation of supernatural power.
I argue that the popularity of Misteri Gunung Merapi is due to the way it transforms the local, in this case the belief in supernatural power, and reinvents it so as to invite audience identification. As I have shown, globalization and commercialization in Indonesia have influenced entertainment production, focusing it more on spectacle and sensation. This chapter focuses on how this particular sinetron reinvents the tradition of belief in supernatural power along these lines and successfully communicates it to a diverse national audience.1Wimal Dissanayake, 'Globalization and the Experience of Culture: The Resilience of Nationhood,' in Globalization, Cultural Identities, and Media Representations, ed. Natascha Gentz and Stefan Kramer (Albany: State University of New York Press 2006), 25.Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦154There are many Western television series and Hollywood films exploiting supernatural power which are globally popular, such as the trilogy The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter series, and television series such as Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Supernatural, Smallville, or Medium. These films and series have aroused wonder with their presentation of magic and the occult as part of everyday life.
In response to the popularity of global supernatural entertainment, Misteri Gunung Merapi exploits the indigenous belief in supernatural power and represents it as postmodern2 entertainment. The further question I want to address is how this exploitation of supernatural power for entertainment appeals to and constructs a national audience.
Indonesia has a history of film and television production about the supernatural world; however this genre was not tremendously popular. Only recently mystery shows and sinetron have flourished until almost every day there is a program on the occult or a mystery broadcast on private television stations. Most of the mystery shows attract protest from the viewers, especially from the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Board of Indonesian Mufti) and NGOs.
They protest against mystery shows because they tend to trivialize faith and belief. They are afraid of the impact of mystery shows on children because they do not teach children how to think logically and rationally. However, among audience responses posted on websites for a number of Indonesian sinetron, there have been no protests against the representation of the supernatural in Misteri Gunung Merapi. This raises such questions as how is the supernatural communicated without controversy to Indonesian audiences which are 88 percent Muslim?3 Does 2Postmodern refers to postindustrialist era which is characterised by global economy and the domination of consumerism, fashion, advertising, and new leisure industries.
Postmodern culture is distinguished by “a cultural contradiction”, for example “between hedonism in the arena of consumption and the remaining legacy of ascetism in the labour process”. It tends to emphasize “social constructionism, and knowledge and belief as relative and dependent upon perspective”. Dawn Heinecken, The Warrior Women of Television: A Feminist Cultural Analysis of the.ew Female Body in Popular Media, Intersections in Communications and Culture; Vol.
7 (New York Peter Lang, 2003), 134. 3Geertz argued that he “was not optimistic about the ability of kyai to be cultural brokers between Indonesia and ‘modernity’ ”. Luken-Bulls has objected to this argument, suggesting that kyai have an important role in “imagining modernity that needs to be reworked” and “(re)inventing an Indonesian Islamic modernity”. Lukens-Bull, 'Two Sides of the Same Coin: Modernity and Tradition in Islamic Education in Indonesia,' Anthropology and Education 32, no. 3 (2001).Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦155the background of the scriptwriter, Abnar Romli4, influence the construction of supernatural in this sinetron?
As belief in supernatural power has been deeply rooted in Indonesian, especially Javanese culture, I begin my discussion of the Javanese and Islamic belief in the seen world and the unseen world. From these discussions I will explore the construction of supernatural power in Misteri Gunung Merapi, in what way it exploits such beliefs as part of the tradition and in what way its presentation of such beliefs as entertainment is influenced by global popular entertainment.Reinventing Tradition The world we experience around us is more than what we sense with our five natural senses. The world consists of both the natural and supernatural. The supernatural of this world is evidenced by miracles and unexplained phenomena. Many miracles can be explained away, but many cannot. Supernatural powers have always been explored by people around the globe and throughout history. Though magic practice seemed hidden, it was always available to those who sought it, and for many people, it was a profession: Chinese Kung Fu masters and Japanese.injas, European witches, Native American medicine men, Indonesian paranormals, and many others from all over the world.
Kuntowijoyo explained that traditional Javanese obeyed nature. Because technology, knowledge and organization were still poor, the Javanese saw nature as great and unreachable. Nature was considered as subject and humans were only objects. That is why Javanese culture was full of mitologi (myths), sakralisasi (consecratedness) and mistifikasi (viewing everything as mysterious). The Western Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th century, brought by the Dutch during the colonial era, had introduced rationality to the Indonesians. The idea of 4As I have stated in Chapter 4, Abnar Romli, the scriptwriter of this sinetron graduated from the Tegal Slawi Pesantren, in Central Java.Chapter VII:: Supernatural Power♦156rationality as modernization has influenced many Indonesians to overtly oppose myths, consecratedness and mystification. All myths, mystifying and sanctifying are also rejected jected by Islam.5 However, he noted that these traditions had not totally disappeared from the life of the Javanese.
6 In Java, ‘supernatural power’ refers to magical capabilities, such as forecasting, casting charms, flying in the sky (see Figure VII-2, VII from Misteri Gunung Merapi), moving from one place to another place in seconds, looking into the future, reading someone else’s mind, seeing beyond into different locations or places or situations (Figure VII VII-1), 1), destroying a huge stone or big tree just by using an empty hand, creating creating a fire or explosion without any medium, and similar feats. These special powers arouse awe because not everyone is able to access them.Figure VII-1: Mak Lampir's miraculous bowlFigure VII-2: Wak Bayau Flying5 S. Kuntowijoyo, 'Mitologisasi Dan Mistifikasi Dalam Pemikiran Jawa Myth and Sanctification in Javanese Thought,' mistifikasi-dalampemikiran-jawa/, jawa/, (accessed 16 February 2007). 6Kuntowijoyo noted that in 2000 the Gajah Mada University held a ruwatan (a ritual traditional event by performing a wayang puppet show with the story of Murwakala, with the purpose to live safely & happily) attended by the president and rectors from many universities. He also remarked on the continuing practices of many people going to holy graves for blessings, sanctification through the water used to wash a sacred carriage, sanctification of a holy holy person (such as wali and kyai), ), and belief in powers of special weapons.Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦157The Javanese also believe that supernatural rituals or magic, in the forms of ceremonies, offerings, praying, mantras, can influence and master the world. The magician can force the gods to obey him. People believe that supernatural power can manipulate nature.7 In Java there are many ceremonies to call up supernatural aids to meet various kinds of situations, such as midodareni (the night before a wedding), mitoni (7-months into a pregnancy), selapanan (35 days after the birth of the baby), tedak siten (the first time a baby learns to walk), and so on.
These ceremonies accompanied by special offerings8, are still held by people today and could indicate a belief in the existence of an unseen world and the power of the spirits as the inhabitants of that world. However, nowadays the offerings and ceremonies have lost much of their spiritual essence; they are still performed but only as traditional celebrations. It has been claimed that Javanese people believe that “there is no sharp division between organic and inorganic matter”.9 If a person, through a series of ascetic disciplines, can master the organic and the inorganic, he or she is then not bound by space and time. Javanese belief is based on animist traditions before Islam and Hinduism, when people worshipped the spirits of the natural world.
Although Islam is now the dominant religion in Java, for many Javanese the traditions of animism still continue to be practiced blended into Islam. In Ricklefs’ notion, “after at least a millennium of following Hindu and Buddhist mysticism, the Javanese aristocracy assimilated Islamic mysticism within their social, political, and religious life”.10 Javanese beliefs sit comfortably alongside 7Onghokham, Dari Soal Priyayi Sampai.yi Blorong: Refleksi Historis.usantara from Aritocrats to.yi Blorong: Historical Reflection of.usantara (Jakarta: Kompas, 2002), 177-8. 8When my mother celebrated my sister’s wedding party, she asked a respected person from our neighbourhood to lead the ceremony. He refused to do it because my mother objected to his suggestion to put a pair of banana trees in front of the door as an offering. However, when I asked about the meaning of offering, they were unable to explain, they just said that they just followed the tradition.9Benedict R. Anderson, Language and Power: Exploring Political Culture in Indonesia (New York: Cornell University 1990), 22.10M.C.
Ricklefs, The Seen and Unseen Worlds in Java,1726-1749: History, Literature and Islam in the Court of Pakubuwana Ii (St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1998), xx.Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦158many other beliefs, which can make it difficult to separate whether a particular belief is part of Islamic or Javanese tradition, or whether current beliefs are better understood as having evolved within Islamic or Javanese tradition. However, modernist Islamists tend to “divorce themselves from worldly concerns and belief in magic or supernatural powers”.11 Until today, belief in supernatural power is still strong in Indonesia. The website of ‘paranormal Indonesia’ (www.paranormal.or.id12) provides an electronic medium for any people who want to talk about supernatural powers. Another phenomenon which shows the strong belief in supernatural power is the following collection of comments by Indonesian paranormals on the eruption of Mount Merapi in 2006, which was broadcast by SBS Australia on 26 July 2006: HARRY SURATAL (Translation): “Wahyu is a kind of approval that we Javanese believe to be an anointment from the gods. Possessing wahyu means that if a region or a nation is led by someone who doesn't have it, then no matter how smart they may be, nature and the nation will not be at peace.” GEMBONG DANUNINGRAT (Translation): “Mystically, this disaster happened because my people in Java have forgotten their tradition, their old way of life. They have forgotten their Javanese spiritual tradition. For example, certain rituals have been abandoned.” RUSTANTO (Translation): “Yes, it’s certain the Goddess of the South Sea is furious.
Because the latest one, the current one, I'm not saying the 10th Sultan but the current one has been neglectful. Neglectful as I said yesterday of his lowly subjects, his long-suffering subjects. In short, when people no longer care, it means they are negligent.”11Evelyn Blackwood, 'Gender Transgression in Colonial and Postcolonial Indonesia,' The Journal of Asian Studies 64, no. 4 (2005): 860. 12The discussion on this website is about how to get supernatural power, how to be invulnerable to any sharp weapon, cure a sickness, be immortal, interpret a dream, understand the spirit world, etc. The comments in every discussion could be in a Javanese or an Islamic perspective.Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦159PERMADI (Translation): “Since SBY has become president there has been disaster after disaster, sickness after sickness.
They have all occurred in fact, if SBY had the desire to see, he would notice all natural elements are reacting. First, the element of WindIn Indonesia the wind has been whirling. There are storms, typhoons, hurricanes, cyclones and so on. Next Fire - there have been fires throughout Indonesia - factories, forests, homes, markets, malls. Fires are burning everywhere. Earth earthquakes, landslides are occurring everywhere. And then Water floods, tsunamis are also occurring everywhere.
But SBY isn't aware of these things. Maybe his heart knows.”13All of the comments point to the same idea that the tragedy occurred because so many Javanese and their leaders are now forgetting the tradition.
They are too absorbed by modernity and forget to give offerings to the spirits who rule Mount Merapi. These opinions demonstrate the legitimisation of political authority through the supernatural world that Onghokham has discussed.14 These comments suggest that some people still hold this belief and the tradition can sit comfortably with modernity.
However, conflict between tradition and modernity also appears, for example in scholars’ opinions on the mystical power of the ruler. The historian Onghokham wrote in his newspaper column15 that he felt upset by questions asked by Indonesian journalists about whether mystical power is involved in political authority, and by foreign journalists about how far Indonesian rulers were influenced by paranormals in taking political decisions. He also heard a rumour that the paranormal, Permadi, claimed that the power of Abdurrahman Wahid, when he still was in his presidency, was in his ring. As a historian, Onghokham13Bronwyn Adcock, 'Java's God Must be Crazy'. (Australia: SBS TV, 2006).14Onghokham, Dari Soal Priyayi Sampai Nyi Blorong: Refleksi Historis Nusantara from Aritocrats to Nyi Blorong: Historical Reflection of Nusantara, 181-7.15Onghokham is a distinguished historian and commentator. His columns, which appeared in the name?
newspaper, were compiled in a book and published in 2003 under the title Dari Soal Priyayi Sampai.yi Blorong (From Javanese Officials’ Problems to.yi Blorong).Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦160was often disturbed by the story of the mystical support of Nyai Rara Kidul or Sunan Gunung Lawu to the Javanese kings.16 As the supernatural is still part of Indonesian life, it is not surprising that supernatural entertainment is very popular in Indonesia.The Supernatural as Commodity The supernatural has been part of traditional performance in Indonesia. For example, Foley in her study of theatrical performances in West Java has found that the appeal of Sintren, Dabus, and Kuda Kepang17 are in the attraction of voyeurism and spectacle.
Audiences are attracted “to see beyond their everyday existence into the normally hidden world of the spirits who perform – gods and demons, wild and mythical animals, and the dead” and “since these spirits are endowed with super-human powers, the entranced performers often engage in activities beyond the limits of mere mortals”.18 Although these theatrical performances19 have gradually disappeared with the popularity of television, we can still find them in some rural areas in Indonesia. Supernatural phenomena have been part of global popular entertainment since cameras were used to portray hallucinatory images.
The lure of supernatural16Onghokham, Wahyu Yang Hilang, Negeri Yang Guncang the Lost Apocalypse, the Unstable Nation (Jakarta: Pusat Data dan Analisa Tempo, 2003), 2-3. 17Trance dances, involving the dancer and the mediator (pawang) to call the spirits, goddess in sintren, friends of the prophets or the spirits of Allah in Dabus, and the horse spirits in Kuda Kepang Kathy Foley, 'The Dancer and the Danced: Trance Dance and Theatrical Performance in West Java,' Asian Theatre Journal 2, no.
1 (1985): 36. 18 19Ibid.: 28.When I was still a child, I sometimes watched Kuda Kepang performance in my kampong area. The performers moved from kampong to kampong and tried to attract audiences with their gamelan orchestra. Once audiences gathered, they began to dance.
As the music beat, the pawang (spirit mediator) then did an offering to call a spirit to help the performer into trance. Once he was in trance, he could do something ‘magic’ such as eating glasses, opening a coconut using his teeth, and being hit by a whip without being hurt.Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦161films is in the ability of the camera to create suspense through its power to suggest “dramatic stimulus toward tension and fright”.20 Since about 2002, Indonesian television stations have broadcast ‘occult programs’. Ghosts became celebrities and almost every station has its own occult reality show. “The themes are usually gruesome events that seem to defy scientific explanation, but bear the authority of invited eye witnesses”.21 Occult reality shows such as Percaya.ggak Percaya (Believe or Not), Pemburu Hantu22 (Ghost Hunter), Dunia Lain (The Unseen World), Gentayangan (The Unstill Spirit), Ekspedisi Alam Gaib (Expedition to the Supernatural World) use audience participation to ‘prove’ the phenomena of the supernatural world. “There are ‘true life’ stories of mystical occurrences re-enacted by professional actors”.23 Budi Sutjiawan, Director of SCTV programming said that mystery programs were very popular and in 2003 they dominated the top 100 TV programs - either as reality shows or mystery comedies or mystery sinetron. There were at least 45 mystery sinetron every week broadcasted by Indonesian private TV stations.24 The popularity of mystery shows “may be interpreted as a reaction against the rigidity and formulaic nature of most broadcasting under the New Order”.25 The programs offer different settings and involve people who are neither stars nor government officials.
It may also be, as Alfadin, a TV director and scriptwriter, remarked that people are sick and tired of programs “which just portray wealth”.2620Curtis Harrington, 'Ghoulies and Ghosties,' The Quarterly of film radio and television 7, no. 2 (1952): 195.21Mark Hobart, 'Entertaining Illusions: How Indonesian Elites Imagine Reality TV Affects the Masses.,' Asian Journal of Communication 16, no. 4 (2006): 399.22“A team of idiosyncratically adorned, headscarf wearing, Muslim ustadz (religious teacher) each week visited a haunted house, where the perturbed owners reported on uncanny disturbances, after which, amid much drama and somersaulting, the ustadz chased down the ghosts, before finally capturing them in empty soft drink bottles.” Ibid. 23Ibid.24Irawati Diah Astuti, 'Tayangan Misteri Di Televisi: Saat Hantu Jadi Selebriti Screening Mystery on Television: When Ghost Becomes Celebrity,' Suara Pembaharuan Daily, 5 September 2003, pembaharuan.com/News/2003/09/07/Utama/ut01.htm.
25Hobart, 'Entertaining Illusions: How Indonesian Elites Imagine Reality TV Affects the Masses.,' 400.26Ibid.Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦162Imran has explained that the phenomenon of the ghost as commodity, which has been popular recently, is not new. However the difference is that ghosts and the supernatural world have been transformed from spiritual and personal experience into mass entertainment. Films with supernatural themes were popular in 1980s for the lower class segment of audiences. In 1990s, with the series, Si Manis Jembatan Ancol (The Beautiful Ghost from the Ancol Bridge), ghosts were not represented as horror figures; rather they were deconstructed as figures of fun or as objects of comedy.
The terrifying sensations accompanying the appearance of ghosts have become the object of fun. Ghosts have become more humane and involved with human affairs.27 Imran has also explained that the interesting phenomenon accompanying the popularity of ghosts in television is the broader appreciation from different segments of audiences, lower and middle classes or urban and rural dwellers. The difference, compared to the previous mystery entertainment, is in the way the stories present ghosts. Nowadays, mystery entertainment focuses more on the event rather than the problem. The supernatural is simplified as merely a terrifying creature and loses in meaning. By contrast, traditional belief in the supernatural could not be separated from the way of life of the people. The sacred place had a special sign, which lead them in the way they saw life and solved problems.
Recent mystery entertainment does not problematize the supernatural as a sacred moment but just exploits mysterious everyday events, for instance the place where a person committed suicide is considered to be mysterious. The supernatural has undergone a reduction in meaning.28 Muhammad has compared 1980s Indonesian mystery films with mystery sinetron. He concluded that there is a different motive for the presentation of the ‘soul of the dead’ in the 1980s films and in the sinetron. As I have mentioned previously, in the earlier mystery films the return of the dead body was to take27Ahda Imran, 'Masyarakat Dan Industri Hantu Society and Ghost Industry,' Pikiran Rakyat, 9 January 2003, (accessed 12 August 2006). 28Ibid.Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦163revenge and to exercise justice.
In contrast, in the more recent mystery sinetron, the visualization of the return of the dead body is to show the torment of the grave, with the moral of the show being the punishment for the sins they have committed during life.29 It has been suggested that modernity, which focused on rationality, has reached its highest point. People lack spirituality which was lost because of science and materialism. In the uncertainty of life caused by the modernist paradigm, people need different values which could bring a new enlightenment.
Entertainment with nuances of the supernatural might feed the hunger for spiritual life.30 However, the supernatural in entertainment is a typical product of postmodernism: it fails to explore the true meaning of spirituality. Fiske has argued that “postmodern culture is fragmented culture, the fragments come together for the occasion and are not organized into stable coherent groupings by an external principle”:31 For postmodernism the crucial part of the play of images is the sensuality of their surface. Postmodernism refuses a deep meaning that underlines the surface; like poststructuralism it refuses the difference between the signifier and the signified and thus avoids the debate of which is the more significant. In refusing depth, postmodernism is denying the power or even the existence of ideology, structure, and psychoanalysis as organizing structures beneath our experience of both society and culture.32In line with Fiske, Imran has argued that the popularity of mystery entertainments does not mean that the traditional belief in the supernatural has emerged and developed again to satisfy the people’s hunger for spirituality. 29Aulia A Muhammad, 'Berharap Pada Yang Bangkit Dari Kubur Expectation from the Dead Spirit,' Suara Merdeka 2004, (accessed 2 August 2006).30Imran, 'Masyarakat Dan Industri Hantu Society and Ghost Industry.'
; Muhammad, 'Berharap Pada Yang Bangkit Dari Kubur Expectation from the Dead Spirit.' 31John Fiske, 'Postmodernism and Television,' in Mass Media and Society, ed. James Curran and Michael Gurevitch (New York: St Martin's Press Inc., 1997), 56. 32Ibid., 57.Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦164The supernatural is metaphysical: that is why how it operates cannot be seen by ordinary human eyes, although the influence of these workings in the natural can be.
However, with the development of technology, especially in film making, imagined supernatural power can be visualized with the help of special effects. It can be concluded that the popularity of global supernatural entertainment generates the supernatural belief in the society, but it needs the help of special technical cinematic effects.The Construction of the Seen World and the Unseen World Misteri Gunung Merapi involves Javanese belief in the seen and unseen worlds, the world of humanity and the world of spirits. Although most people never see any spirits, still almost all of them believe that the world of spirits exists and only a few people with special powers can see and form relationships with them.
Van Der Kroef argued that the foundation of this belief is animism, a belief that “everything in nature has a soul which can leave its habitat to roam at will and influence men’s lives”. With the coming of other religions, other spirits have been added, such as Hindu celestial nymphs, widadari, and the Islamic spirits and devil, jin or setan.33 Traces of all these spirit worlds can be seen in this sinetron.Javanese Paganism In the Javanese concept there are the unseen worlds, the spirit worlds. As they are metaphysical, human eyes can not see these creatures of these worlds. The Javanese believe that there are two kinds of spirit: those which are born as spirits, and human beings who passed away and have transformed into spirits. However, in the Islamic concept, the soul of the dead body cannot be a spirit.
Once the person passed away, the soul rests and will awaken on the Day of Judgment after Doomsday.33Justus van der Kroef, 'Dualism and Symbolic Antithesis in Indonesian Society,' American Anthropologist 56, no. 5 (1954).Chapter VII: Supernatural Power♦165Many Javanese people believe in the existence of several supernatural creatures such as roh leluhur, dhanhyang, dhemit, tuyul, lelembut, and memedi.34Most spirits are considered as good and helpful for human beings. People believe that the roh leluhur look after their descendants. They believe that a dhanhyang is a protector spirit. People often come to the places where dhemit are believed to live for help when they get problems such as being sick, infertile, poor, or lonely.
They also believe in the existence of bad spirits such as lelembut and memedi35 because they often frighten humans. Many people believe that there are seven worlds, and every world is inhabited by different creatures. Of the seven, it is only the human world which has the sun and is inhabited by humans, animals and all living beings.
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They believe that the inhabitants of the other worlds only have light as their bodies: these are supernatural creatures because human beings cannot see their bodily form. The six supernatural worlds are merkayangan (which is similar to the human world but more modern), siluman (a watery area such as a lake or sea), kajiman (the hot mountainous area), demit (the green and cool mountainous area) and two worlds for the good spirits.36 People often offer the spirits food, drinks, flowers, money, cigarettes, and clothes to keep away their disturbance. They also create obstacles to prevent the spirits from bothering them by putting out some overripe fruits or smelly aroma. Some spirits are considered helpful because people can come to them for wealth and success.
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