BANYUWANGI – Banyuwangi continues to preserve and develop the traditions of its people. One of the things that continues to be repeated is the Seblang Baungan ritual, rituals of the original Using tribe in Bakungan Village, Glagah District, which was held last night (10/9) at Bakungan Village Hall.
Seblang Bakungan is a dance performed by an old woman who is possessed by a spirit or unconscious. This year, Supani danced (66). Supani is an old woman of Seblang descent who has been dancing the seblang ritual for four consecutive years. He is also a descendant of Seblang Misna who has retired from Seblang 14 last year.
In the ritual, after reading the mantra and prayer, a moment later Seblang was immediately possessed by an unconscious spirit and danced to the rhythm of the gending being sung. There are gendings that are sung to accompany the seblang dancers 13 geing, including Seblang Lukinto, Podo Nonton, Ugo-ugo and Ivory Flower.
This is the second year that the Seblang Bakungan ritual has been included on the Banyuwangi Festival agenda 2017. The Banyuwangi Regency Government's efforts to promote local traditions in the Banyuwangi Festival are a form of concern for the preservation of regional arts and culture.
“We want Banyuwangi art and culture to continue to exist and get a stage to be shown to a wide audience,”said the Regent of Banyuwangi, Abdullah Azwar Anas when opening this festival facetime.
The purpose of the Seblang Bakungan tradition, said Anas, is to thank God and ask that all the villagers be given peace, peace, security and convenience in obtaining halal sustenance and being kept away from all dangers.
Before Seblang was played, begins with a tumpengan with residents along the road to Bakungan which begins after maghrib. Previously, residents prayed maghrib and hajat prayers at the village mosque. Then continued the oncor parade (obor) carried around the village (ider bumi).
Then under the dim flames of the torch, all along Bakungan street is filled with pecel pithik tumpeng. While spreading mats, everyone sits down to participate in the ritual of eating together as one of the Seblang Bakungan rituals. The food provided is equipped with special side dishes such as pithik pecel and fresh vegetables as a complement. After the echo of the prayer that was read by the elders from the mosque in the local village, people started eating tumpeng together.
This tradition, which is usually carried out exactly a week after the celebration of Eid al-Adha, is flooded with visitors. Some of the places used as parking pockets were full.
The community increasingly packed along the Bakungan road when Seblang began to be possessed and started its rituals. Not only local residents and domestic tourists were seen, but also foreigners.
One of them is Robert Jones, foreign tourists from Australia. Robert, who came to Banyuwangi alone, actually only intended to climb Mount Ijen that night. But when I found out that Banyuwangi had various Banyuwangi Festival agendas, he did not want to miss the opportunity.
“While here, so there are a few things I can explore. And it turns out to be extraordinarily unique, some are even possessed by spirits too,” said Robert who never stopped snapping his camera. (banyuwangikab.go.id)
Here's the video : [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/embed?listType=playlist&list=PLNpn4fe-erp90V4SVVZOGD8rUnnnDXw7R[/embedyt]
