Notional Treasures Hidden in Oral Traditions

The craft of poetry can draw upon the power of age-old incantation—language that strikes at the essence of where we come from, who we are, and who we want to become.

My relationship with poetry has always been mercurial, fluctuating, and ambivalent. I don’t indulge in poetry as religiously as I do in essays, personal stories, and any other form of literary non-fiction. Poetry finds me occasionally, most of the time by chance. I first encountered the works of Romanian poet, Paul Celan when I was offered to edit a collection of his poems that were being translated into Malay. It required persuasion and a long, intense reading with the translator for me to be able to appreciate the depth of the imagery and language of the great holocaust poet.

It could be the tenor of the contemporary poetry I’ve encountered so far that fails to capture me—they tend to be somewhat superficial, riddled with cliches, and at times didactic. They come and go without leaving a significant impression. It could also be that I was trained as a social scientist, where the world was presented to me as a rational, logical, and objective entity. In the hands of both worlds, I found that language has lost its magic. What, then, does poetry have to offer in a disenchanted world?

As part of my work as a writer looking at the political dynamic and power relations between the state and art and cultural communities in rural Southeast Asia, I embarked on a research project in Kelantan, composing stories on Kelantanese traditional performing arts—mak yong, wayang kulit, menora, dikir barat, and the age-old healing ritual of main puteri. For more than five years, I found myself enmeshed in both the private and public life of a community who refers to themselves as orang mene/permainan or those who are involved in the traditional Kelantanese performance scene.

For the most part, it was an act of balik kampung (returning home), paying homage to my lineage, and understanding the land from the perspective of a writer who had distanced himself from his home state for almost two decades. Looking at the less visible margin of Kelantan, I was interested to understand how traditional music and ritual performances that trace their roots to various civilisations such as Islam and Hindu-Buddhism, have evolved as part of Kelantanese life. What makes these traditions so resilient amidst the growing religious conservatism in the state of Kelantan?

Encountering Jampi

Throughout my research, the traditional performing arts offered more than just music, dance, intricate costumes, and kenduri (ritual offerings) but also poetry or rather “spoken poetry” manifesting itself in the form of doa, mantra, incantations, and jampi. They are recited in archaic Kelantanese Malay language at the start and end of ceremonies such as coming of age, graduation, as well as healing ritual and passed down orally through generations with many modifications. It wasn’t until I met a tok puteri (shaman) that I understood how language and storytelling have been integral to the people in the Southeast Asian region, not only for entertainment, but also to heal psychological illness.

*This article is an excerpt. Read the full article in Penang Monthly, December 2023 issue (Free with regisration).