Simon Soon
In 1864, the Ashura celebrations in Singapore was carried out with the usual carnivalesque fan-fare. Described by the newspaper as a festivity observed by the ‘lower classes’, the newspaper noted with a tone of matter of factly resignation that the annual frenzied proceeding, replete with ‘the din of tom-tom’ was likely to test the patience of ‘the more quietly disposed portion of the [colonial settlement] community’.
Typically taking the form of a procession, known as the tabut, the parade consisted of celebrants organised into competing groups that attempted to outdo each other in the building of a temporary tower effigies that represented the mobile graves of Husayn and Hassan, two principal matyrs of prophetic descent, around which the Ashura commemorative ritual revolves around. On this particular year, the celebrations ended in social unrest, giving the British reason to strike out against the celebration by issuing a ban. Newspaper reportage, which was the main historical source for this incident, naturally offered an umsympathetic account of what ensued.
An alternative narrative to the 1864 incident is discovered in a formerly misattributed syair, which is a popular form of Malay metrical poem that was widely used for storytelling. Little is known about the author who simply professed himself to be a fakir, or ‘holy man’, who came from Bengkulu and worked as an assistant to a Sheikh Muhammad, of Bengali descent. He also noted that in composing the syair, he received the help of a a religious scholar Muhammad Hassan. In Mister Ali’s description, a feature of the festivity became gradually apparent through poetic reinforcement. Though he spoke of the competing teams as organised into battallions, the martial tone was conveyed through a number of theatrical images.
One team fancied themselves as the protagonist of a widely popular folktale Indra Bangsawan.
Adalah pula suatu pahlawan
Gagah berani tiada terlawan
Jika bagai Indra Bangsawan
Sukar menentang panglima artawan
And there was a warrior
Strong, brave and unbeatable
Even an Indra Bangsawan
Would find it hard to fight the wealthy commander
The second team divided themselves up into three boats and moved to the beat of the drum and the melody of the violin.
Pasukan kedua dengarkan tuan
Ikatan perangnya bernama sampan
Tiga buah pelang diperbuatkan
Tembur biola ia palukan
Interestingly, each boat comprised of members who came from different parts of the Malay world. The first boat was from Penang and we learned that the leader who was also the violin player was of Burmese origin.
Suku Pulau Pinang sampan pertama
Mereka menari sangat utama
Biola digesek orang Burma
Ia nan juga jadi panglima
The second boat were South Asians, ‘shining black like starling birds’.
Lancang kedua kumpulan Kling
Hitam berkilat bagai japarling
Cerdik mereka bagaikan maling
Menentang musuh tiada berpaling
While the third boat carried a crew from Bengkulu.
Dengarkan pula suatu peri
Lancang yang akhir sangat bahari
Gendang serunai rebab nafiri Drum,
Dipalu mereka tiada terperi
In another team, we learned that a court singer sang to the accompaniment of of a bamboo flute, while a siamese played the violin. The leader was observed to be of mixed descent, and directed a group of dancers to switch from singing in Malay to Bengali.
NOTES
David Lunn & Julia Byl (2017) ‘One story ends and another begins’, Indonesia and the Malay World, 45:133, 391-420, DOI: 10.1080/13639811.2017.1374004
Julia Byl, Raja Iskandar bin Raja Halid, David Lunn & Jenny McCallum (2017) The SyairTabut of Encik Ali, Indonesia and the Malay World, 45:133, 424-425, DOI:
10.1080/13639811.2017.1374012
