BADEWA

Disease Healing Ritual of Suku Dayak Ngaju Bakumpai
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BADEWA, is one of the typical rituals of Dayak Ngaju Bakumpai Tribe which is a sub of Dayak Ngaju Tribe . The ceremony aims to heal the sick in , or in banjar languaged known as Batatamba.

Badewa ritual grown and developed before Islam entered the Barito Kuala district. Starting from a family that is still relatively of Bakumpai tibe, and they trust and believe in the power of Occult spirits.

With the simplicity of life and low health knowledge , at one time one of the family getting sick. The parents sought the herbs used as medicine. It is a prevalence that already being done by their ancestors before. Although herbs have been used, but the family getting sick never healed.

Eventually they surrender to the Almighty, who was then called the Gods. With a variety of spells, the father summoned the spirits of their ancestors are thought to have supernatural powers. Besides asked to come as an intermediary liaison with the Gods, a healthy family member then straight possessed by supernatural spirits.

Starting then, if there are families who are sick and can not be cured with herbs, Badewa ceremony performed as an alternative treatment as usual Animist believers. In conducting the worship of the gods, they prepared parapen / incense, sticky oil, Virgin nut, yellow rice, old coconut, young coconut, sugar water and piduduk (rice, brown sugar, egg and coconut).

To speed up the arrival of supernatural spirits, needed a means of supporting form of a set of gamelan. The ceremony is usually performed by a puppeteer or a reader spell, one Padewa that will be possessed, five gamelan musicians and two backup to replace the mastermind and padewa.

Badewa ceremony can take place anywhere either an open or a closed place. But lately Badewa cultural ceremony began hard to find anymore.