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Abomoh (Jawi: توء بوموه) is a Malayshaman and traditional medicine practitioner.[1] The term is used mainly inMalaysia and parts ofSumatra, whereas mostIndonesians use the worddukun. It is often mistranslated into English asmedicine man orwitch doctor. In colloquial usage, the termbomoh is often interchangeable with another type of shaman or dukun, thepawang, but they generally serve different functions. Thebomoh is primarily a healer, herbalist, geomancer, and sorcerer. Thepawang on the other hand usually specialises in rituals involving weather, nature, animals, and a good harvest. Their roles do overlap, however, and both claim to act as intermediaries for the spirits and gods.
The wordbomoh (at times spelledbomo orbomor) has been in common usage since at least classical times. It is aloan of theThai termmaw ormohr (Thai:หมอ;RTGS: Mo, "doctor"). This word can mean either doctor or sorcerer, as in terms likemawpii (หมอผี;Mo Phi, "spirit doctor") andmawduu (หมอดู;Mo du, "fortune-teller"). Prior to the later introduction of the English-derived "doktor" or the Arabic word "tabib", thebomoh served as healers and physicians in Malay society. Thai shamans orbomoh Siam are traditionally held in high regard in Malaysia. Malay texts such as the Hikayat Aceh (1600-1625) record the wordbomoh simply asmo ormoh.[2]
Shamanism inSoutheast Asia can be traced to the region's prehistoric tribal people. Thebomoh's original role was that of a healer[3] and their expertise was first and foremost an in-depth knowledge of medicinal herbs andtajul muluk or Malay geomancy. This was supplemented bySanskritmantera (mantra) owing to the ancientHindu-Buddhist influence in the region. Before European colonisation,bomoh - along withBuddhist monks and Hindu rishis - were often exempt from paying taxes, due to the fact that many of them had few material belongings.
Thebomoh's craft retained large animist and Hindu elements from before the Malays' embrace of Islam even after Islam became dominant, but the acceptance of bomoh in Malay society greatly decreased during theIslamization in the 1970s and 80s.Bomoh were then seen as deviating from Islam because of their invocation ofhantu anddewa-dewi and the potentially harmful black magic they were accused of practicing. This period saw a drastic decline in traditional herbalism, and many fraudulent practitioners filled the void. As a result,bomoh are today looked at with suspicion even though they are still commonly consulted for personal reasons. Manybomoh have adapted their practice in the context of modern Islam, such as reciting verses of the Quran or invoking the names of Allah, but this is viewed as shallow by conservative shamans.
Malay metaphysical theory holds that the body, and in fact the universe itself, is made up of the fourclassical elements of fire, water, earth, and wind. Illnesses are often said to be caused by an imbalance of these elements. To restore this balance, patients are advised to bathe in cool water to which lime juice is added. Thebomoh also works with rituals and incantations, calledjampi.[4]
Somebomoh usecemeteries to summon spirits to fulfill requests by supplicants, while others only deal with a single spirit. It is said that sometimes thebomoh selects the spirit, while other times, it is the spirit who selects thebomoh. Spirits are said to be able to heal the sick, seek missing persons or even investigate reasons for bad luck. Spirits can also be used to attack people, cause sickness and misery and many other bad things.Bomoh who have a particular religion may incorporate their religious practices into their craft.
Traditionally, healing rituals of somebomoh involved music and dance, such as themain puteri ormain peteri (a trance-dance fromKelantan andTerengganu often connected tomak yong), themain lukah (a fisherman's dance fromPahang), and themain saba (which re-enacts the heavenly princesses [puteri kayangan] dancing around a saba tree). The music is played by an assistant called thetuk minduk.
In 2014, shortly after the disappearance ofMalaysia Airlines Flight 370, Dato Mahaguru Ibrahim Mat Zin, who proclaimed himself as theRaja Bomoh (King ofBomoh) with his male assistant, appeared in public offering to locate the missing plane by conducting a series of rituals at theKuala Lumpur International Airport.[5] The ritual involved using a pair ofbamboo binoculars to view the inside of a traditional fish trap.[6] Ibrahim claimed that the plane was suspended in the air amongst three locations which were thePhilippines,South China Sea and on an unidentified country and it was hidden by theorang-orang bunian ("the Bunian", a supernatural race resembling humans, akin to elves in Malay legend).[7][8] Beside the ritual, Ibrahim Mat Zin also stated that 100,000seni gayong martial artists had performed prayers for the missing plane and its passengers.[7]
A few days later he and his four assistants, three males and one female came to KLIA, bringing along a water gourd, holyZamzam water fromMecca, a small suratYa Sin book and several other items to conduct another ritual.[7][9] This time, Ibrahim Mat Zin used twococonuts and knocked them against each other with his two bare hands while shoutingtakbir.[10][11] Then, his three male assistants sat on the "magic carpet" and using a number of "magical artifacts" such as a walking stick, a basket and two coconuts, and thus started the infamous scene, while local and international photographers took a few shots. Ibrahim Mat Zin claimed that the purpose of the ritual is to weaken the spirits' hold on the plane.[citation needed]
The incidents drew international attention, eventually becoming the subject of an online game application calledBomoh: Rescue Run developed by a company namedTriapps, which surpassed more than 100,000 downloads inGoogle Play.[12]Minister for Youth and SportsKhairy Jamaluddin, who was not amused by the activities of thebomoh, tweeted in regards to the incident: "Somebody should arrest those magic carpet bomohs. Memalukan (humiliating)". He even resorted to contactingJamil Khir, the Minister for Islamic Affairs, to deal with the bomoh.[13] Meanwhile, theMalaysian Department of Islamic Advancement had issued afatwa that Ibrahim Mat Zin's methods contradict Islamic teachings.[14] Some netizens had also pointed out the similarities of the antics of thebomoh with a scene in theP. Ramlee movieLaksamana Do Re Mi where the main characters ride on a flying mat, while the bamboo binoculars session once held by Ibrahim Mat Zin to locate the missing plane mimic Re's magic single vision binocular in the movie.[13]
In 2017, the very sameBomoh from the flight MH370 ritual conducted a ritual in what he perceived to protect Malaysia from North Korea in wake of the strained tensions between the two nations.[15]
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