Bengkulu
is a beautiful city in sumatera. It is a province but we realize that bengkulu
is a growing province. Can I say why ? Bencause, beside has many great tourism
places Bengkulu has also amazing tradition. It we called that as Tabot.
Tabot
is a part of Bengkulu people tradition to memorize the tragical event of the
death of the grandson of the prophet Muhammad PBUH, Husein bin Ali Bin Abi
Thalib, in the battle versus the troop of ‘Ubaidillah bin Zain in Karbala,
Iraq, on 10 Muharam. This ritual is held for about 10 days, every Muharram
first to tenth. Therefore, at the beginning, the core of the ritual Tabot is to
memorize the attempt of a Syi‘ah leader and his followers in collecting the
part of Husein‘s cutting body, to accompany the procession and to burry him in
savannah of Karbala.
The
word of Tabot is derived from an Arabic word tabut, which literally means
“wooden box” or “case”. In Quran the word of Tabot is known as a case
containing the Book of Taurat. Israeli at that time believed that they would
get the virtuous if the Tabot appeared in the hand of their leader. Contrarily,
they would get disaster if the staff loosed.
There
is no written proof since the ritual of Tabot began to be known in Bengkulu.
However, it is strongly assumed that the tradition which start from the mourn
ritual of Syi‘ism follower was brought by the skilled laborers building
Marlborought Fort in Bengkulu. The skilled laborers were taken here by England from
Madras and Bengali, south of India who were also the follower of Syi‘ah.
The
workers, who are appropriate with Bengkulu People‘s way of life, led by Imam
Senggolo or Syekh Burhanuddin, decided to live and build a new settlement
called Berkas, currently known as Kelurahan Tengah Padang. The tradition coming
from Madras and Bengali was bequeathed to their descendant who has made
assimilation with original Bengkulu people and produce the descendant known as
Sipai people.
The
mourn tradition taken from the country made assimilation and acculturation with
the Bengkulu people culture, and then was bequeathed and institutionalized
become what then is known as Tabot ritual. This Tabot ritual is more and more
extent from Bengkulu to Painan, Padang, Pariaman, Maninjau, Pidie, Banda Aceh,
Meulaboh, and Singkil. But furtherly the Tabot ritual activities disappeared in
many places. Finally, it was just remained in two places, in Bengkulu known as
Tabot and in Pariaman Sumbar known as
Tabuik. Both is similar, but the way of performing is rather different.
If
Tabot ritual (Tabuik) is used by Syi‘ah people at the beginning to memorize the
death of Husein bin Ali bin Abi Thalib, the ritual is performed only for the
duty of family to fulfill the message of their forefathers since the people of
Sipai free from the effect of the doctrines of Syi‘ah. Recently, since a recent
decade, besides performing the message of forefathers, this ritual is also
meant as the participation of Sipai people in forming and developing local
culture of Bengkulu.
The
Process of Throwing Tabot (Tabuik) To The Sea (Pariaman, West Sumatra). The
socio-cultural condition of people seem to be also the reason of appearing the
difference in the way of performing the Tabot ritual. In Bengkulu, for
instance, the number of Tabot is 17 which referes to the number of person in
earlier family performing Tabot; but in Pariaman is only two sorts of Tabot
(Tabuik), tabuik Subarang and Tabuik Pasa. The place of throwing Tabot (Tabuik)
is different between both, Bengkulu and Pariaman. At the beginning, Tabot of
Bengkulu is thrown in marsh located at around the place Imam Senggolo or Syekh
Burhanuddin is burried.
Recently,
a lot of criticism from various society elements due to the implementation of
the Tabot ceremony. The very basic criticism is the changing of the Tabot
ceremony function from the ritual activity that has a religious nuance to
become simply a cultural festival. This likely because of fact that people
performing the Tabot ceremony are non-Syiah. Well, that is all about Tabot as a
great and amazing tradition in Bengkulu my beautiful city. See you and have a
good day…
To:
