PIKIRAN RAKYAT - The Chinese Etnic in Singkawang, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, have special tradition to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year or Imlek. Like the celebration in other Chinese communities around the world, Cap Go Meh, or the 15th-day festival of Chinese New Year, is also celebrated with Barongsai, lanterns, and traditional art shows in Singkawang. But, they have one extra ritual for the festival, Tatung Singkawang.

They would showcase the Tatung or Louya as a medium for a ritual to expel bad omens. The ritual is named Tatung Singkawang and is practiced by the locals as the closing ceremony of the Cap Go Meh festival.

Tatung is a number of performers who are dressed up to perform in a ritual. The ritual itself is carried out to repel bad omens, diseases, and evil spirits. The performers, then, stab their limbs to display their supernatural power.

The local shaman chants a specific spell to expel every evil spirit and goes into trance while performing the ritual with other Tatung. The locals believe the ritual would attract good spirits to gather around with them.

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The spirits that are summoned are believed to be able to ward off evil deeds that would disturb the harmony of community life.

Those spirits are the characters in Chinese legends, such as warlords, magistrates, letters, princes, repentant whores, and other saints.

The summoned spirits can possess anyone, depending on whether the Tatung cast fulfills the requirements in the stages determined by the shaman.

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The Tatung are required to fast for three days before the day of the celebration which means that they are in a state of purity before the celebration. While the ritual goes on, the spectacles, then, pray for good fortune, harvest time, and health.

The tradition started when the first settler of Chinese Ethnic arrived in West Kalimantan. They established a small village to settle in the region. One day, the myths narrated, the village was befallen by a disease.

They reached for help from a local shaman. The shaman, then, performed some rituals that coincided with the 15th day of the Lunar New Year. The ritual was then conserved by the locals as Tatung Singkawang and is performed every Cap Go Meh.***