How People Get Rich Quickly, Scientists Reveal the Tuyul Phenomenon in Indonesia

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The ghosts of the archipelago have attracted the attention of many people, one of which is American anthropologist Clifford Geertz. In 1952, he came all the way from his Harvard University campus to conduct research on Javanese culture, one of which discussed tuyul

At that time, he conducted research and 'integrated' with people's lives to reveal further descriptions of tuyul. At his research location, namely Mojokuto, Kediri, Geertz found 3 people who kept tuyul to increase wealth. They are butchers, women textile traders, and traders who have the title of Haji.

The three of them collaborated by visiting several sacred Hindu places.

“[Tempat itu adalah] “Borobudur in the West, Penataran in the South, Bongkeng in the East and the tomb of Sunan Giri in North Gresik,” wrote Geertz in research that would later be published in a book entitled Javanese Religion: Abangan, Santri, Priyayi in Javanese Culture (1976).

When they visited these places, said Geertz, they made agreements with spirits. If the spirit gives tuyul, then in return they will kill people as an offering to the spirit.

Along the way, the tuyul keepers actually entered into an agreement. Take for example a merchant with the title of Haji who lives in the east of the city. He is known to have obtained tuyul through an agreement with a spirit.

In return, every year he must kill four people from various professions and ages so that the agreement with the tuyul does not disappear. Of course, if the agreement ends, the person himself will lose.

“He looked for victims everywhere, even looking for them in Mecca,” wrote Geertz.

Based on the observations of these three people, Geertz mentioned several characteristics of tuyul keepers, including:

1. Get rich or become rich suddenly
2. Miser
3. Often uses second-hand clothes
4. Often bathed in the river with the poor coolies
5. Always eat poor people's food, such as corn and cassava, rather than rice.

These five characteristics are of course to trick people into thinking they don't have money, even though their house is always full of gold bullion.

Apart from that, from a social perspective, tuyul keepers also often commit deviations. They often talk loudly and aggressively. On the other hand, they lack manners, dress carelessly, and always have unusual habits in sharing their thoughts. However, a tuyul keeper will experience difficulties when he dies. He would have a slow and difficult death.

Then, before he died, his breathing became short, accompanied by prolonged pain and high fever. In essence, in the process of dying, everything goes very slowly and tortuously.

Still, Geertz said, such a death process is “a fairly small price to pay.” Because, during their lifetime, the tuyul keeper was satisfied with the wealth obtained from the stolen goods.

Apart from the tuyul, Geertz also observed three other ghosts in the masterpiece The Religion of Java, including memedi, lecepat, and demit. Geertz said, all the spirits in his observations were a series of answers to questions that emerged from the imagination.

“The world of spirits is a social world that is transformed symbolically,” he said.

This can happen because the explanation of spirits can provide a broader and more general meaning than just an ordinary explanation. At this point, “the triumph of culture over nature and the superiority of humans over nonhumans is depicted.” However, if someone becomes more refined in the Javanese pattern, it is unlikely that person will not associate it with spirits.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(mfa/mfa)