Main Puteri

Main Puteri is an indigenous Kelantanese healing ceremony in which the bomoh (traditional medicine-man), the sick individual and other participants become spirit-medium through whom puteri (spirits) are able to enact a permainan ('play'). It has been successfully used as a psychotherapy for depression. The bomoh assisted by his minduk (master of spirits) and a troupe of musicians, is able to provide a conceptual framework around which the sick individual can organize his vague, mysterious and chaotic symptoms so that they become comprehensible and orderly. At the same time the bomoh is able to draw the sick individual out of his state of morbid self-absorption and heighten his feelings of self-worth. The involvement of his family, relatives and friends tends to enhance group solidarity and reintegrate the sick individual into his immediate social group. Background Traditional Malay medicine-men (bomoh) are conveniently divided into two broad categories based on whether or not, during healing, they enter into a state of altered consciousness. Among those who enter trance are the bomoh puteri, and bomoh bagih. The first of these, the true Malay shaman, performs the most elaborate of Malay healing rituals--main puteri, which in addition to trance also involves music, dance and acting. Main Puteri Main puteri performances involve two principal functionaries, the bomoh puteri and the tok minduk. A small orchestra, consisting of the same instruments used in mak yong, accompanies them. While the bomoh puteri becomes the placing for spirits during a seance, the tok minduk, who plays the three-stringed rebab, operates as the interrogator. Main puteri is performed over durations of one to three nights to cure illnessess resulting from possession by spirits (hantu, jembalang), the loss or weakening of the "spirit" or soul substance (semangat), imbalance in the elements within the body, as well as those resulting from something known "angin" or wind, a term variously explained as including suppressed or unfulfilled desires. More elaborate main puteri performances combine this genre with mak yong. Belian In several parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, a medium, whether male or female, is referred to as belian, balian, or walian. The words balian, walian and variants derive from a root word meaning "to return" (bali, wali, etc). This suggests the return of the spirits to a place or person. In the latter situation In the latter situation, trance may result. Belian is also the name of a trance healing ritual. Suggested reading: 'Panggung Inu: Essays on Traditional Malay Theatre' by Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof [http://www.selectbooks.com.sg/getTitle.cfm?SBNum=36715]