Discussing Ramadan with Ika in Seminyak Bali

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country. Bali is predominantly Hindu and the ceremonies are seen publicly in streets all over the island.

For Muslims now is the month of Ramadan which I didn’t take much notice of last year. Since I have been seeing Ika who is a Muslim from Central Java I have been more aware of the significance of this time of year and took the opportunity to ask a few questions about the occasion.

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Nick: Ika I want to learn more about Ramadan. Is Ramadan the same time every year?

Ika: No. In Muslim we have 11 months.

Nick: An 11 month calendar?

Ika: Yes.

Nick: So when we get to the end of this year December 31st 2004 what year will it be in the Muslim calendar the day after?

Ika: 1425.

Nick: So Ramadan is the 11th month of the Muslim calendar. I know you are fasting but what is the meaning of Ramadan?

Ika: We get close to God. We look at the things we’ve done in the past year. You know we have passion and we have to control it.

Nick: Controlling passion. Is it also something to do with when Mohammad died and went to heaven, something like that?

Ika: No

Nick: When you were a kid in Java what did you do on Ramadan?

Ika: The same.

Nick: The same as what, I don’t know what you do?

Ika: We are fasting too but for a little kid they can eat at 12 noon and after this they can stop eating and wait till the adults are eating together when sunset comes. Maybe when they get strong enough the 1st day they eat at 12 noon, the next day 1pm, the next day 2pm until they are getting used to it.

Nick: So adults cannot eat between 4.28am and 6.15pm. For young kids the first time they eat is 12 midday and the next day 1pm? I don’t understand.

Ika: So they stay strong. For the first Ramadan little kids cannot go all day till sunset without eating.

Nick: Yeah but I don’t see why as they get older they need to eat at 2pm, 3pm, then again at 6.15pm it doesn’t make sense.

Ika: Why, because little kids still need to learn about that.

Nick: So you get to eat twice in 3 hours?

Ika: Yeah that’s what happens.

Nick: What would your mother cook for you?

Ika: In 3am?

Nick: Yes at 3am.

Ika: I don’t know anything, the same as usual.

Nick: Nasi campur (mixed rice)?

Ika: Yes.

Nick: What about in the malam (night time)?

Ika: My mother she makes special sweet things like ‘es campur’ (a sweet drink with gelatin bits, ice, milk, chocolate sauce etc.), cola, ‘kurma’ a special fruit from Arab. I don’t know why its special but we eat it during Ramadan. It is sweet, tastes a bit like brown sugar. When I first had it I didn’t like it. Now I still don’t really like it but I like it a little bit.

Nick: So can you eat the same foods during Ramadan as you eat during the rest of the year?

Ika: Yes.

Nick: In your house in Java do you say prayers in the house or do you go to the mosque (masjid)?

Ika: No we pray just like normal, 5 times a day.

Nick: So no special praying in the mosque?

Ika: It happens after sunset maybe like 7 or 8pm. We go to the mosque and pray together. We also make the special prayer, either 13 or 21 times a day.

Nick: How does that work?

Ika: We make the special prayer before and after the main ones. We make the main prayer 5 times a day and after sunset, we call ‘isat’ time, we pray like 13 or 21 times.

Nick: In the mosque?

Ika: Yes but we do it only in Ramadan.

Nick: Do you still go to the mosque on Friday?

Ika: Friday, for men they have to go. Not for women.

Nick: Women don’t have to?

Ika: No.

Nick: When you go to the mosque to do your special prayer you do this everyday yeah?

Ika: Everyday during Ramadan.

Nick: Do the men sit with the women or are they separate?

Ika: Separate.

Nick: Why is that?

Ika: Um. Before you are going you have to clean yourself with water.

Nick: What parts of your body do you wash?

Ika: First hands and then mouth, and then nose and then face. Then arms and ears and scalp and your feet up to your ankles.

Nick: How long does it take to wash all those places?

Ika: Depends on the person.

Nick: How long does it take you?

Ika: Two minutes.

Nick: Do you use soap or just water?

Ika: Just water.

Nick: The place where you wash, because I have never been to a mosque, is it inside the mosque?

Ika: Yes but you can do it at home too. We don’t have to go to the mosque if we pray 5 times.

Nick: Do you do the cleaning ritual before you pray the 5 times?

Ika: Yes. We pray 5 times and we clean 5 times.

Nick: In Bali is it hard for you participate in Ramadan?

Ika: No its easy, but in Java you can feel it more. You think ‘this is Ramadan’ because everyone is fasting as most of the people are Muslims and in the mosque we always hear someone reading the Koran or before time to pray people are calling people, its time for us to pray. So 5 times in the mosque people always call people to pray with the Arabic language. In the nighttime after we are doing the 13 or 21 times praying people are reading the Koran until late.

Nick: They go to their house and read the Koran?

Ika: No in the mosque. You can read at home too but people like to read in the mosque and people in my place they give something for the people reading the Koran. Maybe they pray and make a change and have a snack.

Nick: Do you think most of the people in your town really believe in Islam or do they just follow it because everyone else is?

Ika: Its like a custom too so we do it since we are children and parents teach us.

Nick: Yeah I think its like in Christian some people follow it because their parents teach them and some people believe in it. I met this older man who was Balinese, Ida Bagus Puspa Arthawa, a member of the Brahmana (priest ) caste and he told me ‘we don’t really know if people believe in the religion or not, but the banjar says to them they have to go to the ceremonies’. So they have no choice, they have to go but he says ‘we don’t know if they follow it or not’.

Ika: I like when people say and tell the truth, what they think.

Nick: Did you ever hear anyone who was from your home town Semarang say ‘I don’t believe in Islam and I don’t want to follow Ramadan’?

Ika: I don’t know but I have friends and sometimes we discuss about why we must do like this and we don’t know why and we don’t know the reason so we have our own opinions. Sometimes people not agree, it depends on the person.

Nick: For me coming from the outside its really interesting because when you go to the Middle East, places like Isreal or Saudi Arabia, that’s where the religions (Jewdaism, Christianity, Islam) started, so obviously they believe in them. In Indonesia before those religions came here you already had your local religions. We call it ‘animist’. Animist religions. Like here in Bali they take the Hindu religion and put it on top of the animist beliefs and the Agama Hindu here in Indonesia is different from the version of the Hindu religion practiced in India. I think that is the same for Islam too, because you still have the old beliefs like ‘black magic’ and local traditions so I’m wondering do the people really believe in the old traditions that are from here or do they believe in this new one that’s from somewhere else.

Ika: Its like in Java we still have the custom from a long time ago, from grandma and grandma and grandma. They have their own belief. This thing has magic or something, we pray, we give the offering. Not exactly the same as Hindu, I mean they can give the offerings whenever they like. In Java when someone wants to put an offering at a cross street they don’t want other people to know that they put something. So its about Muslim and animist.

Nick: I know in Bali you will see many offerings at cross-streets to prevent evil spirits causing accidents, is it the same in Java?

Ika: Ya. For the people who believe, but its against the Muslim religion.

Nick: So do the people who put these offerings out do they do this everyday or just once in a while?

Ika: If they have something, like they don’t want somebody to do that to the family, they go to the ’smart people’ (black magic practitioner) I mean the one who have black magic or power. They tell us to give flowers and eggs.

Nick: If your family has a big problem, like one of your relatives, your auntie or your uncle are really sick and they’re going to die, you’ve taken them to the doctor and he says they are probably going to die. You have to make a choice. You can either take them to the Imam and get him to say prayers for them or you can take them to this ‘local expert’, this ‘local religious person’ for traditional magic. Which one has the more power do you think? Which one do the people prefer?

Ika: Um, its depends on the person. If for me I don’t like to go to the ’smart people’ or to the black magic’ . When brother sick and already been to the doctor mum said she took him to the ‘pura’ (temple), where they pray and they give something to brother. I remember one time mum took me and Awang (brother ) to the magic man, I don’t know what he did just give just some potion, but I really had a headache afterwards. I just don’t like, I don’t believe in it. I believe in what I believe. Because the only one who can help us is the relationship between man and man, man and God. But in Java when people want to get ride of something many people go there.

Nick: What do you call the ’smart people’? Balian?

Ika: No. The rude word to say is ‘dukung’. Not really rude but not proper.

Nick: And what’s the proper expression?

Ika: Orang pintar.

Nick: What does that mean?

Ika: ‘Smart people’. Not really smart people but they have a ‘6th sense’.

Nick: So after you moved here to Bali and you are expecting Ramadan to start in a couple of days are you excited? Does it make you happy?

Ika: Yes.

Nick: And why does it make you happy?

Ika: I don’t know, I just feel happy. Like my brother Awang since he was little kid he’s getting used to fasting and always makes 30 days. If my little brother he’s so naughty, he don’t want to do fasting and says “I’m so thirsty, I want to drink.” But if Awang he will be brave.

Nick: In Java because its so hot just like here in Bali, if you are working in sawah (rice paddy) how can you work from 4.28am to 6.15pm without drinking water?

Ika: If we have…what you call ‘I can do it’?

Nick: Willpower.

Ika: Yes willpower. Its like when we get sleep and didn’t wake up in the morning (before 4.28am) we cannot eat. We still want to try and if you have willpower you can do it.

Nick: I’m just wondering because when you sweat your body gives water, which you need to replace. There comes a point when you are working hard if you become dehydrated that even drinking won’t get you back to normal until you stop. Your body cannot replace it quick enough and there comes a point where you just go ‘ugh!’

I know you can push yourself but I wonder if you are doing really strenuous work are you allowed to take a drink?

Ika: In our custom its not allowed that push yourself to say ‘I don’t want to eat until this time’ and become sick, you have to stop and take something. But as long as you try hard its okay.

If you can’t make it all through the day that means you lose one of your fasting days and you have to replace it after Idul Fitri (the day after Ramadan finishes). Like for woman, we have period time so we cannot fasting.

Nick: Is that because the Koran says its not allowed?

Ika: Yes. So woman always not really complete the fasting during Ramadan period.

Nick: And then you have to do a week after?

Ika: Yes. You have to pay. Anytime you want you can pay.

Nick: And what do you do? Fast the next week after.

Ika: Um, we have a choice but….really (laughing)? Not really paying because if its Ramadan I like to do it but after Ramadan if I didn’t eat or just eat by myself it will feel different. Different time.

Nick: I’ll tell you a secret. During Ramadan I eat all day.

Ika: Its okay.

Nick: If I am a ‘bule’ who is not Muslim, what is the nicest thing I can do for my friend who is Muslim during Ramadan?

Ika: That’s not good, the nasty thing!

Nick: No the nice thing, I want to help.

Ika: Oh the nice thing. I don’t know.

Nick: Because today I’m thinking ‘I want to go to Caf� Moka, should I invite Ika or should I not invite Ika?’ Which one is rude?

Ika: People that’s not Muslim, they don’t know. They can still offer, that’s nice. They can offer and then when we say ’sorry I cannot I’m fasting’ that’s nice, but its not nice to say ‘oh its okay you can come too, you can eat, you don’t need to fasting right now’.

Nick: What do you think your Balinese friends think about Ramadan? Do they say anything to you about Ramadan.

Ika: If Komang (Balinese) or Lina (Javanese Christian) [both co-workers] they say like ‘that’s your tradition so you must follow it’. My boss lets me use the back room at work for praying.

Nick: And in your house do you use special clothes for praying?

Ika: Of course.

Nick: I don’t know I’ve never seen it.

Ika: For Muslim we have a special thing to wear.

Nick: Do you take yours with you? For example if we went to Padangbai for the weekend would you bring it with you?

Ika: Yes.

Nick: Do you have it here?

Ika: Yes.

Nick: Can I look?

Ika: Later.

Nick: No I want to see it, I want to take a photo.

Ika: No. It’s a white one. We cover everything because in Muslim everything is passion. For woman everything is passion like hair, except the hands and arms and faces. But everything is passion so we have to cover it.

Nick: When you say ‘for woman everything is passion’ do you mean the woman’s passion or the man’s passion?

Ika: Everything in woman is passion so I mean that’s why woman have to wear ‘gilbab’ (spelling?) like cover.

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Our interview ended abruptly when my tape ran out and I didn’t realize. We kept on talking for a long time about religion, Islam, Ramadan and how the modern person acts in regard to these things.

I think Ika likes certain parts of Islam especially the cultural aspects of everyone joining in, but also thinks the religions were basically set up to help people lead better lives and that all lead to one universal supreme being.