Shankara

By Ahmad Arif

Printed in Kompas Cetak, 09 September 2008

Lasem, kota tua berhawa panas di pesisir utara Jawa Tengah pada tahun 1961.  Seorang hoakiao muda membuat udara Lasem tambah gerah setelah mempersunting gadis Jawa, putri seorang panitera dan keponakan wedono dari Tulungagung, Jawa Timur.

Hoakiao – istilah untuk Cina perantauan – itu bernama Njo Tjoen Hian, putra perajin batik.  Pernikahannya tersebut melawan arus masyarakat waktu itu, yang masih menganggap miring pernikahan antar-etnis dan antar-agama.

‘Pada waktu itu perkawinan Tionghoa dan Jawa biasanya delik-delik (sembunyi-sembunyi).   Sementara saya menikah resmi di catatan sipil,’ kata Njo Tjoen Hian, yang sejak tahun 1959 lebih sering menggunakan nama Sigit Witjaksono ini.

Tentang namanya ini, Njo Tjoen Hian menjelaskan, ‘Sigit Witjaksono itu merupakan versi bahasa Jawa dari Njo Tjoen Hian.  Artinya sama, yaitu kebaikan dan kebijaksanaan.’

Perjuangan Sigit mempersunting Marpat Rochani, putri priayi dari Jawa Timur, itu memang tidak mudah.  Tak ada satupun keluarga dari pihak istrinya yang mau datang pada acara pernikahan mereka ketika itu.  Sigit sampai merasa dipermalukan.  ‘Saya menangis wkatu itu,’ kata Sigit.

Akan tetapi, dia tidak pupus harapan.  Ia selalu mencoba untuk terus berbuat baik terhadap keluarga istrinya. ‘Lambat laun, mereka mulai ikhlas dan bisa menerima, apalagi setelah mereka melihat rumah tangga kami yang rukun.  Wong belah gowo damar, Gusti Allah ora samar,’ kata Sigit mengutip pepatah Jawa, tentang Tuhan yang akan selalu menjaga.

Ketika keluarga dan warga sekitar mulai menerima perkawinan campur itu, tantangan justru datang dari pemerintah.  Akta kelahiran anaknya diberi cap: akte kelahiran untuk warga keturunan Republik Rakyat Tiongkok (RRT). ‘Saya RRT saja tidak tahu bentuknya.  Tanah Jawan ini tempat lahir dan mungkin tempat nanti saya mati juga.  Kenapa seolah-olah kami belum juga diterima ?’ kata Sigit.  Dimata Njo Tjoen Hian, pembauran antara Jawa-Cina sebenarnya bukan hal baru. ‘Saya keturunan hoakio (Cina perantauan) kedelapan di Lasem,’ kata Sigit menambahkan.

Rombongan awal para hoakiao ke Lasem itu semuanya laki-laki.  Mereka kemudian menikah dengan orang-orang dari pesisir Lasem hingga Tuban.  Setelah Belanda berkuasa di Jawa barulah didatangkan para pekerja dari daratan Cina untuk bekerja di pertambangan dan perkebunan.  Sebagian di antaranya perempuan.  Mulailah ada perbedaan antara Tionghoa totok dan Tionghoa peranakan.  Antara mereka yang pribumi dan pendatang.  ‘Belanda juga yang menciptakan pemisahan itu’ kata Sigit.  Pemisahan itu semakin tajam setelah terjadi geger Cina – pemberontakan Cina terhadap Belanda – pada tahun 1740.  Waktu itu, Lasem menjadi salah satu pusat perlawanan Cina terhadap Belanda.  Penjajah Belanda sengaja menjauhkan orang Cina dan Jawa agar mereka tidak kembali bersekutu lalu melawan Belanda.

Batik Laseman

Jejak pembauran etnis Jawa dan Cina di Lasem itu, menurut Sigit, sangat jelas terlihat antara lain dalam selembar kain batik laseman.

‘Motif batik Lasem merupakan poduk silang budaya, terutama antara Jawa dan Cina,’ kata Sigit yang mewarisi usaha batik dari ayahnya, Njo Wat Jiang.  Motif yang terpengaruh budaya Cina adalah burung hong, bunga seruni, banji dan mata uang.  Adapun motif Jawa terlihat dari motif geometris khas batik vorstenlanden (Surakarta dan Yogyakarta), seperti parang, kawung dan udan liris.

Selain kedua motif itu, para perajin baik di Lasem juga mencipta motif lokal seperti latohan, gunung ringgit, dan kricak atau watu pecah.  Konon, motif kricak (batu kecil) diinspirasikan dari kenangan atas kricak sebagai bahan pembuatan jalan Raya Pos era Daendels, yang membawa banyak korban pekerja di Lasem.  Ketiga motif itu sering dipadu, seperti yang terlihat dalam motif batik tiga negeri.

Melalui budaya

Upaya Sigit untuk pembauran telah mendorongnya untuk membentuk paguyuban seni tari Tunas Harapan pada tahun 1977.  Dalam paguyuban ini, Sigit membaurkan anak-anak Tionghos dengan etnis Jawa.  Tarian yang sering mereka tampilkan adalah Srikandi Mustaka Weni dan Menakjingga-Dayun.  Kelompok tari multietnis ini, pada waktu itu, laris diundang ke kota-kota lain hingga Semarang dan Magelang.  Bahkan, pada tahun 1979, Tunas Harapan diundang tampil di Balai Sidang Jakarta, di hadapan Presiden Soeharto. 

Sigit juga menjadi Ketua Yayasan Sekolah Dasar (SD) Wijayakusuma, yang mengelola SD di Lasem sejak tahun 1979 hingga 2002.  Sebelum Sigit menjadi ketua yayasan, SD ini dicap eksklusif oleh masyarakat setempat karena 90 persen siswanya Tionghoa.  Dia bertekad menghapus cap itu.  ‘Saya datang dari rumah ke rumah, menemui keluarga Jawa agar mereka mau menyekolahkan anak mereka ke sekolah kami,’ tutur Sigit.

Selain menawarkan pendidikan kesenian tari, Sigit juga menyediakan pelajaran berbagai agama di sekolahnya itu. ‘Siswa bebas memilih pelajaran sesuai agama masing-masing.  Hasilnya, 60 persen siswa SD Wijayakusuma sekarang etnis Jawa, ‘ kata Sigit yang ikut bermain dalam film Cau Bau Kan pada tahun 2002 ini.

Pewaris

Bulan Agustus 2008, lelaki itu duduk di beranda rumah.  Dia mengenakan batik warna merah dan celana panjang katun hitam.  Tubuhnya masih sehat dan gagah.  Dari tempatnya duduk, dia bisa melihat seorang perempuan tua yang tengah membatik.

‘Pembatik di sini rata-rata sudah bekerja sejak saya masih kecil.  Tetapi, belum  ada anak-anak yang mau meneruskan usaha ini.  Semuanya bisa dibilang memilih bekerja di luar kota.  Lasem lalu menjadi kota mati,’ kata Sigit.  Ada nada getir dari suaranya.  Oleh karena itu, bagi Sigit, batik Lasem bukan sekadar urusan bisnis.

‘Batik Lasem adalah saksi sejarah, tentang pembauran budaya, yang tidak boleh hilang, ‘tuturnya.

[Post note:  another story about Lasem and its family history as represented by my uncle, Njo Tjoen Hian, fifth child in the family from my father’s side.  Njo Wat Jiang is the name of my grand father.  He was born and died in Lasem. 

In the original transcript, the term of ethnic Chinese as ‘China’, I do not believe this is the correct term in Bahasa Indonesia.  It should be Cina, therefore I take the liberty to change.]

[Getting old, the process of becoming old, being old scares many people.  Sometime the fear is because of the unknown.  The unknown on what will happen, what should one’s expect… Vanda Scaravelli in Awakening The Spine, talked about being old gracefully and what to expect physically and mentally.]

Memory is connected with attention.  An attentive mind remembers.  A distracted mind forgets.  Attention is energy and produces energy when we use it.  It is like the battery in a car, that recharges itself in the running of the motor.

People who continue to live intensely even at an old age, with their power of concentration and the passion for what their doing, are capable of modifying the physical limitations by which the body is conditioned.  The efficiency of an attentive mind is incalculable.

The old seem to forget, but it is only that they are not interested in what they are doing.  They lose contact with the world, with their environment, with themselves.  They too easily give up their activities and the things they care for, taking refuge in their own protective shell.

We have to keep on using and entertaining our memory.  It is a delicate organ and must be looked after with care.

Do not press your brain to remember, on the contrary, give it time, relax it.  Why do we want to remember?  If we forget, we forget; we are going to remember when we least expect it.  Can we not see that it is the fear not to remember that paralyzes the brain?

The full blossoming of maturity is the best fruit that life can offer.  The need to become is over.  Can we not feel the beauty to be what we are in total acceptance?

The body has its own memory and after the yoga poses (through which you are not pushed but invited to collaborate) and especially during the night, it continues to work in its joyful expansion.

The delight of the body’s unfolding is surprising.  Even the pores of the skin, in their slow opening, seem to participate with the rest of the body.

We forget things collected mechanically by the brain but we easily remember events in which we are somehow emotionally wrapped.

They remain, painted with vivid colors.

Memory is there.  It contains our past conditioning; our childhood, our education, our culture, our experiences, our knowledge, our environment, our country, our family, our friends.  Let us leave all this alone and not use those things, not exploit them or speculate upon them.  They should remain there in complete immobility like the background of a picture or a map.

Not to carry them along is a blessing! With a purpose of pointing out the beauty of a fresh mind, Krishnamurti told this story:

The story concerns two monks traveling by foot together.  On their way, they meet a woman sitting beside a river.  She asks them to help her to cross the stream.  Courteously, they lift her up, putting her on their shoulders and, with the water up to their knees, after reaching the other side of the river, they lay her gently down.  Then they keep on walking silently along the road.  After some time, one of the monks asks his friend: “Was it not a sin to take her in our arms?’ The other monk answers ‘You still carry her on? I left her a long time ago!’

Vanda Scaravelli in the pose Mulabandhasana.  This is an exceptional and difficult asana that very few are able to do without damaging their knees as it entails the inversion of the ankles and heels.  The advantage of this asana is that the muscles of the abdomen are pulled and drawn inside, causing even the last vertebrae of the spine to elongate.

The following is a visualized expression for my beloved Mom:

Living separately in two continents makes me miss Mom in different way

She is there, I am here

When we meet, we have a lot to talk about, yet none articulated

We are very different in our approaches to life

She is very guarded, careful and worrisome,

I am free spirit, out of the box, liberated

She turned 75 last year

She looks fragile, but strong-hearted

Her being old, always makes me hard to accept

Look at her photographed with me snapped by my pop

She was beautiful then, always will and always be

She is trustworthy, went through a lot with pop

She built her life with pop from the start

Through thick and thin

Through happiness and sad

Through tears and laughters

Her love to pop is one of a kind

The only kind that I can always refer to

Of loving married couple

For many decades

And many more if there is eternity in this world…

Until pop passed away

She lost a part of herself

She has not been herself since then

I missed her confidence, missed her charms

Mom has different way to teach me about marriage

Her reference is her own

The loving kind, the kind with full of trust, honesty and full spirit towards life

The kind that nurtures each other,

Takes care of each other

Until the end

Until death which separated all of us

Mom and pop are not my biological parents

I was an adopted child

They informed me since I was a kid

So what?

They are my only parents I know

She is my only Mom I know and have

Would it change?

Again, she is the only Mom I know and have

So, Mom,

Although I never express it loud and clear to you

I love you

For being you

For taking care of pop

For taking care of my boys

For being my Mom.

 I have never been a fan of a circus, the 9-ring one, with the lion, the monkey and silly clowns.. until I was convinced by a friend back in 1999 to come and watch Cirque du Soleil in Sydney Showground, at that time was still in the border of the leafy Randwick and Kensington suburbs.

It was set under the grand chapiteau or the big tent and it was played in the evening towards the end of summer.  The title of the show was Saltimbanco, which ran non-stop for an approximately 90 minutes.  Afterwards, I was totally converted to be a die-hard fan of Cirque du Soleil. 

Originated and based out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Cirque du Soleil or French for Circus of the Sun, was established in 1984 by two former street performers Guy Laliberte and Daniel Gauthier.  Cirque expanded rapidly through the 1990s and 2000s, going from one show with 73 employees in 1984 to approximately 3500 employees from over 40 countries producing 15 shows over every continent. 

Each show has its own central theme and storyline, and the performers have their gear and attire aligned with the main theme, set with a live music performed complete with its singer(s) and musician(s).

Here are their 3 shows which I have watched either live or recorded relayed on television.

Saltimbanco

From the Italian ‘saltare in banco’ which literally means ‘to jump on a bench, explores the urban experience in all its myriad forms: the people who live there, their idiosyncrasies and likeness, families and groups.  Saltimbanco is a Cirque signature show inspired by the urban fabric of the metropolis and its colorful inhabitants.  Decidedly baroque in its visual vocabulary, the show’s eclectic casts of characters draw spectators into a fanciful, dreamlike world, an imaginary city where diversity is a cause for hope.

Laliberte stated that ‘For me, Saltimbanco is a message of peace. In the 1990s, immigration was an issue, the mixing of cultures in cities, and Saltimbanco reflects that mix, with all of its personalities and colors.  It’s the challenge we have in today’s world: respecting each other, living and working together, despite our difference.’

Featuring 47 artists, the cast has been assembled from the citizens of 15 different countries.

Alegria

Cirque came back to Sydney in 2001 with its title Alegria.  Played in the same location at the Sydney Showground, this time the mood was different from the previous show.  The concept was sad, dark, heavy, really hard: ‘Alegria!, Alegria! Alegria!’, its’ Spanish for ‘Joy! Joy! Joy!’, it’s actually what one say when he/she is in pain.  It means life goes on.

Frances Gagnon, who played the most famous ‘The White Singer’ character, has twice been invited to reprise the Alegria title song at the Montreal Jazz Festival.  The music of Alegria has proven extremely popular and the show’s soundtrack remains the best-selling Cirque’s album to date.

Kooza

Kooza tells the story of the Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world.  Between strength and fragility, laughter and smiles, turmoil and harmony, Kooza explores themes of fear, recognition and power.  The show is set in an electrifying and exotic visual world full of surprises, thrills, chills, audacity and total involvements.

Although I watched this show relayed on TV, I still can feel the magic of Cirque, especially during the unicycle high speed Wheel of Death, navigated in the air by 2 performers.  I was mesmerized by the trio contortion, its agility and strengths.  It is like seeing the paradox of life, differences which build to a union of strengths.

The musical theme was inspired by South Asian (Indian) sounds.  This show was directed by David Shiner, with past experience as being a clown and working with the Swiss National Circus, are definitely an influence on the lighthearted and whimsical nature of the Kooza production.

I can’t wait for another opportunity to watch Cirque’s show live… to feel the energy, power, skill and playfulness of a hgh caliber world-class entertainment.