Bomoh

Bomoh is the term for a shaman in Malaysia. They are also known as dukun. The bomoh's original role was that of a healer and their expertise was first and foremost an in-depth knowledge of medicinal herbs and Malay geomancy. This was supplemented by Sanskrit "mantera" (mantras) owing to the ancient Hindu-Buddhist influence in the region. Although the word is Malay, there are bomoh of all religions and races.

Some bomohs use cemeteries to summon spirits to fulfill requests by supplicants, while others only deal with a single spirit. It is said that sometimes the bomoh selects the spirit, while other times, it is the spirit who selects the bomoh. Spirits can perform healings, seek missing persons or even investigate reasons for bad luck. Spirits can also be used to possess peoples, cause sickness and miseries and many other bad things. Bomoh who have a particular religion may incorporate their religious practices into their craft.

The bomoh works with rituals and incantations, or "jampi-jampi", which is derived from the verb "menjampi", meaning to cure by magic [A Dictionary of Malayan Medicine, ISBN 0196381495] .

The bomoh's craft remained largely unchanged even after Islam became dominant until the Islamic revival in the 1970s and 80s. Bomoh were then seen as deviant from the Muslim faith because of their invocation of spirits and the potentially harmful black magic they practiced. This period saw a drastic decline in authentic bomoh and many fraudulent shamans filled the void. As a result, bomoh are today looked at with suspicion even though they are still commonly consulted for medical or personal reasons.

ee also

* Animism in Malaysia
* Dukun
* Shaman

References