Mapag Tamba, the Way Local Farmer of Indramayu Take Care of Their Rice Field

TIMESINDONESIA, INDRAMAYU – Most of the local community of Indramayu, West Java works as farmer. And, they have distinguish custom called Mapag Tamba to cast out some bad luck which coming to their rice field.  This tradition even still being conducted during  this modern day. 

Mapag Tamba in the local language literally means to pick the medicine. The tradition was actually almost lost and can't be easily found. There is only one village that do the legacy up until now. It was the local community of Tugu village, Sliyeg district, Of Indramayu regency, West Java. 

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They keep the legacy and belief that this custom will help them get a good number of their agricultural product when it comes to the time of harvesting. Though it takes time and energy but the process was quite fascinating and fun to follow. 

The Way the Local Do Mapag Tamba

As it is to pick the medicine, the farmers will take 9 different source of water. The are the Mertasinga well, ocean water, Papagan, a well in Sukaurip Balongan, well outside of the house, water from huge pot, and some used to clean blacksmith product.

Not to mention those you get after you rinse the rice before cooking, and the water from Bengawan River or also known as Cimanuk River. Some people will be assigned to take each of the water and put it in a jar, or anything big they could take. And this ritual only conducted on Thursday morning to noon.

They will bring it back to the designated spot to gather all the water. By Thursday night the water will be mixed in a huge basin. The mixture is called tamba water. It then  moved into 14 bamboo tube that has been prepared before. Then last but not least it will be sealed with klaras or dry banana leaves. 

The process proceeded on Friday morning. There will be 14 man wearing with clothes from top to bottom called binang carrying the bamboo tube. They will spread the water through the designated area. This tradition then followed by a puppet show at night. 

Mapag Tamba was Proposed to be Annual Calendar Festival

This tradition was named as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ministry of Culture, Research, and Technology in 2016. With this the local government of Indramayu would like to lift this tradition as one of their tourist attraction by putting it in their yearly calendar festival. 

"As for now, this tradition was still exist only in several area. But has not been applied in several place (in Indramayu), we would like this tradition back in stage to be preserved and known by al people in the world," Fidri, the chief of Kedung Penjalin gallery said.

The local government has assessed the willing of the community to make this tradition listed on annual calendar festival. It was estimated that Mapag Tamba could be done by not later than next year. 

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