Dr Grünberg – JATHILAN: Dance of the Possessed

Practiced in Java for centuries, it remains almost unknown to the outside world.

Jathilan is a folk dance that uses the power of music and dance to channel powerful and sometimes frightening forces. Led by a spiritual guide and a whip-bearing ringleader (Pawang), a group of dancers ride woven horses in rhythmic unison until spirits enters them. Seeing these spirits in action may bring an almost voyeuristic pleasure as viewers can peer into the supernatural world of gods, demons, wild animals, and the dead. Once possessed, they engage in a range of self-mortification behaviours until safely emerging from their altered state, left with no memory of the event and no lingering ill effects. Despite its inherent drama, this extraordinary practice is more than mere spectacle:

dancers, spiritual leaders, anthropologists, and enthusiasts all have their own interpretations of jathilan’s significance to participants, onlookers, and indigenous Javanese communities. Whether jathilan is seen as an empirical proof of spiritual presence, a strategy of community building, or a resistant expression of folk identity, both the broader contexts of Indonesian historical, political and social change and the personal and subjective experiences of those who keep it alive illuminate the deeper significance of this dynamic performance art.