Rajah on Ngikis Ceremony in Karangkamulyan Site Ciamis

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-224-8_12How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Karangkamulyan Site; Rajah; Ngikis Ceremony

Abstract

Indonesia is a country with plurality especially in terms of customs and culture. One of the customs and traditions that is always done is to perform rituals or traditional ceremonies aiming for safety and gratitude to the Creator, including the ancestors. It also happened among Sundanese community in Ciamis, every year before fasting month, they perform Ngikis ceremony at the Karangkamulyan Site in order to clean (purify) themselves, because of facing the Holy Month of Ramadan. A series of ritual processions are performed, but what is interesting is the use of Rajah used by Kuncen as the leader of Ngikis ceremony. Rajah is a letter (image, destiny, or sign) which is used as a prayer to repel a disaster. Rajah in Sundanese literature is also included in category of prayers or spells which has magical meaning. The problem on this research is to describe meaning and function and how is the connection between Rajah and Ngikis ceremony’s visitor. The purpose of this research is to reveal the form, meaning, and function of Rajah in Ngikis ceremony. This study uses the theory of hermeneutics, which interpreting texts and other signs such as myths, including mantras in Rajah. The methodology used is observation and in-depth interviews with Kuncen, traditional figures, and ceremony visitors. The results of this study are Rajah in form of Sundanese Buhun (old Sundanese language) about moral teachings and social crules which must be obeyed by Sundanese people, the meaning of Rajah which is related to gratitude and asking for safety to the Creator, and the function of Rajah on remembering the importance of the past as a “pillar” (milestone) or “stump” for the present generation.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ani Rostiyati
AU  - Suwardi Alamsyah
AU  - Adeng Adeng
AU  - Nina Merlina
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/05/20
TI  - Rajah on Ngikis Ceremony in Karangkamulyan Site Ciamis
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Local Wisdom (Incolwis 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 125
EP  - 136
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-224-8_12
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-224-8_12
ID  - Rostiyati2024
ER  -