Wangsit,  Inspirasi,   Ilham,  Wahyu                                        Indonesian

Prisca Delima	In Indonesia many words express different aspects of inspiration. They come from the cultural influences of may other cultures.  The word INSPIRASI is adapted from English and Dutch word  inspiration.  From the Arabic come ILHAM, God's guidance inside one's heart; a beneficial idea; something that lead to the creating process and WAHYU, a message or revelation from God that might also in the form of instinct and intuition that is mainly received by the prophets;
ANGAN-ANGAN  a thought, memory or desire;  it means fantasies? image in the memory; thinking process based on hopes and logical reality;   ANGAN-ANGAN is from Malay that is the base of the Indonesian language nowadays. From the encounter with the traders on centuries ago. WANGSIT  a kind of supernatural message that can be received after visiting, staying and doing a series of fasting and meditation in specific place such as mountain, caves, or estuaries, where spirit of old person might appears to give wangsit to the person doing contemplation in order to have supernatural power. This word is more common to the Javanese people than the general Indonesian. There is also Wangsit from the ancient Javanese language, which was influenced by the ancient Sanskrit language of India.. Wangsit a divine inspiration that comes from the spirit world. WANGSIT is a part of superstitious belief as a result from the old time animistic  beliefs, these can be traced back before the influences of other cultures and also the coming of the new religions. Moreover, the supernatural power they seek is more often used for the bad purposes, although it is not necessary like that.   In this case, these people can have a certain power, for example they can be invulnerable to weapon or black magic, they can cure any illnesses, they can be very success in the business, they can be rich (it is one of the major thing people seek nowadays, a lot of people seek wangsit to know the coming lottery number or other type of gambling bet, they can see the future, they can do 'pelet' it is a magic whereby a person is made to fall in love or suffer or send illness, etc. People have to go to a specific quiet place to get the wangsit. Usually caves, estuaries, mountain, forest, old graveyard, etc. The favorite one now the graveyard where there is an old tomb of a believed great supernatural persons. But for some people they may get wangsit from the encounter with the spirit which is usually in the form of old man or woman, very rare occasions it is in the form of deformed person. In seeking wangsit, people have to do certain rituals such as bathe in the estuary at a specific time, have to do meditations, usually they have to feast, give certain offerings (it usually consist some of the followings: 7 types of flowers; waters from 7 different water sources;  fragrance oil,  old time coin with hole in it, usually with Chinese or Javanese letter inscription, used in the 16th century if I am not wrong but this type of coin is usually used in offerings.
I can say that my children are my source of inspiration these days for they seems to need all of the attention one can give. Their active mind and body force me to be creative in every aspect of my daily life, especially in cooking and teaching. I believe one can have whatever inspiration needed from other persons or the environment near us. There is no need to go a particular place or take a definite time, since inspiration is available there to take, not far away from where we stand. Probably this is one of the reason that my residential area has the sayings: “my house, my inspiration.”	: Birthday Cake that I made for the 4th birthday celebration of my first son.

Interview Questions

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Edwin:  Can you tell me more about Wangsit?

Prisca: I will mentioned about the influence of the other culture then. Great, it will cut the length of the article. Actually, what do you want to know more about WANGSIT? It will help me more if you can tell me your interest, the idea usually come from the people from the outside.

WANGSIT is a part of superstitious belief as a result from the old time animism and dynamism beliefs, these can be traced back before the influences of other cultures and also the coming of the new religions. It is said that people who seek WANGSIT is not religious people, because they are against the God's will, they gives offerings to the spirits that is against the religious teaching in which the offerings should be to God. Moreover, the supernatural power they seek is more often used for the bad purposes, although it is not necessary like that.

WANGSIT received usually cannot be seen in plain view, but in some occasions the wangsit is received in the form of sharp objects such as keris, candik, or susuk, and one can put those things inside the body. In this case, these people can have a certain power, for example they can be invulnerable to weapon or black magic, they can cure any illnesses, they can be very success in the business, they can be rich (it is one of the major thing people seek nowadays, a lot of people seek wangsit to know the coming lottery number or other type of gambling bet), they can see the future, they can do 'pelet' it is a magic whereby a person is made to fall in love or suffer or send illness, etc. It is known that if people keeps these things within their body, at the time of death, they have to release all of these objects otherwise they will suffer in their death bed, there are occasions where other people (special people) have to be summoned to release those objects before the dying person can die in peace at last.

In seeking wangsit, people have to do certain rituals such as bath in the estuary at the specific time, have to do meditations, usually they have to feast, give certain offerings (it usually consist some of the followings: 7 types of flowers; waters from 7 water resources/rivers; klembak - it is a kind of cheroots which have a 'very distinctive smell'; fragrance oil (there is something funny about this, there is a producer of this kind of fragrance oil market its exactly the same products under different names because it is said the spirits of this area love this product, and the spirits on the other area love the other products, you can believe it or not, but other than the favourites, it cannot be sold well); uang kepeng - it is the old time coin with hole in it, usually with Chinese or Javanese letter inscription, used in the 16th century if I am not wrong but this type of coin is usually used in offerings, also in some Hindu Balinese rituals; cotton cloth usually it is white or yellow but more often white.

Besides a list of prohibitions and restrictions, the people who receive wangsit also have a list of what they have to do. In the criminal records we can see that a number of people doing rape because they said they have 'wangsit' to do this to a number of girls to get for example invulnerability to any weapon.

People have to go to a specific quiet place to get the wangsit. Usually caves, estuaries, mountain, forest, old graveyard, etc. The favorite one now the graveyard where there is an old tomb of a believed great supernatural persons. But for some people they may get wangsit from the encounter with the spirit which is usually in the form of old man or woman, very rare occasions it is in the form of deformed person. In these cases, they are usually descendants or have a kind of relationship with that particular spirit. It is said the best time to do the meditation is at the quiet time of the earth, it is between midnight and 3 in the morning. There is also specific days that is recommended to do the meditation, you can find it in the ancient calendars. I think all of the traditional community have this type of calendar, there is Javanese calendar, Balinese calendar, Bataknese calendar, etc. This calendar is based on the moon circulation, not the sun like the conventional calendar. In these type of calendar you can see the best considered time to do any rituals and everyday life such as to build home, starting the rice field, get married, fishing, etc. It is very interesting.

Which part of Indonesia I am from? I live in West Java now (where the Sundanese dwells), but my family is a mixture of Javanese from Yogya (there are several type of Javanese with their own dialect), Sundanese from Parahyangan, and Balinese. By the way, Wangsit, is also used by the Sundanese. Remember the about the fragrance oil? It is a different product used in West Java and the one used in Central Java.

It is already another long one. You should better give me some restriction otherwise the 300 words limit in the article will be too much violated. I am sure the book will be very interesting, and looking forward to read it. I am eligible to receive one, aren't I?

 Are there any images of Aji Saka  getting his wangsit?  they could be wayang kulit drawings or any other ones.. that may be interesting..

I have never heard Aji Saka story in any wayang kulit show or any other type of wayang. There are some drawings in my story book. It is an old children book, with black and white illustration, let me know if you want them, will you face a copyright problem using these drawings?

Is My Home My Inspiration "Rumah Saya Inspriasi Saya"?

Actually it is "Rumahku Inspirasiku" 'ku' is a shortened form of aku, the same meaning as 'saya'. It is written as the motto of Kemang Pratama that is the residential area where I live. It is written in the brochures and other advertising materials, there is one under the statue at the main entrance as well. Do you like it? Should I find scan it and send it to you? I am not sure how many pictures you need, but I can send you one if you like. There is also a Javanese sayings more or less My home is my source of livings, which almost has the same notion. It teach you to learn to give thanks of whatever you have in hands, to cultivate your land wisely, and to respect your neighbor because one cannot live in the circle of enemies.