The visit of 'Raja Bomoh Sedunia' to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) last week to assist in the search for the missing flight MH370, wielding coconuts and binoculars fashioned from bamboo, caused sniggers by many Malaysians and was ridiculed by the Chinese.
The flying carpet and coconut saga played out by the bomohs (shamans) has been the center of fun on social media and provided excellent fodder for local comedians to use in their programs. But although many Malaysians appeared embarrassed by the episode, it also seemed to pull some very emotional chords. The word “bomoh” was tweeted more than 200,000 times in the last week, with “bomoh apps” appearing on Google Playstore.
The metaphysical and superstitious realm in society where bomohs act as intermediaries, according to Prof Hashim Awang, a senior research fellow of the Academy of Malay Studies, University of Malaya, is inseparable from the Malay psyche.
Actually animism goes well beyond Malaysia and permeates Catholicism in the Philippines, Buddhism in Thailand and Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia. Bomohs are part of animist traditions present in the social fabric of the region before the influence of South Asian and Arab traders, and defiantly before the arrival of colonial powers to the region. Animism even dates back to before the little known and almost forgotten Srivijaya Period going back to the 7th Century. Full story...
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The flying carpet and coconut saga played out by the bomohs (shamans) has been the center of fun on social media and provided excellent fodder for local comedians to use in their programs. But although many Malaysians appeared embarrassed by the episode, it also seemed to pull some very emotional chords. The word “bomoh” was tweeted more than 200,000 times in the last week, with “bomoh apps” appearing on Google Playstore.
The metaphysical and superstitious realm in society where bomohs act as intermediaries, according to Prof Hashim Awang, a senior research fellow of the Academy of Malay Studies, University of Malaya, is inseparable from the Malay psyche.
Actually animism goes well beyond Malaysia and permeates Catholicism in the Philippines, Buddhism in Thailand and Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia. Bomohs are part of animist traditions present in the social fabric of the region before the influence of South Asian and Arab traders, and defiantly before the arrival of colonial powers to the region. Animism even dates back to before the little known and almost forgotten Srivijaya Period going back to the 7th Century. Full story...
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