The Story of Bindara Saod Shapes Sumenep Cultural Identity
In Sumenep Madura there was a story about a man named Bindara Saod.
Bindara Saod was very important as an influential person in the history of
Sumenep. Even he was not the first King of Sumenep Empire, the 30th
King, but his story shaped history of Sumenep Empire. Nowadays,
the tomb of Bindara Saod is widely known throughout Indonesia.
This information is from an essay that reviews about Asta
Tinggi entitled Madura 6: Ada Diponegoro di Asta Tinggi (2013)[1].
It gives information about his interview towards the Asta Tinggi graveyard
watchman. It was told that Bindara Saod has a magical ability. When he was
still in the pregnancy, he heard a whisper that one day he will be an
important man and has power to lead people. Thus, people come to Bindara Saod’s tomb to ask for the blessing, health and prosperity and some of them just come to see the famous tomb
(2013). The watchman said “approaching to the election, there are many
candidates come here to ask for the blessing and the successfulness of the
election to Bindara Saod” (translated), “even sometimes people come to ask the
clue for the gamble, but of course they never admit it” the watchman added
his information (2013).
Normally, people come to the tomb to pray for the corps. However, many
people came to Bindara Saod’s tomb to ask for the fortune, including the candidates who will do the election. They believe that by coming to the Bindara Saod’s tomb, they
will win the election (2013). People believe that Bindara Saod is an
extraordinary man and he has special ability that there is no common people can
do except him, so that they believe that even he had already dead but his soul
remains possessing special ability to listen to the hope of every visitor of
his tomb. This article talks about the influential man of Sumenep Empire named
Bindara Saod, how his history was and how
Bindara Saod influenced society’s ideology and behavior towards their belief upon his miraculous ability.
The tomb of Bindara Saod was taken place in Asta Tinggi in Sumenep
Madura. Asta Tinggi is a well-known graveyard
for king of Sumenep Empire’s leader and the family of Sumenep Empire. Besides,
Bindara Saod was buried in that graveyard and it makes the graveyard well known
even more. This article will talk about the story of Bindara Saod, as the influential
man, who at first was not the descendant of any empire until then he became the
30th king of Sumenep Empire. Besides, this article discusses more
about how the folktale of Bindara Saod has brought a very significant effect
towards the society’s belief and behavior. Before, explaining further about the
analysis, it is very necessary to know who Bindara Saod really is.
Bindara Saod is the descendant of King Katandur whom king Katandur
is the grandson of Sunan Kudus. It was told that once, King Katandur was the
farmer leader who at first give an example on how to do farm in Parsanga
village and surround it in the middle of 17th century. Once when
Sumenep was in the worse condition that people were in severe hunger and faced
the drought season yet the society was facing many wars, king Katandur came up
with a very bright solution to help his society to get out of that hard
condition. He showed the society how to farm through special techniques (there
is no exact explanation relating to the technique), as the result, Sumenep could
solve the hunger problem very soon by his techniques that can double the
harvest.
The emergence of Islam in Sumenep was
also involvement of the King Katandur’s present in Sumenep, because he is the
descendant of Arabian since Islam first emerge in Arab, so that King Katandur
was spreading Islam in Sumenep. Moreover, King Katandur has a grandson named Bindara
Saod, but then Bindara Saod did not stay with the king, yet he stayed with his
uncle named Kiayi Pekke. Kiayi pekke had Pesantren and lots of santri, and Bindara
Saod was one of his santri[2].
It was told that in the middle of
the night, Kiayi Pekke walking around to see the condition of his santri. Kiayi
pekke was keeping his eye on them. All santri were sleeping in langgar[3].
Moreover, in the middle of watching the security of his Pesantren while all
santri were sleeping, kiayi Pekke saw a bright light was coming out from
one of his santri. Soon, kiayi[4]
pekke approached that santri and mark him by making a hole with his cigarette
in his sarung[5],
so that he could easily find that santri when the sun is set in the next
morning. In the following day, kiayi pekke checked his santri’s sarung one by
one. Surprisingly, the hole mark of his cigarette was found in Bindara Saod’s
sarung.
In short, Bindara Saod had married to nyai Izza and had two sons,
Ario Pacinan and Sumolo. However, it is told that Queen Tirtonegoro had a dream
that she has to marry a man named Bindara Saod, the son of Bindara Bungso who
stayed in Batu Ampar. Because of that dream, Queen Tirtonegoro asked her ministries
to take Bindara Saod to Keraton[6].
After Bindara Saod arrived in the castle, he was told about the dream of Queen
Tirtonegoro. Soon, after he was being informed by the will of Queen Tirtonegoro
to marry him, they discussed about this. The result of that discussion is that Bindara
saod accepted the marriage proposal presented by Queen Tirtonegoro, and then
they decided to conduct the marriage. Due to that marriage, Bindara Saod has a
title Tumenggung Tirtonegoro which is taken from his wife’s title.
Moreover, it was told that Sumenep Prime Minister heard about that
marriage and became so much angry to Bindara Saod because he married Queen
Tirtonegoro and as the matter of the fact that Purwonegoro, Sumenep Prime
Minister, likes Queen Tirtonegoro and intended to marry her as well. The queen
soon knew that Purwonegoro were angry and regret the marriage between herself
and Bindara Saod, so that she asked her ministries to come to Purwonegoro and
invited him to the castle. The queen’s invitations were rejected by Purwonegoro
because he was in a great anger towards Bindara Saod. Even, Purwonegoro reply
the invitation with the challenge to have a battle to Bindara Saod.
In one occasion, the castle held a party included a ceremony to
introduce the new King, R.T. Tirtonegoro (Bindara Saod) to the society. In that
occation, Purwonegoro was also invited to that party. At that time, people in
the castle knew that Purwonegoro will come and of course they knew that Purwonegoro
really hates Bindara Saod, so that one of minister named K. Sawunggaling was
asked to dress as if he is the king and be seated on the holy chair, so that
people will think that he is the king, while behind him on the right side there
was a man who hold the castle ceremonial lance. After that, Purwonegoro came with
his anger face and walked straight to “the king” who sat on the king’s chair,
because he thought that he was Bindara Saod, then Purwonegoro swung his sword
and stabbed so hard, fortunately, the attack was missed but the sword stabbed
on the pillar so that it could not be pulled no more. K. Sawunggaling avoided
the attack yet he stabbed his sword to Purwonegoro’s stomach and he died right
at that time. That tragic tragedy has lead to many effects. As told that Queen
Tirtonegoro and Purwonegoro are family, they are the great grandchildren of Yudonegoro.
Because of that tragedy so that Sumenep Empire had split into two groups, the
first is those who took Queen Tirtonegoro’s side and the others are those who
took Purwonegoro’s side. For those who are in Queen Tirtonegoro’s side were
asked to change their title to kiayi and promised not to against Bindara Saod
until their seventh generation. Moreover, Purwonegoro’s side were asked to
leave Sumenep Empire and returned to Pamekasan, Sampang or Bangkalan.
As the development of folklore’s scholar improved, it involves the
varying approach that draws the dynamic of level and ways of understanding
towards the recognition level of the folklore plays, performance and context
within the society and culture (Stephen.2011) meaning that the folklorist job
in this modern analysis toward the context of folklore in shaping society’s
identity is seen through many approaches and point of views, those are in the
dimension of its function, structure, psychological or sociological influence
that also relates to gender, race, social position and power (Stephen.2011). Relating to the story of Bindara Saod, it is seen that, the story
can be classified as having the sociological influence towards Sumenep people
especially and people in general who believe in that story. Moreover, the story
seems also present the aspect of position and power possessed by Bindara Saod
and his role in past Sumenep Empire.
It is then pretty obvious to say that Bindara Saod has a very great
power as the king in the Empire as his existence is honored by all society.
From that story it is seen that Bidara Saod brought very significant influence
to Sumenep until the end of his reign. According to William R. Bascom, the
folklore can be analyzed from the view of its function. Therefore, he claimed
that folklore has four functions, those are informally teaching cultural
attitudes (often to younger group members); escaping accepted limitations of
our culture; maintaining cultural identity; and validating existing cultural
norms (Stephen.2011).
In terms of informally teaching the cultural attitudes, the story
of Bindara Saod has indeed taught society that the relation between human and
god is important to make them better human. It is told that Bindara Saod was a
religious man and so that his extraordinary ability is believed by society as
the gift from god. As the consequence, some people in Sumenep do meditation for
specific purpose, to be closer to god, and to clean the body from the sin. Another
lesson of Bindara Saod story, beside of his supernatural ability, that is the
loyalty of people in Sumenep towards Bindara Saod remains strong until now. The
point of loyalty is shown when the conflict that Purwonegoro happened to try to
kill Bindara Saod which caused the death of himself makes the Empire turned
into two groups, pro-Bindara Saod and pro- Purwonegoro. The story was told that
most people were taking Bindara Saod’s side.
Moreover, the story of Bindara Saod also maintains the cultural
identity of Sumenep and also validates the existing Sumenep culture norms as
well. The loyalty of the leader has been taught and done by people in sumenep
long before the story of Bindara Saod emerged, but the presence of the story
enhanced their cultural identity even more. The tradition of kiayi for example still
high and it is probably part of the mindset of Sumenep’s society that praise a
man and so his family that having the religious status is important for them.
It is normal for people in sumenep to ask the pray from people they believe
have a strong connection to god, kiayi or habib, in order to have successful
life or want to achieve something. Thus, society belief upon bindara Saod’s
magical ability, people began to come to his tomb and asked for blessing. And
that behavior shows that people still respect those whom they believe are
Allah’s chosen one even they have passed away.
Moreover, as the folklorist it is important to examine every single
way of society’s life including their behavior, their beliefs and even the
norms that tied them together. The culture and identity of one group is
identified by what they belief together and what ritual or way of life they
have. Bindara Saod’s story is the story hold and believed by Madurese,
especially Sumenep’s society. They must share the same norms, the same believe,
and the same ideology to make them be living together. Thus the understanding
upon one group and distinguish them to the other group is that what ritual,
performance and believe they have. Moreover, as people in one group holding the
same ideology and so way of thought, the presence of folklore among them should
bring the great impact towards their aspect of lives. This is then what is
called as folklore possessing the function in the society’s life. Since
folklore has the function, as the notions of four functions of folklore
explained earlier according to William R. Bascom, then it is true that the
religious ritual, coming to the tomb and pray, is the lore of Sumenep’s folk as
the effect of Bindara Saod’s story. As the consequence, the approach proposed
by Bascom is to give one point of view or the perspective in seeing the lore
and how to communicate the values inside the lore itself and then it creates
certain function within the group. Moreover, Bascom’s approach towards the
analysis of folklore through its function is to reveal how the folk see the
lore and what does the lore mean to them (Stephen.2011).
According to Stephen in living folklore (2011), it says that
in order to analyze the folklore and how it relates to the society, the most
important point is that by understanding the contain in comprehensive way because
the matter of analyzing folklore is not about what it tells about but what it
is meant and how society value the folklore as part of their culture. the story
of Bindara Saod indeed had been becoming part of the history of Madura,
especially Sumenep.Thus, the folklorists argue that this folklore and society
are the two facet that cannot be separated because society always relates to
their experience and expressive culture in which somehow folklore is also their
part of expressive culture (Stephen. 2011).
Bascom believed that the main purpose of folklore as the mechanism
to maintain the cultural stability and somehow it is used as the tool to
reinforce the norms which are perceived by local society who are having that
folklore. What society do and behave in the real life is what is seen as their
tradition, however, the present of culture is not far from the involvement of
tradition and values they uphold and
share and more important is how they express their values and norms. Therefore,
the job of scholar in analyzing folklore and relate it to the society is how
the folklore important for them because what folklore brings to the society is
that the idea in which the society deal with it, so that it is arguable to say
that folklore is a part of society as it is functioned as the media for society
to express their believes and values (Stephen.2011).
The idea of that folklore has meaning towards particular group,
which then labeled them with the identity of that group, basically is based on
the thought of an anthropologist that
suggested the natural organic connected between people and their expressive
culture. Problem of the theory of function is that it neglect the reality that
the culture and the way people think is unstable, yet it is changing and that
is the challenge of folklore. However, it misses the challenges to stability
some folklore performances can present.
Unfortunately, the problem of Bascom’s idealism toward the function
of folklore in particular group of society has been challenged and claimed as
the conservative idea, in which it is not relevant to be applied. By doing so,
there will be no space for the cultural stability to accommodate changes for
the new forms of folklore In case it emerge, since folklore is the group’s
constructed ideas that might be change as the membership of society changes. One
obvious problem is that Bascom’s system ignores “the way folklore questions, critiques,
protests, and sometimes undermines stability” (Mullen 2003 in Stephen 2011).
While another challenge says that the interpretation of folklore is seen in the
perspective of its function cannot implies that the folklore has the same
meaning and solid one in many groups, no matter when or where it happens. It is
very inappropriate to oversimplify the meaning and the function of the folklore
for particular several groups and analyzing that all function in the entire
groups are the same (Stephen.2011).
To consider the challenge, as folklorist somehow indeed it is
unacceptable to decide the meaning of the folklore simply because the one who
can interpret the folklore itself is those who involve in that lore. However,
since the analysis of Bindara Saod Story is not merely based on random analysis
but it involve the review of local Sumenep’s society on what they think about
the story and how people response the story, so that the analysis and the
interpretation of the function of Bindara Saod’s story should be relevant. The
functional approach toward folklore analysis is emphasizing on the question of
what the certain folklore means to that folk in order to prevent the
misunderstanding of folklore’s interpretation. As people communicate through
folklore, so that in analyzing the folklore, it is necessary to comprehend that
people do particular thing in specific situation. The story of Bindara Saod’s
story implies that the society of Sumenep beliefs in the idea that the
supernatural and special ability can be possibly owned by ordinary people. As
the result of their ritual, praying, is that because they believe about the
story as part of their identity. Thus, by analyzing the limitation of
functionalist approach, it helps to understand the contain of folklore itself,
so that folklore meanings cannot be separated from the group as folklore itself
cannot be separated from the people who possess that folklore (Stephen.2011).
The story of Bindara Saod of course has brought the influence
towards society’s way of life. The society was obedient towards Bindara Saod’s
order in his reign in Sumenep Empire. Besides, the story about Bindara Saod
possessing magical power makes people praise him and obedient to Bindara Saod. As
a prominent leader, Bindara Saod of course has brought significant change to
society in Sumenep that makes the story of him is known widely by society. Moreover,
Bindara Saod’s charisma never leave him until he die. It shows that people
still put their trust on him by coming to his tomb and asking for blessing. The
belief and society’s behavior is the effect of the presence of Bindara Saod’s
story. Thus, it implies that the folklore, the story of Bindara Saod, creates
its function as way to establish society’s belief and shape society’s behavior.
Reference list:
Dika.Taan, (2014), Bindara Saod
Keraton Sumenep Dan Sejarah Asta Tinggi, blog was retrieved on 10th
December 2015 from 'http://taandika.blogspot.com/2014/12/bindara-saod-keraton-sumenep-dan.html
Gasing. Ipul, (2013), Madura 6:
Ada Diponegoro di Asta Tinggi, Retrieved on 10th December 2015
from http://daenggassing.com/perjalanan/madura-6-ada-diponegoro-di-asta-tinggi
Stephens. M, Sims. C. M, (2011), Living
Folklore: An Introduction to the study of People and Their Traditions 2nd
edition, Utah: Utah State University Press. Retrieved from http://www.e-library.esut.edu.ng/uploads/pdf/9483681732-living-folklore.pdf
[1] Was written by Ipul gasing
[2] Student who study about
religious knowledge and stay in the boarding school for certain year.
[3] The place for santri to
study religious knowledge and sometime it is used as place to pray. The
function of langgar becomes multifunction in boarding school.
[4] The leader of the boarding
school and also the teacher who teaches santri how to read Al-Qur’an and
Religious knowledge, Islam’s norms and rules.
[5] Traditional outfit, cloth
used like long skirt, usually as the Muslim’s characteristic wear.
[6] Indonesian Empire term
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