Bhujuk Keramat (Sacred Place)

 

By : Muhammad Imamuddin Al Faqih

Written on March 27, 2021

            One day, there was an event that could not be accepted by common sense. The incident started when Mr. Toyana, one of the elders of Tanjung village visited a bhujuk (Bhujuk is Madurese referring to ancient tombs of righteous people or ancestors). Mr. Toyana intended to build a hut to protect the bhujuk from hot sun and rain, considering the bhujuk is located in the middle of rice fields.

            The process of making the hut went smoothly. It was well-built. However, when Mr. Toyanan visited the bhujuk next day, he was surprised, the hut had fallen apart. "Who destroys it?" he said. Without thinking, he decided to repair it. The next day, he returned to visit the bhujuk to check the hut. As a result, he was speechless, it was destroyed again. This time, Mr. Toyana didn’t repair it anymore.

            According to the hereditary news that Mr. Toyana received from his previous elders, the person lying there was a Sayyid (Sayyid is honorary title for the descendants of the prophet) who came from Madura. Many oddities happened in that bhujuk, one of which is the failed construction of the hut. From that incident, Mr. Toyana spread the news about what he had experienced to Tanjung people. "The hut that I made in the bhujuk were always destroyed, maybe Sayyid didn’t want it" he said to the residents with great enthusiasm.

            Many residents didn’t believe it, some residents decided to build a hut and improve bhujuk environment. It is true, the hut collapsed after being checked next day. The residents were amazed, they finally believed in Mr. Toyana's words. This incident was reinforced by the story of a Tanjung man who dreamed of Sayyid, in his dream Sayyid said that residents didn’t need to build a hut on the bhujuk.

            Apart from that, other strange incidents occurred at the bhujuk. It was related to the origin of the name bhujuk keramat, before this incident occurred, the bhujuk known as Bhujuk Poser Bhumih, so called because its history wasn’t clearly known, the story about bhujuk was only spread verbally from generation to generation among Tanjung residents.

           Starting from the strange incident experienced by Mr. Toyana, this triggered residents to visit bhujuk regularly, praying for bhujuk or meditating there. There was a Tanjung man who meditate in bhujuk, unreasonable incident occurred at midnight when all residents were fast asleep, the man who was imprisoned, faced a giant scorpion the size of coconut leaf stalk, approached him. Suddenly, he was shocked and ran helter-skelter. Not only scorpions, the bhujuk was also being guarded by snakes and tigers with unnatural size, exceeding the height of the residents' houses. People who came to the bhujuk with bad intentions, generally asking for supernatural powers or heirlooms such as kris, will face attacks from the bhujuk guard. Since then, the bhujuk was known as bhujuk keramat.

            Beside these two incidents, there was another incident that was no less surprising, when Mr. Saniman had an intention in his heart "I will take this cow to bhujuk keramat, as long as my cow is healed" he said to himself. The next day, the cow was healthy and even gave birth to a calf. Another story that is no less popular among the Tanjung people was when they were affected by the long dry season, wells and rivers dried. Due to this phenomenon, Mr. Toyana intended to hold a prayer together at that bhujuk. Prayers were held together, many residents also attended the event. Not long after, the rain drenched the residents' rice fields, they didn’t face drought anymore. Wells were fully filled and river was flowing quite swiftly.

            These incidents occurred in Karanganyar village or better known by its popular name, Tanjung. Tanjung is located in Paiton, Probolinggo, East Java. The moral value from this story is that life is inseparable from cause-effect, when we do good to others, either to those who are still alive or those who have died, goodness is still a goodness, people who do good will get a reward in the form of goodness too from Allah, the God of the universe.