GAWAI PADDY HARVEST (RESPECT FOR THE RICE GODDESS)

                     Picture taken since 2009 at siga siburan.

Normally,when you`re taking picture you miss a lot of what is going on around you,but I was so close to the action that I couldn`t help being involved.I suppose could sit down with one of the village elder or an itinerant anthropologist,and write a step-by step description full of ethnographic detail,but here`s what really happened as seen through my uninformed eyes.

After circling the altar a few times,the priestesses sat down in a circle and began preparing the offerings for the goddess.Rice,Betel nut and Tobacco were wrapped together in small bundles,and holding the bundles as if they were offering them to the goddess.Suddenly a remarkable thing happened;one by one all of the women went into a trance,as they were possessed by the spirit of the rice goddess.They reeled drunkenly a few times,then fainted.As they were falling they were gently caught by the members of the audience,and placed in a seated position at the center of circle.At the few minutes the women began to revive,and were led off by the men into the "Remin Gawai".

It appeared to be all over,but there was more to come.the rice goddess had successfully possessed the bodies of the priestesses,and thereby blessed the ceremony and accepted the offerings of the villagers.It was only polite to thanks her,so the priestesses were led out again to perform a rice harvesting dance,this time fully conscious.Then it was finally over,the culmination of more than six months of mediating with the spirits to ensure the well being of the community.For people who had carried such a havy burden,they all seemed in a remarkably lighthearted mood when I spoke to them a short while later.

"The old people believe that everybody who is at the gawai comes under the begin influence of the rice goddess.If you leave the village before sunrise you offend her,and bad luck is sure to follow".