Dance and Trance

Suriname is full of different culture and traditions. I have been blessed to have lived in Wan Hati and experience the Maroon culture and tradition. Learning so much about their way of life, and why they hold ceremonies.

I am also lucky to be able to experience some of the culture of the Javanese here in Suriname. I have now experienced Dyaran Kepang twice - and I would go again!

Across the Suriname River from Paramaribo, is the town of Nieuw Amsterdam. On festival days, one can watch and be mesmerized, as the Javanese enact their traditional Dyaran Kepang ceremony--a trance dance where the performers take on the spirit of a horse, monkey, or tiger as they fall under the spell of rhythmic, monotonous gamelan.

The gamelan begins and the men come out riding decorated stick horses. They preform a dance to the ancestors. There is a medicine man that leads them into the trance. He puts water with a sort of perfume on them - there is prayers and the spirits are summoned. He then leads them gently into trance.

When the dancers are in trance there bodies take over their minds and become transformed into another living being. The dancers start with the horse.

They gallop around - sometime turning violent and kicking one another. Each time I've witnessed them they tend to have a lot of rage, and are slightly frightening. The eat sharp and fibrous elephant grass, rose petals and drink out of buckets of water.

If the medicine man sprinkles them again with the water - he can lead them into transformation of monkeys.

The monkey spirit beats on his check and tears a coconut apart with his teeth! They are usual playful - and I enjoy watching them. They will attempt to steal things out of your purse. The last time we watch them - they were transfixed on a balloon, one took his sash and tied it to a coconut in attempt to make his own. They roll around and hop as a monkey would in the wild. They are curious and come right up to you - when you look at them you can tell by their face/eyes that they are completely consumed in the spirit.

I have never witnessed the tiger-spirit but have been told they have been known to tear the heads off of live chickens.

The medicine man uses a sort of powder and chants in their ear to lead them out of trance. This can be hard to watch - sometimes they struggle and yell. They tend to wake up dazed and looking confused as the spirits leave them.

Researchers have investigated the stomach contents of the dancers and mysteriously not found any trace of what they have ingested.

I continue to love and learn and be amazed here in Suriname.