Kuda Kepang, The Dance of The Flat Horses

It was a dark and quiet night. We were seated in a large circle on cemented ground somewhere in the paddy fields of Sekinchan in Selangor, Malaysia. In front of us lay flat wooden horses awaiting their dance partners to pick them up and get the show going. It wasn't long before the sounds of "dings" and "dongs" started filling the warm air of this tropical Malaysian night; sounds created by the musicians or rather percussionists hitting on their musical ensembles, marking the start of the performance that we have been patiently waiting for.

Shortly after, out came the leader of the troupe, a shaman who started doing some rituals to open the doors between our world and that of the spirits. Suddenly the warm air turned cool with temperatures slowly dropping and the dancers picked up the flat wooden horses starting off the show. Holding their flat wooden horses against their bodies they danced in circles following the lead of a princess that rides on a white flat wooden horse. Along with these dancers are three friends from our group who volunteered to take part in the dance not knowing what was to come.

Opening up the doors between our world and that of the spirits.

Suddenly a few of the dancers gave out loud screams, dropped their flat wooden horses and masks on the ground. The air went from cool to cold in matter of milliseconds and it was now that the performance took a nightmarish turn. Dancers started acting out the roles of their mask and horses taking on the personalities of their dancing tools. It is all just a performance right? A show put on for us, the media folks who so wanted to learn about the Javanese culture and traditional dances brought over by Javanese folks decades ago; right? I will let you think so for now as I go on.

A mask of a monkey. This is what nightmares are made of.

As the dance progressed a few dancers wearing scary looking masks depicting various animals, a princess, a clown, and two persons in a tiger suit; took to the floor and started following the circling dancers to the beat of the percussionists. In my head I was combining the rhythm of the gongs and kendangs (traditional musical percussion instruments) to Guns And Roses' Sweet Child Of Mine, and having quite a laugh doing so. They just go together so well.

Suddenly a few of the dancers gave out loud screams, dropped their flat wooden horses and masks on the ground. The air went from cool to cold in matter of milliseconds and it was now that the performance took a nightmarish turn. Dancers started acting out the roles of their mask and horses taking on the personalities of their dancing tools.

It is all just a performance right? A show put on for us, the media folks who so wanted to learn about the Javanese culture and traditional dances brought over by Javanese folks decades ago; right? I will let you think so for now as I go on.

Things got really weird as some of the possessed dancers started doing things that humans usually do not do. One of the boy dancers started biting the husk off an unopen coconut the way a monkey does. Another dancer started slithering on the ground like a snake. Those who took on the personalities of the horses continued galloping in circles; strangely all of them in perfect rhythm.

Not long later things took to a slightly violent turn. Someone then reassured us that as long as we do not go into the circle we will be okay. The shaman has created an unseen fence in front of us surrounding the dancers and the spirits will not be able to cross over it. Feeling reassured we continue watching the show as some of us went around shooting photos.

If you are thinking that nothing worse could possibly happen, well, wrong. Suddenly the shaman who was trying to contain the spirits by removing them from some of the possessed who have gone a little too weird, gave out a scream too. Just what we needed; the one who is supposedly in control is now himself possessed and in a trance.

Now, dancers in their animalistic personalities started breaking out of the circle and they started "running" up trees. Two of them actually; one a tiger and the other, a bird (the shaman). There goes the assurance of the unseen safety fence. I quickly shot as many photos as I could from below taking precaution just in case they started throwing coconuts at us.

Without any unforseen incidents the shaman came down from the tree and still had the ability to contain the spirits although in a trance like state. He managed to remove a few spirits before being possessed by another spirit, this time an elephant. Makes "perfect" sense. Here's why. He tried removing the spirit of a tiger from one of the dancers and failed. A stronger animal that would have a chance against the tiger would be an elephant.

Even in his elephant state he failed to remove the spirit of the tiger despite trying a few times. At this stage most of the possessed dancers have had the animal spirit in them removed by the shaman and returned to their seats. But as the show continued a few more dancers who were not performing tonight got possessed too and started going all weird.

It has been well over two and a half hours now since the show started. This also means that our three media friends who volunteered to take part in the dance must be tired but either too afraid to stop or they too must be possessed. Lucky for them someone went up to them (yes, after two and a half hours) to ask if they would like to stop. The first two happily said yes and returned to their places outside the magical circle.

If you think this cannot get anymore weird, again you are wrong. Our other friend who was dancing looked different in a scary way. As the person went up to him to ask him if he wanted to stop, he replied nothing. He was quieter than a mouse. He just went on dancing in the same circle he has been doing for the past two and a half hours. The person then tried to take the flat wooden horse from him but he scarily looked at the person and pulled the horse back and continued on his way. The person gave up and returned to what he was earlier doing. Still think that this is just a show? I, myself don't think so anymore.

Anyway, the shaman went round in his elephant state eating plants and digging holes as if searching for something. He then walked to a bridge, dug out some rocks and found a hole. He marked it with chalk and when back into the circle. There he started screaming some more before picking up hot burning coals and eating them. He then went back to the tiger possessed man to try to remove it. Again he failed.

This time the tiger possessed man picked up a coconut and started to bite the husk off while walking in a circle. He then threw it up in the air some two storeys high and continued his walk. I watched the coconut being affected by gravity, fall back down and hit him (tiger possessed man) right on the head and burst into pieces. No, not his head but the coconut. He then picked up a piece of the coconut and started eating it.

Oh yes, what I forgot to include in this article is the use of a whip to control the dance and the dancers. The whip was used to change the dance movement of the dancers during the dance and to contained the possessed as the shaman did his thing to remove the spirits. The person who tried to stop our media friend from dancing earlier returned with this same whip and hit him lightly (I hope) on the arm twice and suddenly the expression on his (media friend) face changed. He dropped the flat wooden horse and with a blank face slowly walked out of the circle and sat under the coconut tree. Phew! Safe at last.

Back to the Shaman and the tiger possessed man... things have gone on way too long and the fight between the Shaman and the spirit of the tiger that has possessed the dancer got more intense. For the many years that he has been messing with these spirits perhaps they have gotten bored of him and decided not to leave. But at long last the shaman succeeded and the dancer collapsed to the floor motionless, tired from the ordeal.

But who would remove the spirit from the shaman? How will this end? Questions and more questions.

Just when we through that the only issue now is with the shaman he gave out another scream pointing in the direction of the coconut tree. Unfinished business perhaps. He then gestured in a hostile manner for someone (or something) to come to him as if asking for a fight. Puzzled, the crowd looked towards the coconut tree and slowly without any expression on his face, our earlier possessed media friend walked towards the shaman.

The shaman gave out another scream and then grabbed the head of our media friend with one hand while pointing to the sky with the other. He gave out one more scream and our media friend collapsed on the ground. At last the spirit has left him leaving him exhausted and with no energy.

The shaman then walked towards a drum and stood on it. He yet again gave one very loud scream pointing to the sky before collapsing to the ground hugging the drum like a bolster. Another person and his daughter then went to him, picked him up, and helped him stand before walking him back to a chair where he sat and recuperated.

Information On Kuda Kepang

Kuda Kepang is a Javanese traditional ritual type dance that used to be performed during the paddy harvesting season. Spirits of various deities are called in to possess the dancers or performers. This dance is performed during certain events and functions these days. Dancers ad performers are known to not only eat hot burning coal but broken glass too. There have also been instances where performers climb onto the roof top of houses and run on them.