Barakah: The Pilgrim’s Divine Gift at the Shrine of Sunan Pandanaran

Abstract

Through the ethnographic examples and a framework of the everyday life, “The Pilgrim’s Divine Gift at the Shrine of the Sunan Pandanaran” shows the important role which the shrine of saint Sunan Pandanaran, located in Bayat, Central Java, plays in the lives of the Javanese people. This paper shows how the Javanese sacred space is inclusive of a historical continuity of different faiths that make up the local culture. Exposing the unnoticed, the inconspicuous, and the unobtrusive, this paper goes beyond the settled cultural patterns and problematizes heterogeneities, ambiguities, and indeterminate classification of categories into a homogenous identity of place, culture, and state—one singular, unified entity. The shrine is an heirloom of the Javanese kingdoms of Surakarta and Yogyakarta—Sunan Pandanaran is considered an ancestor of the Mataram Kingdom—but through the efforts of a Catholic village chief, this shrine has been revitalized as an important pilgrimage site for Javanese of any religious affiliation.