Villagers from Julah in Tejakula, Buleleng, towed a pregnant cow behind a boat into open sea as part of a local traditional ritual. Talking about weird goings on, it reminds me of the story of the impregnation of a cow by some old village idiot. This post is a translation of an article which appeared in Dutch daily “Volkskrant” on 24 February 2009 (link: ).Ģ49 Comments on “Ponari & His Magic Healing Stone” After school he is back on his father’s shoulders and he immerses his stone in water until he cannot hold it anymore…. This poor peasant village is making a daily turnover of one billion rupiah (70,000 euros).Īs long as the faithful continue to throng there’s no way back. They want Ponari to continue because they earn big money: they sell food, they rent out parking spaces, sleeping places and sell water in which Ponari has immersed his stone. He has already tried a few times to get Ponari to school but was always stopped by the crowd and his own neighbours which keep the family more or less as hostages. Even his father says now enough is enough. Child welfare agencies demand closure of this ‘practice’ of Ponari in order to protect the boy against exploitation. It is superstition and therefore sinful but also dangerous.
Especially Muslim organizations condemn what is happening there. Yet there is growing criticism of the Balongsari circus. Hamzah (53) says that his eyes are just as bad as before. The media are interviewing more and more people who have been drinking the miracle water but didn’t notice anything. A child of three died after his parents had given him wonder water instead of taking him to a doctor. And also the healing doesn’t work that well. This has already led to accidents: four people have been trampled to death and an unknown number got injured. There are barriers of bamboo put down to control the crowd. He looks tired.Ī party tent protects him against the sun. This allegedly turns the water into a powerful panacea. They bring cups, bottles and buckets of water in which the boy wonder plunges his stone. First dozens, then hundreds, and now there are thousands. The news about the miraculous healings spread quickly and people started to flood to the small village of Balongsari, a few hours drive from Surabaya. There he discovered the healing effects of the stone: a neighbour healed of fever after he had touched it, the village head got rid of a bad pain in his arm and the local police officer, a pious Muslim, swears he has seen with his own eyes how Ponari healed a boy who had not spoken a single word for five years. He threw it away but the stone came back so he took it home.
When he regained consciousness there was a stone on top of his head. But people have to wait because Ponari must go to school.Ī month ago Ponari was hit by lightning, according to his story. Thousands of people crowd between the houses and when they see Ponari they even press harder. It is not easy to get the boy away from his village. The school director takes him there personally on his “moped”, and a platoon of riot police officers run alongside the 9 year old prodigy to protect him. He hasn’t been there for three weeks and this Monday is the time. The magical faith healing stone of young boy Ponari is big business for a small village in East Java.Įast Javanese village is earning big bucks with its boy wonderĮven Ponari must go to school.