Horses of Life and Death

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

Horses of Life and Death
Buy Now: $295.00

The Pasola, a traditional jousting battle with hundreds of horses and riders, is the Sumbanese New Year celebration, and also a ritual that anticipates the rice harvest. It is staged to welcome the annual swarming of sea worms on the western beaches, since the worms are seen as representing the spirit of the rice crop. The spirit of the fertility of the seas and the land comes from the body of a sacrificed girl, and her return each year is celebrated with a dramatic display of masculine virility, courage, and horsemanship.

The first part of the story is narrated by a boastful young rider, describing preparations for the event, and ways in which a rider's identity and name are tied to his favorite horse. After reciting ritual taunts to his opponents, the rider crosses the Pasola field with a bamboo lance and tries to knock others off their horses, as the sea worm priest watches to make sure that no rules are broken. The fierceness and violence of these hyper-masculine confrontations underscore the contrast with traditions that fertility and life ultimately come from female spirits.

The second part of the story is narrated by the widow of a man who died shortly after these festivities, and whose funeral involves his horse as the leader of the procession to the stone tomb. The widow explains that only women can mourn the dead, since only they can remove the pollution of death from the house and restore the balance between life and death. For four days, her husband's spirit is fed at every meal, and he does not realize that he is dead until a final ritual to determine the cause of his death and send his spirit away. The contrast in narrators shows a gendered perspective on calendar rituals in Sumba, and also the close emotional ties between members of a family and the horses that they raise, which share the same destiny as their riders.

A more complete analysis of the ritual jousting and funeral depicted in this film can be found in Chapters 5 and 9 of The Play of Time: Kodi Perspectives on Calendars, History and Exchange (University of California Press, 1994) and in the American Ethnologist article "Predatory Voyeurs: Tourists and 'Tribal Violence' in Remote Indonesia" 2002 29(4) pp. 603-630.

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The Left Eye of God

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

The Left Eye of God
Buy Now: $320.00

Caodaists worship the left eye as an Asian synthesis of eastern and western traditions. In this film, they tell their stories of exile, anti-colonial struggle, and building immigrant congregations in California. Footage of rituals and temples, and archival images combine to provide a personal perspective on a largely unknown mystical tradition. Older religious leaders tell how this new faith emerged in colonial Saigon in the 1920s and was soon followed by one in four people in southern Vietnam.

Incorporating European figures like Victor Hugo and Jeanne d'Arc, Caodaists tried to heal the wounds of colonialism, but suffered persecution from the French, the Diem government, and the communists. After 1975, new spirit mediums in California developed an innovative style of worship for a generation of followers facing the challenges of the American context and newly re-opened contact with religious centers in Vietnam. How independent can California congregations be from sacred authorities in the homeland?

A more complete analysis of the changing worlds of Vietnamese Caodaists can be found in "Caodai Exile and Redemption: A New Vietnamese Religion's Struggle for Identity" in Religion and Social Justice for Immigrants, Rutgers University Press 2006: p. 191-210, and in the Material Religion journal article "Seeing Syncretism as Visual Blasphemy: Critical Eyes on Caodai Religious Architecture" 2010 6(1).

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Horses of Life and Death

The Left Eye of God