Sumarah
Entry in Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ed. J. Gordon Melton & Martin Baumann, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA.
'Sumarah' is a Javanese word referring to the condition of total surrender. Thus the name ‘Paguyuban Sumarah’, for the Indonesian spiritual association, is also a description of its practice. The aim of meditation, termed ‘sujud’ within Indonesia, is to surrender every aspect of personal being so the self functions as a vehicle for God's will. Currently Sumarah is an association of about six thousand. The seat of the organization, the Dewan Pimpinan Pusat (DPP) is in Jakarta. Regional centers exist in all major Javanese cities and in a few regions, notably Madiun, a large number of villagers joined. Sumarah is not identified with any religion. While most members are Muslim there are also Buddhist and Christian followers.
Sumarah is practice. It has no canon of teachings, no sacred texts, and no sacred sites or buildings. There are no ‘guru’ and the direction of attention in meditation is ‘inward’, the authority meditators are meant to attend to is that of the ‘true teacher’ (guru sejati or hakiki are terms for this) inside. Nevertheless guidance (tuntunan) within weekly group sessions is a critical vehicle for practice. Guides, termed ‘pamong’, speak spontaneously through attunement to those participating. All Sumarah members lead normal working and family lives. The aim of practice is not isolation from society, but a balance of outer (lahir) and inner (batin) being in every moment.
The origins of Sumarah lie in the revelatory experiences (‘wahyu sumarah’) of Sukinohartono in 1935. Pak Kino, as he was called, was born at the turn of the century near the court city of Yogyakarta. He worked as a court attendant and bank clerk until his death in 1970. After his revelation a circle of friends began to share practice so that by 1940 the seeds of an organization had been sown through most of Central and East Java. Those seeds germinated during World War II under Japanese occupation. During the revolutionary struggle of the late 1940s an influx of many new and younger members gave rise to the need for a formal organization.
Just as Indonesia gained independence the association crystallized into what is now "Paguyuban Sumarah", usually referred to as just "Sumarah". From 1950 until 1966 formal organization was led by Dr Surono and centered in Yogyakarta. From 1966 until his death in 1997 the most important leader was Arymurthy in Jakarta. Throughout the period since independence Sumarah has been one of the several dozen most prominent national movements within the sphere of Javanism (kejawen, earlier also termed ‘kebatinan’). Although not one of the largest movements it has been especially important nationally because its leaders have been simultaneously active in umbrella organizations which represent kebatinan on the national scene. Although there have been several hundred international practioners since 1971, there is no international organization.
References
Howe, David. Sumarah: A Study of the Art of Living. Unpublished PhD dissertation, U North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 1980
Stange, Paul. Politik Perhatian: Rasa dalam Kebudayaan Jawa (The Politics of Attention: Intuition in Javanese Culture). Lembaga Kajian Islam dan Sosial. Yogyakarta, 1998
Stange, Paul. “Inner Dimensions of the Indonesian Revolution” in Laurie Sears, ed. Autonomous Histories, Particular Truths. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, U. Wisconsin, Madison 1993
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This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally hosted at freotopia.org/people/paulstange/sumarah.html, and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.