East Java Tourism News

Have you heard of Tetada Kalimasada?

February 13th, 2008

When my friend, Lyn de la Cruz, invited me to the inauguration of the Rizal Center of the Tetada Kalimasada, I had to ask her to repeat the name. It was so unfamiliar and foreign-sounding that when we drove to the Mission Hills clubhouse for the event several days later, I said “Talimasada” when asking the guard for directions. I suppose I hadn’t really internalized the concept even then although Lyn did try to give me a background.
Unfamiliarity notwithstanding, I can smell a good story from 10 miles away but especially when it is staring me in the face. I’m not always right, of course, but in the case of Tetada Kalimasada, I wasn’t mistaken. I asked if I could meet with the ranking officers of the Rizal Chapter, an informal lunch was arranged with Ms. Didi Santos Struijk and Mr. Ollie Jumao-as and thus begun the attempt to fill in the gaps from the sketchy information that I was able to retrieve on the Internet about this way of life called Tetada Kalimasada. For that is what it is—a philosophy, a discipline and a way of life.

If you want a memorable introduction, Mr. Jumao-as, or Pak Ollie as he is known in the Tetada Kalimasada circle, mentioned a CNN video about a demonstration where violence was averted through the use of Kalimasada techniques. I can’t find a copy of the video on the Internet but I did find a reference to it in the May 23, 2005 column of Jarius Bondoc in The Philippine Star. He wrote:

“Though eight years back, the video clip on CNN was so amazing that it still sticks to mind. The scene was during the anti-Chinese riots in Jakarta. Hundreds of demonstrators, some carrying molotov bombs, were about to charge a nervous platoon of policemen. From behind the phalanx sprang a dozen unarmed men in black. Lined up with left arms across tummies, they aimed right fists at the mob. Fifteen feet away, the assaulters suddenly fell to the ground as if they had crashed onto an invisible wall. What was that?

“The answer came only recently with an invite to watch a Kalimasada practice at the UP Vanguard Building in Diliman, Quezon City. It turned out that the secret of the Jakarta policemen is an ancient Indonesian martial and healing art, once known only to a noble family in East Java, but declassified a dozen years ago ‘for human good.’ What had stunned the rushing mob was powerful energy harnessed from the bodies of the Kalimasada-trained cops.”

Let’s go back to the Mahabharata, the ancient Indian epic poem that had been dissected and re-dissected by scholars in order to unravel its layers of meanings. There are five brothers in the story, the eldest of whom was Yudisthira. According to legend, Yudisthira was an accomplished warrior and his primary weapon was a spear (or staff). According to legend, Yudisthira lived in the city of Surabaya in East Java. In Javanese, a spear or staff is a kalimosodo.

While the Mahabharata details stories from wars whose dates are still subject to intense debate, the most recent of those dates appear to be around the fifth century. On the other hand, Kalimasada did not exist until 500 years ago. So I suppose it is more logical to assume that the word kalimasada, as it is used in Tetada Kalimasada, is either from the Javanese word kalimosodo or directly attributed to the character/quality of Yudisthira’s power and expertise as a warrior, as symbolized by the spear/staff that he carried. Yudisthira, even assuming that he actually existed, could not have been the founder of Kalimasada.

According to the history of Tetada Kalimasada, the practice has been around for 500 years in East Java, Indonesia. Until 1991, however, it was exclusive to one clan. Because Kalimasada was, first and foremost, a martial art (which makes the reference to Yudisthira understandable), it was this clan’s way of defending themselves and their lands against the aggression and invasion of other warring clans. The feudal era—Japan had its ninjas and samurais, so this clan practiced kalimasada. Secondarily, the kalimasada discipline also dealt with healing.

In 1991, the head of this clan, Eddy Surohati, founded Tetada Kalimasada, adding “tetada” which, according to a practitioner (http://edicio.wordpress.com) is short for terapi tenaga dalam, Bahasa Indonesian for inner-energy therapy. The modern Tetada Kalimasada, therefore, focuses on healing rather the martial arts aspect of the discipline. It is based on the principle that the human body has natural mechanisms for generating bio-electricity. These mechanisms are the seven chakras—root/base, navel/solar, spleen/lymph, heart, throat, brow/third eye and crown—are stimulated with exercises (jurus), breathing, concentration and relaxation techniques and energy synchronization. In more practical terms, the discipline is said to have therapeutic effects such as stress management, control of high blood pressure, improved stamina and endurance and recovery of sexual potency, among others.

If someone had tried to talk to me about such things when I was 10 years old, I would have called it voodoo outright. But my mother read books about occultism, eastern mysticism and yoga and all that stuff—books like the Bagavad Gita were ordinary in our house—so I was introduced to concepts like “power centers of the human body” and “mind over matter” very early in life. I’m not a practitioner of any of it, I can’t even say I am a believer—I am just not dismissive. After reading so many accounts by doctors about how 90 percent of the time, they prescribe mere placebos to patients to make them feel better, I know that many illnesses are more of a belief rather than a physical thing. Hence, I am not quick to dismiss any practice that says one can get well simply by thinking that one is already well.

Because of the focus on the ability to heal, it isn’t surprising, therefore, that Tetada Kalimasada has attracted people whom medical doctors have not been able to cure. Pak Ollie himself decided to try it after doctors gave up on his ailing mother. Didi had had no respite from asthma until she got into Kalimasada. No drugs, no operations (oh, please, don’t confuse it with those faith healer who perform “surgery” with their bare hands) but merely the chance to heal oneself and, perhaps, in time even others.

Have I become a convert? No. Central to the Tetada Kalimasada philosophy is the belief in God—a higher spiritual intelligence who makes it all possible. I’m an agnostic. I believe there is a force that is essential to keep the universe together but I do not see it as a higher nor superior entity. And there lies the irony—to my mind, at least. While Tetada Kalimasada talks of self-empowerment—to heal, to protect, to sustain health, to be at peace—it makes belief in a higher deity essential. Personally, I cannot reconcile one with the other.

Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/

Entry Filed under: East Java News