Bomoh

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Bomoh is the term for a shaman in Malaysia. They are also known as dukun. Bomohs still operate today, often consulted for medical or personal reasons. Although the word is Malay, there are bomohs of all religions and races.

Some bomohs use cemeteries to summon spirits to fulfill requests by supplicants, while others only deal with a single spirit. It is said that sometimes the bomoh selects the spirit, while other times, it is the spirit who selects the bomoh.

Spirits can perform healings, seek missing persons or even investigate reasons for bad luck. Spirits can also be used to possess peoples, cause sickness and miseries and many other bad things.

Bomohs who have a particular religion usually incorporate their religious practices into their craft.

The bomoh works with rituals and incantations, or jampi-jampi, which is derived from the verb menjampi, meaning to cure by magic^[1].

[edit] See also

• Animism in Malaysia
• Shaman
• Quimbanda
• Sangoma

[edit] References

1. ^ A Dictionary of Malayan Medicine, ISBN 0196381495