The chairman of the Wamena Muslim Community, Hadiman Asso (left), and an unidentified representative of Christian church youth work together in a burning stone event to welcome the Ramadhan fasting month in the Angkasa area of Jayapura City on May 26.
Under a scorching sun, around 40 people gathered outside the Firdaus Asso musholla, a prayer house in Jayapura City, Papua. They were making preparations for a barapen feast, commonly known as the stone grill feast. This time, the feast was being held to celebrate the holy month of Ramadhan. It was not only a cultural event, but it also strengthened religious tolerance.
Barapen is the traditional cooking method among the people of Papua’s Central Highlands, using grilling stones. Barapen is normally performed to welcome guests, to inaugurate a tribal leader or a local government official and to mark peace after a tribal conflict.
Pork is usually cooked during a Barapen feast. However, during the barapen held by the Muslim community of Wamena in Jayapura, pork is replaced with goat and chicken.
The stone grill feast was held at a location around 10 meters from the Firdaus Asso musholla. The barapen feast to celebrate the holy fasting month has been held in the community since 2012. The event not only involves the Wamena Muslim community, but youths from Wamena’s Catholic and Christian communities also partake of the feast.
The feast began with the ritual slaughtering of a goat and 10 chickens. The goat and chicken meat were cut into pieces and seasoned. This initial process takes around an hour.
Stones the size of an adult’s palm are collected and heated on a wood fire for about 45 minutes. After they are heated through, the stones are taken out of the fire with wooden tongs. Those at the gathering work together to carry the grilling stones and place them into a cooking pit measuring 60 cm x 50 cm with a depth of 60 cm. Sweet potatoes, bananas, corn and beans are placed on top of the grilling stones and then covered with grass and leaves.
The cuts of goat and chicken meat are placed inside the pit and covered with more leaves, topped with more grilling stones. The layers of food are finally topped with more vegetables and covered with grass and leaves. It takes 90 minutes for the food to cook in the stone grill pit.
Jayapura-based Wamena Muslim Community chairman Hadiman Asso said the stone grill feast costs Rp 5 million, and that it was entirely a community-funded event.
Message of peace
While waiting for the food to finish cooking, dozens of people from the Wamena Muslim Community attended a Quranic reading and preaching by ustaz (Muslim scholar) Muslimin Yelipele at the prayer house.
During his sermon, Muslimin did not only highlight the importance of fasting as a religious ritual, but he also told Muslims to respect the principle of brotherhood regardless of ethnic, racial and religious differences.
Hadiman said the lives of the local people passed peacefully, as they respected tolerance and each other’s differences.
Local priest John Baransano, an administrator of the Jayapura Forum for Communication of Religious People, appreciated the barapen feast that involved church youths.
“This shows true religious tolerance in Papua that can inspire the Indonesian people. The barapen held by the Muslim community of Wamena is a message of peace from the lands of Papua,” John said.
Agale Asso, 27, one of the church youths attending the barapen, said interreligious harmony had existed in Wamena since the time of their ancestors. For the past three years, Agale and other church youths always participated in the barapen feasts held by the Wamena Muslim Community.
“Our life principle regarding religious tolerance is nine we makiat, ninu kuloak makiat, meaning that although we might differ in our religions and tribes, we stick together,” Agale said.
The stone grill feast is not only an event to mark thanksgivings, weddings and mourning, but it also serves to strengthen social harmony. In organizing the feast, which is a sacred event, the people also preserve the heritage of the Papuan forefathers through the generations.
Central Papuan highlands tribal leader Lesman Tabuni said the community had held stone grill feasts for many hundreds of years. Before each barapan, the community usually held a meeting to determine who would use the arrow for slaughtering the animals for the feast.
“The meeting also discusses who would prepare the materials for the feast procession,” Lesman said.
He said that the stone grill feast embodied Pancasila values such as consensual deliberation, mutual cooperation, solidarity and unity among tribal communities.
“People donate food such as sweet potatoes, vegetables and cattle for the ceremony. It does not involve only one tribe. They also invite other tribes to participate,” Lesman said.
The chairman of the Forum for Religious Harmony in Papua Province, Lipius Biniluk, acknowledged that the stone grill feast of the Wamena Muslim Community allowed people to see the beauty of religious tolerance.
“We hope such events would not only take place in Jayapura, but also in other areas in Papua,” he said.
