Wawa: Kita mana buleh makan kobau!
Me: Heh? Ye ke? Kenapa?
Wawa: Eeee..keturunan kita tak boleh makan kerbaula.
Me: Eh, hari tu akak makan, elok je aku sampai hari ni.
Wawa: Yela bukan semua jenisla,tak boleh makan kerbau balau.Dengan pisang udang sama itu ikan talang
Me: Haaa?
Wawa is my 18 years old cousin, she has the whatever-attitude yet she knew about this stuff. Amazing. Being me, I wanted to know what's the reason behind rather than follow rules or order blindly. I asked her to tell me more but instead she referred me to our nenek . Well, since nenek were busy entertaining guest as it was the kenduri day I didn't managed to. So, yesterday feeling bored at work [haha] I called her up.
She was impressed by the fact that her ermm..unpredictable granddaughter called her. Yelah, jangan kata nak call, nak balik kampung pon jarang sekali.
And so the story goes...
Once, there we a farmer family somewhere in Sumatera. They had a daughter who they love so much [ni aku yg tambah.haha]. Their life depends on their wide paddy fields which were located next to their hut. One day, the mother decided to harvest some bananas from their orchard, which was called pisang udang or famously known as pisang merah because of its colour. The mother then, place the banana on top of the kepuk. Kepuk is a lofty urn, made from some weaved leaves which was used to store paddy after being harvested. Being a child, the daughter wanted to the banana, to her the colour red indicated the banana were already ripen and ready to be eaten yet thwarted when the mother told her to wait for few more days. The daughter somehow, couldn't wait any longer hence when the mother was outside working at the paddy field, she climbed the kepuk trying to reach for the banana but fatefully she fell into the kepuk and slowly buried beneath the paddy. Her scream echoed however sadly no one seemed to hear her cry.
The couple looked near and far for their missing daughter but she was still nowhere to be seen. Now, the father had a kerbau , a white kerbau which is known as kerbau balau which he tied not far from the kepuk. So one day, one his way to feed the kerbau, he saw abu [let's name the kerbau abu, ok] licking something, engrossed. Ah, that was just weird coz there was no source of water nearby. Feeling curious, he tried to find out where did the water come from when eventually he a small stream coming from the kepuk. It shouldn't be happening, since kepuk and paddy were meant to be dry. As he dig up the paddy from the kepuk, he was devastated to find his precious daughter's body, motionless with water dripping from her corpse.
Pisang yang jahat
Since that day, he cursed pisang udang and kerbau balau to be eaten by his heirs which is the Minangs. Those who ate shall be doomed.
As for ikan talang, my nenek can't recall the story but she did mentioned that her eldest sister suffered from some skin disease which is known as sopak after eating some keropok made from ikan talang.
He. I am not a superstitious person but I like what I heard. Perhaps it's quite difficult to believe but I am sort of amazed by the fact that I belong to some society who live in the boundary of certain rituals and adat.
To me, how modern you are, you root is not supposed to be forgotten. Your root made who you are today. There's nothing to be ashamed of in accepting you are Minang, Javanese or even Batak. Each and every one of them have their own beautiful culture.
Do you have any pantang larang form your nenek moyang?
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