452.

Main Teri

Main Teri is an indigenous healing therapy with some theatrical features. The tradition also
typically involves the elements of dance, music and chanting. The conductor or the principal
figure of the ritual is referred as a ‘bomoh’. He is assisted by a ‘tok minduk’ who acts as a
spirit-interrogator and usually also plays the three stringed violin called as rebab (spike
fiddle), leading the musical ensemble. As the Tok Puteri summons, into his own body, the
spirit responsible for causing the patient’s illness, the Tok Minduk questions the spirit to
ascertain its identity and determine why the spirit is unsettled. As the spirit takes possession
of him, the Tok Puteri dances in a state of trance. Negotiations and offerings take place to
appease the spirit to ensure that it will cease disturbing the patient. If the illness is due to loss
of semangat or an imbalance of angin, the patient is encouraged to physically participate in
the performance to bring about his or her emotional and spiritual release.1
The healing practices can be related to Tantric aspects, where the an illness is personified as a
malevolent spirit or loss of spirit (jiwa or semangat). The beginnings of Main Teri practices
date back to the pre-Islamic times. It is believed to be existing since 6000 BC. This healing
performance tradition found mainly in the northern eastern Malaysian state of Kelantan. In
the Kelantanese worldview, such illnesses are due either to an attack by malignant or
unsettled spirits, a loss of semangat (soul or life-essence) or an imbalance of angin (inner
wind) within a patient’s body
The Main Teri ritual normally will be conducted in the night. There will be invocation,
offerings and hours of prayers conducted during the ritual. However, the actual healing ritual
is saved until it is before the dawn because it is believed that it is in that time where the spirits
are forced to leave the human world. The Main Teri ceremony will be accompanied with
traditional orchestra which will last a whole night, or sometimes several nights.
The theatrical features of a main Teri ritual include dances accompanied by singing and an
orchestra. The spirit’s arrival is made known by the change of the dance style towards
uncontrolled, jerky trance movements. Then follows the actual communication with the spirit
including offerings and negotiations by the shaman. This dialogue-like communication with
the spirit of the illness may last long and it often includes even obscene humor.2
Tok Puteri actually helps his patients to overcome the illness through his self-conscious. His
patients do not possess any spirit outside of their bodies. The situation that actually occurs to
the patients is they were taken by the shaman to a world where they know the wind in their
inner selves. The wind is a reflection of someone’s personality. He added most of the illness
that treated through the Main Puteri are the windy illness that used to occur and sourced from
the type of their personality called Angin Dewa Muda. 3

1
PUSAKA. 2021. Communities - Main Puteri — PUSAKA. [online] Available at:
<https://www.pusaka.org/communities-main-puteri> [Accessed 23 September 2021].
2
Asian Traditional Theatre & Dance. 2021. Indigenous Traditions: Main Puteri and Mak Yong | Asian
Traditional Theatre & Dance. [online] Available at: <https://disco.teak.fi/asia/indigenous-traditions-main-
puteri-and-mak-yong/> [Accessed 21 September 2021].
3
(2021) <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wan-
Jazmina/publication/325121179_The_functions_of_Mantra_in_Main_Puteri_and_Wayang_Kulit_Performance
s_in_East_Coast_Peninsular_of_Malaysia/links/5dba4f5f92851c8180193869/The-functions-of-Mantra-in-
However, Is main Teri Shahriah complaint? The answer is very much debatable as it is now
going on within Kelantan state authorities. For any tradition to be said as binding with
Islamic Laws, it has to fulfill several conditions of valid Urf. The first condition is it must
represent a common and recurrent phenomenon. If a particular tradition is practiced by only a
group of minorities or small number of people within a large community pool, it will not be
taken authoritative.
The second condition of Urf is that the practice should be dominant in the sense that it is
observed in most of the cases which it can apply. Main Teri is a indigenous custom that
originated in the state of Kelantan. It is not a common practice elsewhere. If Main Teri is
taken for an alternative treatment, most Muslims in Malaysia are commonly seen getting
treated with alternative medicine such as cupping, tuinalogy, siddha, Ayurveda, Chiropractic,
naturopathy but not Main Teri. This only proves that Main Teri is not dominant in traditional
treatment and still considered a taboo by many people including many of those in Kelantan.
Hence, Main Teri does not fulfill this condition of Urf.

Main-Puteri-and-Wayang-Kulit-Performances-in-East-Coast-Peninsular-of-Malaysia.pdf> accessed 23
September 2021