The Battle of Dragon Antaboga against Octopus Lapindo
By Patrisius Mutiara Andalas, SJ
The mud people have made use of traditional stories familiar to the people to share their sufferings to the public and resist against unjust corporation. They refer to Sang Hyang Antaboga in the epic of Mahabharata and with the help of local artists connect the Lapindo Corporation with gurita (octopus). Octopus with dexterous arms can shrink and expand coordinately, and its camouflage system survives octopus in critical situations. They see the need to raise public awareness of the camouflaging power by the corporation to justify its innocence in the mudflow. They performed the battle between dragon Antaboga against octopus Lapindo to commemorate the fourth year of the mudflow in Porong.
As the epic of Mahabharata tells us, gods search for sacred water located at the bottom land of the sea. They revoke Mount Mandira, reverse it to use the top of the mountain to drill the bottom land of the sea. They fail to get the sacred water for they can pull not back the Mandira. Another version of the story tells us that the drilling disrupts the ocean. Antaboga offers help to thm by embracing the drilling instrument completely with its body, pulling it upward, and returning it to its previous place. The gods reward him with a status of Sang Hyang that equals to god, and provide him authority to rule over the netherworld. They also provide him with an extraordinary power to transform himself into other creature. Sang Hyang Antaboga lives in the heavenly Saptapratala (the seventh layer of the earth).
The Javanese people later connect Sang Hyang Antaboga with the sacred water that can resuscitate people who die prematurely. The mud people in Porong believe that the sacred snake resides near the drilling site that later erupts the mudflow caused by the drilling corporation. They adapt the story of Antaboga by putting the sacred dragon into fighting against the giant octopus. The later represents the Lapindo Corporation whose arms grip the House of Representatives, political parties, mass media, non-governmental organizations, academicians, religious leaders and public figures. The negligent drilling corporation caused ecological chaos to the land of Porong. As the local artists portrayed vividly, the dragon, carrying the messages of bringing the corporation to the court of justice and justice to the mud people, chases the octopus determinedly. Despite its powerful camouflage and support, the mud people believe that with justice as their sacred weapon ultimately win the battle. [1]
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Mutiara Andalas, SJ adalah mahasiswa tahap akhir Pascasarjana di Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, California dan penulis buku “Lahir dari Rahim: Wacana Perempuan Asia tentang Allah di Era Globalisasi” dan “Kesucian Politik: Agama dan Politik di Tengah Krisis Kemanusiaan.”
[1] http://www.bausastra.com/main/index.php?do=view&id=21; Mahendra Sucipta, Ensiklopedi Tokoh-tokoh Wayang dan Silsilahnya (Yogyakarta: Narasi, 2009), 33. 286; Ag. Pringgodigdo, Ensiklopedia Umum (Yogyakarta:Kanisius,1977),63.
