The Healing Arts of the Malay Mystic

D. S. FARRER

The legacy of Alfred Gell offers a rich stock of ingenious ideas to apply and extend to the thought-provoking artwork of
Mohammad Din Mohammad, who combines the skills (ilmu) of the Malay martial art silat with the knowledge of the
traditional Malay healer, to press life, breath, and divine power into his painting and sculpture. The artist’s agency is
said to open a gateway to the unseen realm. By painting calligraphic motifs derived from the Quran with his bare hands,
the artist channels Allah’s energy from within, energy that is embodied and suspended within his artworks, to protect
the patient from spiritual attack. The artwork serves as a protective talisman during spiritually vulnerable moments,
such as birth, marriage, fasting, and death. During crisis, the power stored within the artwork may be unleashed to
counter attacks from ghosts, vampires, or other nefarious creatures. [Key words: agency, calligraphy, enchantment,
silat, Sufism]

Introduction for ‘‘art,’’ but it also denotes ‘‘aesthetics.’’ Seni, more-

over, refers to the ‘‘skill’’ involved in the production of

J
ust as Chinese kung fu may be referred to as med-
itation in motion, the Malay martial art (silat) is
the moving embodiment of Malay magic and reli-
gion.1 This article is concerned with the ‘‘doings’’ of
magic, mysticism, and religion, and with ‘‘agency’’ as
exemplified through works of art, ritual, and perfor-
mance (Hughes-Freeland 1998:46; V. Turner 1988).
I discuss silat at length as embodied magic elsewhere
(Farrer 2006a, 2006b, in press).2 Here I focus on the art-
work of a contemporary Malaysian artist (pelukis),
Mohammad Din Mohammad, a member of the Singapore
Modern Art Society, who has generously given permission
for his paintings and sculptures to appear in Visual An-
thropology Review.3 Mohammad Din is a master (guru silat)
of the secretive Malay martial art (silat Melayu). He became
a mystical healer after a motorcycle accident and several
years of treatment from his own guru silat, Pak Hamim
Bujang. Through these experiences Mohammad Din has
become a master of the unseen realm (alam ghaib). A
graduate in fine art from The Nanyang Academy of Fine
Art in 1976, Mohammad Din now eschews the pen and
the brush to paint with his bare hands. He infuses mysti-
cal power (tenaga batin) into his sculpture and painting,
and transforms these mediums of expression into a ve-
hicle for Malay mysticism and the celebration of God.
In much the same way that westerners regard clas-
sical music and ballet as art, the Malays generally regard
silat as an artFhence seni silat. Seni is the Malay term
art. Seni applies to modern painting and sculpture as
well as to all the ‘‘traditional’’ Malay arts, including
batik, Arabic calligraphy, wood-carving, jewelry,
silverwork, weaponry, music, and the performance arts
of dance, theater, and puppet theater (wayang kulit)
(Frey 1995; Ghulam-Sarwar 1997, 2004; Sedyawati
1998; Sheppard 1972, 1983). Therefore, any definition of
art must be wide enough to embrace performance and
not be narrowly confined to objects.4
Considering silat as an art drew me toward Gell’s Art
and Agency (1998), and suggested the intriguing possi-
bility for the anthropology of martial arts. However,
because ‘‘difficulties must be surmounted one at a time,’’
Gell’s definition of art excludes verbal and musical arts,
and refers primarily to objects including paintings,
carvings, and sculpturesFto what he calls ‘‘visual art’’
(1998:13). Despite his narrow definition, Gell does con-
sider dance, body-paint, tattoos, mazes, sand-drawings,
knots, and even animal traps as art forms in his Art and
Agency and in books and articles throughout his career
(Gell 1975, 1999[1985], 1993, 1999[1992], 1999[1996]).
Furthermore, in Art and Agency, Gell does discuss
nonmaterial types of art, particularly the relation be-
tween drawn patterns and dance, where performance art
‘complements graphic art. Regarding Mohammad Din’s
artwork alongside Gell’s anthropology of art opens an
interpretive window onto contemporary Malay mysti-
cism, and illustrates the continuing utility of Gell’s

Visual Anthropology Review, Vol. 24, Issue 1, pp. 29–46, ISSN 1053-7147, online ISSN 1548-7458. & 2008 by the American Anthropological Association. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-7458.2008.00003.x.
30 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 24 Number 1 Spring 2008
theory of enchantment (Gell 1999[1992], 1998). Ziaud-
din asserts, despite the formalism of Malay
interpretations of Islam, ‘‘Malay Islam leans heavily to-
wards a mystical spirituality that draws its sustenance
from myths, miracles and magic’’ (2000:133). Art critic
Rubin Khoo says that ‘‘it would not be an exaggeration
to say [Mohammad Din paintings] have the ability to
command’’ the viewer, adding that ‘‘they exude a certain
energy that draws you in’’ (Mohammad 2001). Khoo is
on the right track when he supposes that the uncanny
result of the artwork is achieved through the artist’s
technique of applying the paint straight from the tube
onto the canvas with his bare hands. This supports Gell’s
theory of the ‘‘technology of enchantment,’’ the undeci-
pherable skill of the artist, leading to the ‘‘enchantment
of technology,’’ which is a propensity to see the world in
enchanted form (1999[1992]).
Art and Agency
Gell’s master project was to establish the anthropology
of art upon the study of social relations, and not upon
aesthetics, culture, or Saussurian semiotics. This proved
to be a controversial move that went against the grain of
much of the contemporary anthropology of art (Morphy
1994:648–685), and has stirred up some bitter criticisms
(Bowden 2004), to which I shall return shortly.
Gell underscores ‘‘agency’’ and challenges repre-
sentational strategies in the anthropology of art, asking
not what ‘‘art objects’’ such as Asmat shields or painted
prows on Trobriand canoes represent, but what they
doFwhich for Gell (1998:6, 31) is to inspire fear and
awe in the enemy (see also Pinney and Thomas 2001:4).5
Gell’s task is to figure out how indigenous artworks
inspire fear and trepidation in the enemy. In Art and
Agency, Gell outlines the concept of ‘‘captivation’’
(1998:68–72) developed from his earlier theories
concerning ‘‘cognitive traps’’ (1999[1996]), ‘‘the en-
chantment of technology,’’ and ‘‘the technology of
enchantment’’ (1999[1992]).
Gell emphasizes that social agency, primarily an at-
tribute of the human actor, is also invested in things.
Proceeding implicitly upon the commodity fetishism of
Marx, and citing Mauss’s work on the gift, Gell argues
that art objects, cars, dolls, and even antipersonnel
mines act as sites of ‘‘congealed agency’’ (1998:18–21).
Art objects therefore may be considered to act as
Dr. Douglas Farrer earned a doctorate in social anthropology from the National University of Singapore in the Department of
Sociology in 2006. His thesis focuses upon the Malay martial art, silat. Dr. Farrer has practiced martial arts since 1975 and is a
qualified instructor in kung fu and silat. Dr. Farrer resided in Singapore and Malaysia from 1998 to 2007; he is currently based in
Micronesia.
‘‘second-class’’ agents or as ‘‘secondary agents’’ (Gell
1998:17, 20–21). Secondary agents possess within them
congealed power to act upon the world. According to
Gell, such agency should be the proper focus of the an-
thropology of art.
Gell formulates his theory of visual art in terms
of the ‘‘abduction’’ (inference) of agency, namely the
‘‘index’’ (the agency of the artwork), the ‘‘artist’’ (the
‘‘originator’’ of the agency of the artwork), the ‘‘recipi-
ent’’ (those who exert agency or have agency exerted
upon them via the artwork), and the ‘‘prototype’’ (the
entity represented in the artwork) (1998:12–27). Gell
implicitly follows Campbell’s (2002:56) use of the term
patient, where the artist becomes a vessel for other-
worldly powers, these powers somehow assuming the
role of the ‘‘agent’’ (contra Bowden 2004:310).
Layton perceptively notes that ‘‘while Gell makes a
good case for the agency of art objects he does not ex-
plain the distinctive ways in which art objects extend
their maker’s or user’s agency’’ (2003:447). My intention
here is not simply to adopt or critique Gell’s conceptual
apparatus, but to apply and extend his insights con-
cerning enchantment and captivation to the artwork of
Mohammad Din. In a rather complicated passage, Gell
explains that by abductionFa notion derived from logic
rather than linguisticsFhe is looking to adopt a non-
linguistic model of causality, where ‘‘abduction’’ refers
to ‘‘inferential schemas’’ (Gell 1998:14–16; cf. Schutz’s
[1944] ‘‘scripts’’). I think reading Bateson’s ‘‘Style, Grace
and Information in Primitive Art’’ (2000) gives a firmer
grip on what Gell is trying to achieve. Gell disdains aes-
thetics in relation to the anthropology of art in much the
same way that Bateson is not interested in translating
mythology into an understanding of particular artworks.
What is essential for Bateson and Gell is not the
‘‘message’’ but the ‘‘code.’’ Moreover, Gell’s ‘‘scientific-
looking’’ notation obviously derives from Bateson,
where square brackets enclose the universe of relevance
and parentheses [universe (of relevance)] (Bateson
2000:132, 134). However, whereas Bateson employs an
oblique stroke/within the brackets to represent a slash
across which some guesswork is possible, and Gell sub-
stitutes the notion of ‘‘abduction’’ to reason ‘‘across the
slash’’ from the known artwork back to the unknown
agent, I am fortunate to have known both the artwork
and the artist.
Describing himself as a ‘‘Sunday painter’’ (1998:72),
Gell was fascinated and mystified by the amazing skill

of art masters in the production of the masterpiece. He
refers to the application of the skills of the virtuosi to
the production of works of art as the ‘‘technology of
enchantment’’ (Gell 1999[1992]). Here the agency of
the artist eludes the comprehension of the viewer, who
is left mystified as to how the artwork was produced.
The resulting ‘‘enchantment of technology’’ refers to
a spell cast over those who would ‘‘see the real world in
an enchanted form’’ (Gell 1999[1992]:163; Campbell
2001:123). The artwork appears as miraculously fash-
ioned, an exalted masterpiece produced through divine
inspiration, exerting an ‘‘indecipherable agency’’ that
traps the spectator within the index, a process Gell dubs
as ‘‘captivation.’’ In Gell’s terms, ‘‘captivation or fasci-
nationFthe demoralization produced by the spectacle
of unimaginable virtuosityFensues from the spectator
becoming trapped within the index because the index
embodies agency which is essentially indecipherable’’
(1998:71). Therefore, captivation occurs when the spec-
tator cannot reason across the slash.
Tambiah notes that the knotted corded bracelets
given by Buddhist monks beguile spirits who, instead of
entering the body, are kept busy trying to figure out how
the knots were tied (1984). Similarly, Gell notes that
‘‘apotropaic patterns are demon traps’’ (1998:84). Be-
guilement is the key concept in Gell’s explanation of
complex designs sketched on the doorsteps of Indian
houses that lure and trap spirits to prevent them from
entering the house (1999[1996]:187–214). Furthermore,
Gell claims that Asmat shield designs ‘‘beguile’’ their
enemies and make them fearful (1998:6, 31). According
to Gell, the power of the index may captivate, demoral-
ize, or even horrify the opponent, through its
objectification of emotion:
The tiger which is about to pounce and devour his
victim looks, above all, terrifiedFof itself, as it
wereFand the same is true of warriors bearing
down with grimaces of fear and rage. The Asmat
shield is a false mirror, which seems to show the
victim in his own terror when, in fact, it is anoth-
er’sFand in this way persuades him that he is
terrified. Like the famous trompe-l’œil image (by
Parmigianino) of the Medusa’s head in the mirror of
Perseus (in the Uffizi gallery) the shield terrifies us
by persuading us that we are what it shows.
[1998:31; also 1998:68–72]
Even though the index may captivate, demoralize,
and horrify the recipient as opponent, the recipient is
also the benefactor of the artwork’s agency and of the
index’s capacity to fortify and delight. Across the slash
of demoralization lies inspiration. Simultaneously, flow
states and moments of astounding creativity may be ac-
The Healing Arts of the Malay Mystic FARRER 31
companied by sensations of euphoria and a sense of the
uncanny.
Gell’s Art and Agency reverses Freud’s ideas of the
‘‘uncanny’’ (1990[1919]). Freud reminds us that the un-
canny is part of a little known branch of aesthetics, and
locates the source of uncanny sensations or feelings
within the individual recipient, anxieties from which
‘‘we moderns’’ have never become free, including
silence, solitude, darkness, and death (1990:339). On
the other hand, in his anthropological Grundrisse, Gell
locates the source of uncanny sensations within the
social context (artist, index, and recipient) in the pro-
duction, exchange, consumption, and distribution of art
and fetish objects. Freud juxtaposes art and experience;
Gell attempts to bridge that gap through anthropological
theory; and Mohammad Din attempts to bring the un-
canny into quotidian life through his art. Mohammad
Din’s artworks have social and psychological functions
as they approach ancient anxieties and reflect specific
Malaysian anxieties concomitant with rapid moderniza-
tion, problems of religious identity between Sufism
to Wahabbism, and comparative ethnic fear of failure.
This supports Campbell’s point that the enchantment
‘‘effected’’ by art is frequently mediated by culturally
specific references (2001).6
Turning to an altogether different type of false mir-
ror, Bowden’s principal argument, in his ‘‘Review’’ of
Gell’s Art and Agency, hinges upon his complaint of
Gell’s handling of the ethnographic evidence (2004:
312–313).7 Bowden argues that Gell overrelies upon a
picture of a newly decorated prow board originally taken
by Campbell in 1977 (see also Campbell 2002) as evi-
dence for his theory of enchantment, in both his earlier
article and his later book (Bowden 2004:312–313; Gell
1999:164 [1992]; 1998:70). According to Bowden, who
admits that he has never sailed off the southeast coast of
New Guinea, the choppy seas around the Trobriand Is-
lands would remove the paint from the prow board,
rendering the image far less imposing than the spectac-
ular prow board of Campbell’s picture, thus negating any
supposedly enchanting effect (2004:312). However, as
Shirley Campbell put it to me:
[Bowden (2004)] misses the point entirely and ap-
parently has not been able to grasp the central
argument of Gell’s thesis. It doesn’t matter that the
paint may or may not be washed off [from the prow
of the boat] on the out-going journey. When occa-
sion allows the fleet stops near to their destination to
freshen up the paint of the prowboards and their
own decoration. However, this is not essential as it is
the ‘‘knowledge’’ or expectation that there are pow-
erful elements displayed on the boards and that the
32 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 24 Number 1 Spring 2008

paint itself has been imbued with magic to alter the
minds of the hosts. Essentially then, what Gell was
arguing, which he took from my own analysis of the
situation, was that people believe that the designs, the
paint, [and] the magic that is encased within all of
these are powerful elements that will [affect] people
and their behaviors. [pers. comm, February 3, 2007]
As far as I am aware, the somewhat ad hominem
postmortem criticisms of Gell made up by Bowden
(2004) have remained unchallenged. This is not to say
that Gell’s 1998 book is beyond reproach, but there is a
significant difference between the sour grapes of de-
structive criticism and an attempt to appreciate it for
what it is worth.8 For example, in order for a theory to
adequately account for the performance of martial arts,
cognition and rationality need to be recognized as
embodied phenomena that are manifested through
performance. Therefore, Gell’s concepts of the ‘‘technol-
ogy of enchantment’’ and the ‘‘enchantment of
technology’’ could be recast as the ‘‘performance of en-
chantment’’ and the ‘‘enchantment of performance’’ for
the purposes of understanding silat. Here the ‘‘perfor-
mance of enchantment’’ refers to the esoteric abilities or
skills of the silat practitioner to confound and confuse
the enemy with devious maneuvers (possibly vanishing
right under their nose), and the ‘‘enchantment of perfor-
mance’’ refers to the animist, Hindu, Tantric, Buddhist,
and Islamic cosmologies embodied within the practice
and performance of silat (Farrer 2006b, in press).9
While I agree with Campbell’s comments concerning
Bowden’s misreading, my contribution to this debate is
to illustrate Gell’s theory with the artwork of Mohammad
Din, where art, magic, and healing coalesce. In the fol-
lowing account, I pursue the complex multiplicity of
silat (which fuses art, enchantment, medicine, ritual,
performance, and skill) poured into the artwork of Mo-
hammad Din, an artist who paints with his bare hands
onto canvas using the movements of silat. The finished
products are supposed to be able to spring into action
automatically in times of crisis, and act as a reservoir for
the divine agency of the artist to serve and protect the
recipient against the forces of evil.
Mohammad Din Mohammad
In his early 50s, Mohammad Din is soft-spoken and
slightly built. He has a youthful, thoughtful counte-
nance, a quick smile, and a sharp wit (Figure 1). He has
exhibited in Bahrain, China, Dubai, Germany, Holland,
Indonesia, Istanbul, London, Macau, Malaysia, New
York, Paris, Perth, and Singapore. Born in Melaka, now-
adays, he resides mostly in Singapore and Malaysia
where his work, examples of which are displayed in the
Singapore Art Museum and the National University of
Singapore Museum, is recognized as a tidy investment.
Polymath Mohammad Din is renowned for his abil-
ities as a martial arts expert, natural healer and herbalist
(pawang), stage and film actor, musician, and song-
writer. He is an avid collector of Southeast Asian arti-
facts and has an impressive collection of Malay art,
antiques, and exotica, including sculptures, shadow
puppets, and traditional Malay weapons (throwing axes,
daggers, halberds, knives, shields, spears, and swords).10
Every item carries a ‘‘biography’’ and most have magical
properties (Kopytoff 1998). For example, one keris (dag-
ger), named kelap lintah, is said to grow to hundreds of
feet in length when drawn in battle, and dwarfs the
combatants. The material object partially supports the
story, because when the blade is slowly drawn it appears
far too long to have emerged from its scabbard. Mo-
hammad Din says the name kelap lintah means the blade
‘‘moves like a leech,’’ appearing small and then big as
it feeds upon blood. The clever gestalt design uses the
angles of the hilt of the keris against the scabbard to trick
the eye into seeing the blade appear to grow too long for
the scabbard.
According to Mohammad Din, his silat style, which
he describes as Seni Silat Pusaka Hang Tuah, dates back
to the famous Malay warrior, Laksamana (Lord Admiral)
Hang Tuah, who resided in Melaka during the 16th
century.11 In the Middle Ages, Malacca was the cosmo-
politan capital city of the Malay (Melayu) people, who
safeguarded trade and commerce across large coastal
areas of Southeast Asia until 1511, when the Portuguese
sacked the city (Andaya and Andaya 2001; Reid 1988,
1993). Nowadays, Melaka is widely regarded as a rather
sleepy tourist town, although for Malaysian silat practi-
tioners it is the Mecca of silat.
Supposedly first developed exclusively by and for
the Malay aristocracy, silat Melayu (Malay silat) is an
especially elegant-looking fighting art where the move-
ments of the waist transmit a smooth, flowing, whipping
power into gestures akin to Balinese and Javanese dance.
Despite a preference for very low stances, the footwork
is light, fast, and nimble, with the performer veering off
at unlikely or inconceivable angles. The best exponents
can move like a shadow, and Mohammad Din demon-
strates superb balance, control, power, and speed in his
silat forms. In Dance and Drama in Bali, de Zoete and
Spies (1952:256) describe the silat performer’s arms,
wrists, and hands as carving intricate mysterious circling
patterns through the air in gestures of adjuration or
exorcism as if weaving charms. In the same sense that
Japanese kendo is generally understood to embody Zen
Buddhism, and Chinese taijiquan and baguazhang to

FIGURE 1. Mohammad Din in his studio at Gallery Mystique.
embody the Taoist philosophies of yin and yang, Mo-
hammad Din understands silat Melayu to embody
Islamic mysticism. Therefore, from his point of view, it
may be said that silat is Sufism in motion, with the hands
weaving Islamic calligraphy through the air in remem-
brance of Allah.
Mohammad Din adopts a holistic approach to art,
calligraphy, martial arts, medicine, and nature, which he
says are ‘‘all part of the One.’’ According to him, warriors
in Southeast Asia were always and necessarily involved
in healing because the practice of silat leads to many
injuries, including bruises, broken limbs, burns, concus-
sions, cuts, stab and puncture wounds, strained muscles,
and torn ligaments. Sickness, induced from poisoning,
witchcraft, and war sorcery, must be added to this list.
Mohammad Din emphasizes that the knowledge (ilmu)
of healing and silat are contiguous, asserting that it is
rare to find a guru silat who is not also a healer, or a
Malay healer who has not been a practitioner of silat.
Gallery Mystique
As I visited his home gallery one day in Singapore, Mo-
hammad Din suggested that we travel to Melaka to
practice silat in his ‘‘chicken shack.’’ I embarked upon
the journey with some trepidation, having just complet-
ed several weeks of rank fieldwork in a silat training
ground (gelanggang) covered in cat feces, musk, and ur-
ine. However, while we were driving, Mohammad Din
The Healing Arts of the Malay Mystic FARRER 33
decided that we should take a detour to Kuala Lumpur
instead. Late that night, we arrived at Gallery Mystique,
located in Bukit Tunku, the Beverley Hills of Kuala
Lumpur, perched atop the sprawling capital of Malaysia.
Nestling on the brow of a precipice, the five-story man-
sion boasts a huge reception area encompassed by four
alfresco dining areas. From the third story, a swimming
pool yawns out into the sky like a sparkling blue bottom
lip. The entire house is saturated with Mohammad Din’s
paintings and sculpture.
For one night only Gallery Mystique was opened to
the public, for an event mischievously called the ‘‘Night
of the Secret Wine.’’12 Secret wine does not just refer to
proper wine drinking at the artist’s exhibitions, but also
‘‘to the ecstasy of the mind and the feeling of the soul’’
when the viewer becomes intoxicated by the artwork, as
Mohammad Din noted to me. In the words of the great
Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi, as quoted by Mohammad Din:
Of the secret wine
all drank but just a sipFso as to become
so as to exist.
But I
drank barrels and barrels
of that wine so as to become
a mirror pure.
Such feelings, summoned by the skills of the artist,
captivate viewers and function to draw them into a
larger cosmology that the artwork embodies rather than
represents. None of this relies on cultural or performa-
34 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 24 Number 1 Spring 2008

tive notions of ‘‘aesthetics,’’ which Gell argued must be

bracketed for the purposes of understanding art anthro-
pologically (1999[1992], 1998).13
Entering the mansion through the imposing stone
entrance, one first encounters a small wooden sculpture
of a dragon behind which are situated two paintings: The
Conference of the Birds and the Garden of Revelation
(Figures 2 and 3).
The downstairs wall space mainly displays Moham-
mad Din’s work on the Zikr theme, completed in
calligraphic style, done in black and white, or in bright
vibrant colors all painted with his bare hands. Upstairs
are the private apartments of the owners and the artist’s
studio, featuring a series of paintings including those
from Mohammad Din’s series entitled Flora and Nature.
Less abstract than Jackson Pollock’s drip technique,
these stunning works of abstract expressionism enchant
the space around them.
The Conference of the Birds refers to the story related
by the Sufi, Farid Ud-Din Attar, and ‘‘although not cal- FIGURE 3. The Garden of Revelation. Acrylic on canvas. 9090 cm.
ligraphic in its visual style,’’ it has been painted by hand
in what Mohammad Din calls ‘‘the free style of calli-
graphic rendition.’’ symbol, of mankind trying to look for the truth, and the
The picture and the story concern the hoopoe bird truth is of course, within yourself.’’
that becomes the leader of the birds around it in their The Garden of Revelation reveals how the hoopoe
quest to find the King of the Birds (simorgh). Many birds bird stopped along the way of the journey to interview
failed to find the King, although in the end 30 birds all the birds around it. Mohammad Din says, ‘‘It is
managed to reach the door of the King of the Birds. done in a very aggressive calligraphic style’’ and
When the door was opened, they discovered that the bird continues,
they were seeking was in fact their own self. As Mo-
Many birds complained about how they didn’t have
hammad Din says, this ‘‘is a direct reflection, or a
the ability to look for the truth because either they
were obsessed by their singing ability, or the beau-
tiful color of the peacocks, or whatever thing has
stopped them from being able to go on with the
journey. But of course. . .thirty of these birds have
managed to pass through the test, and thirty of these
birds have found out that the bird they were looking
for, the King of the Birds, is Simorgh. Simorgh in
the Persian language means thirty birds. They have
found themselves.

The Art of Silat

My work responds to Kapferer’s call to explore realms

FIGURE 2. The Conference of the Birds. Acrylic on canvas. 9090 cm.
‘‘beyond rationalism’’ (2003) by deconstructing parts
of the colonial legacy of analytical constructs concern-
ing religion and magic (Farrer 2006b, in press). Decon-
structing such categories exposes a blind spot of the
Victorian colonial ethnographers who ignored embodi-
ment of magic and religion (Csordas 1994a, 1994b, 1999,
2002; B. Turner 1995, 1997). In contrast to the insights

of Africanist anthropology, Michele Stephen claims
that in Melanesia the shaman, the sorcerer, and the
meditative mystic are part of the same complex of
practitionersFeach is a master of soulsFwith the
difference being that the shaman has simply been more
accessible to anthropological inquiry than the sorcerer
(1987:67, 73–75; Farrer 2006b:3, in press). Similarly, in
the Malay world, which spreads across a region charac-
terized by great geographical and historical complexity
and diversity, clear distinctions between sorcerer, sha-
man, Imam, and the martial arts expert are difficult to
maintain. My view is that the analytical separation be-
tween the indigenous Malay bomoh and the guru silat
has been exaggerated. Originally an analytical error of
the colonial ethnographers (Skeat 1984; Winstedt 1993),
the error continues to rebound into the current litera-
ture.14 Given the regional cultural complexity, the guru
silat could be regarded as warriors and healers, artists
and religious virtuosos, sorcerers or shamans, or as
war-shamans, war-sorcerers, war-magicians, warrior-
alchemists, or even warrior-priests (Farrer 2006a, 2006b,
in press; Shaw 1976; Werner 1986, 2002).15 Obviously,
each of these concepts involves a different set of an-
thropological problems, but without an understanding
of silat the anthropology of Malay healing, magic, per-
formance, and ‘‘shamanism’’ remains patchy (Farrer
2006b, in press).16 One way of bracketing this complex-
ity, for discursive convenience, is to adopt the Malay
vernacular, where in Malay the term mystic is rendered
mystik, pertaining to activities that western viewers
would understand as sorcerous or magical.
As the definition of a ‘‘shaman’’ is generally some-
one who goes into trance to commune with the spirits in
another realm so as to facilitate healing on patients
in this realm, the term warrior shaman may be inappro-
priate for the Muslim guru silat on two counts
(Crapanzano and Garrison 1977; Eliade 1972; Halifax
1991; Heinze 1988; Lewis 2003). First, Islam forbids
trance; second, guru silat summon spirits or shades of
dead heroes into this realm, rather than enter another
dimension themselves.17
Sorcery involves the magical empowerment of the
individual through the summoning of supernatural
entities or powers from other realms. The spontaneous
bodily movement employed in the ritual creation of new
forms of Islamic silat, referred to colloquially in Malay-
sia as gerak (movement), is basically a displacement of
the Javanese menurun (trance).18 In menurun the spirit
of a horse, an eagle, a tiger, or another animal is sum-
moned (berseru) into the body of the silat practitioner,
who then spontaneously adopts the movements of the
animal.19 However, in the esoteric language of Malay
silat, gerak serves as a gloss for spontaneous bodily
The Healing Arts of the Malay Mystic FARRER 35
movement where the spirit of a dead human being takes
animal form to enter the body of the practitioner (Farrer
2006a:41). Both menurun and gerak use the power of
Allah to summon the spirits. The practitioner remains
unpossessed only in gerak, unlike menurun, where the
spirit takes over the will and the body of the practitioner.
It is but a short step to conceive the summoning of
an animal soul, a divine spirit, or a human ghost in ani-
mal guise not solely into the body of a practitioner, but
as passing through them to be contained within a sculp-
ture, painting, or other receptacle such as a blade, a ring,
or a stone. Such a distribution of the person or of the
entity is the essence of Mohammad Din’s artwork (also
see Gell 1998:96–155; Strathern 2001).
Although Malay mysticism combines elements from
many different arcane Gnostic, magical, and religious
traditions, the influence of Islamic Sufism on the art-
work of Mohammad Din needs to be emphasized. Rather
than using jampi (spells) to infuse his art with the magi-
cal power conveyed through breath, Mohammad Din
chants dhikr (also spelled as zikr), a term that means
‘‘remembrance of God’’ and refers to the rhythmic
chanting of the 99 names of Allah. Dhikr may be audible
or inaudible. The audible form is usually accompanied
by gentle to increasingly vigorous swaying movements
of the head. This is commonly performed by Sufis at the
Sufi lodges (zarwiah) spread across Malaysia on Thurs-
day nights and is done on many other ritual occasions of
the Islamic calendar.
To more fully understand Mohammad Din’s artwork
requires a brief summary of the Malay notion of the soul.
Semangat is the term for ‘‘spirit’’ or ‘‘life force,’’ as well
as being an umbrella category covering the seven ele-
ments of the soul. Early texts regarding Malay magic
fleetingly report the components of semangat as the
‘‘shadow soul,’’ ‘‘reflection soul,’’ ‘‘puppet soul,’’ ‘‘bird
soul,’’ and the ‘‘life soul’’ (Skeat 1984:50 n. 2). The
‘‘sevenfold soul’’ or ‘‘the seven souls’’ of Malay cosmol-
ogy are simultaneously separate elements and a totality.
The sevenfold soul may also include badi (the evil im-
pulse), which is possibly a ghostly remainder left in the
world by murder victims (Endicott 1970:73), and may
now be fused with the Islamic additions of roh (the indi-
vidual identity from the spiritual breath of God) and
nyâwa (the part that goes to heaven or hell upon death).
The Malay term bayang means both shadow and reflec-
tion. Wilkinson sums up the bayang epistemology: ‘‘man
is but a mirror, God is the resplendent sun; man is a
phantom, God is absolute being’’ (1906:15).20
A clinical separation of animist, Hindu, Buddhist,
and Islamic elements is problematic because they over-
lap, blur, and fold into one another under the hegemony
of Malay Sufism, resulting in fuzzy religious/magical
36 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 24 Number 1 Spring 2008
categories. Mohammad Din’s painting Confused Lover
(Figure 4), where ‘‘the lover is confused by his own
shadow’’ (Mohammad Din), reflects and reinvents the
tradition of Malay mysticism, and is painted in the style
of wayang kulit (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983). Some of
Mohammad Din’s pieces can be directly read as Islamic
calligraphy. Others, such as Confused Lover, explore
more ancient Southeast Asian themes, including silat,
Malay weaponry, shadow puppet theater (wayang kulit),
and the Javanese hobby horse dance (kuda kepang),
which, although centuries old, is probably a relative
newcomer to Southeast Asian performance art (Burridge
1961; Sedyawati 1998).
The guru silat attain their special powers by under-
going fearsome ascetic ordeals, ritual practices linked to
the esoteric indigenous animist belief system known as
kebatinan.21 Batin (inner/hidden/mind), the root word
of kebatinan, is of Arabic derivation and contrasts with
zahir (outer/manifest/bodily). Cultivating the breath,
known as tenaga dalam, tenaga batin, or prana, awakens
the power of the naga or dragon.22 Bertapa (ascetic
seclusions) may involve fasting, meditation, prayer, and
solitary survival in the rain forest, undertaken as steps
along the path toward the mystical revelation of self and
the attainment of magical powers. Mohammad Din, for
example, relates a ritual where he had to stand alone in a
well with the water up to his neck for seven days and
seven nights. Unfortunately, on the sixth day, a woman
came to draw water from the well and disturbed him, and
so he did not complete the test.
FIGURE 4. Confused Lover. Acrylic on canvas. 8686 cm.
Mohammad Din’s sculpture, Dragon Journey, illus-
trates the journey into the hidden dimension (Figure 5).
‘‘Dragon Journey,’’ as Mohammad Din says, ‘‘is a
journey into the unknown, into a dimension where the
end is unknownFa journey, real, and mystical, repre-
sentational, yet very abstract.’’ Made in Paris, the head
comes from discarded bits of a crab dinner; the body
consists of coconuts found in a Vietnamese shop strung
together with plastic rings; the tail is an old moose horn;
the eyes are made from a stone once embedded in
Mohammad Din’s broken ring; the eyebrows come from
the heels of his shoes; and the eye sockets are made from
the cork of a wine bottle. As Mohammad Din notes,
‘‘I think the whole philosophy of this artwork is actually
getting into its oneness, of the whole creation, you and
what you create, you and what you see and what you
feel, even you and what you have been collecting to
produce the artwork.’’
In sum, guru silat harness inner powers (tenaga da-
lam) to harm or kill their enemies, and conversely, use
the same energy to heal the victims of black magic.
Mohammad Din pours this energy into his artworks, and
paints with his bare fingers so as not to impede its flow.
Thus, he is both ‘‘agent’’ and ‘‘patient,’’ creator and ves-
sel for powers emerging from the unseen realm (alam
FIGURE 5. Dragon Journey. Mixed media.
 The Healing Arts of the Malay Mystic FARRER 37

ghaib). These powers are stored in his artworks ready to For example, he himself wears a talisman (azima) sus-
leap into life during times of emergency, akin to what pended from a string about his neck, made from wood with
Gell calls the ‘‘homunculus effect’’ (1988:133). a petrified hailstone inserted in the back.23 The idea, he
explains, is to have an upright alif on one’s chest in the form
of a miniature sculpture (also see Gell 1993).24 Alif is the
The Art of Healing first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and represents the stand-
ing posture at the beginning of the Muslim daily prayer
Mohammad Din walks with a limp due to a motorcycle (solat), which precedes kneeling and placing the forehead
accident he had more than 20 years ago. A truck forced onto the prayer mat (Figure 6). The postures of the prayer
him off the road and flung him down a cliff. His foot embody the Arabic calligraphy for Ahmad, comprised of
twisted 360 degrees around and dangled from his ankle the letters alif, ha, mim, and dal.25 From this vantage silat is
by a sliver of flesh. In the hospital, due to the onset of Islamic calligraphy in motion, just as the daily prayer is Is-
gangrene, the surgeon decided to amputate. Mohammad lamic calligraphy in motion, an idea recognized by Muslims
Din refused the procedure, insisted the doctor stitch his worldwide.26 Incidentally, in the painting Alif (Staircase of
foot back together, and promptly discharged himself. Life) the image is also suggestive of the straight (aristocratic)
Tending to him first in Singapore and then in Perak, Pak Malay keris and of a dragon’s head.
Hamim Bujang searched for ubi nyaharu (an inedible Hence, guru silat Mohammad Din paints dhikr directly
wild yam) in the rain forest, which was crushed into a onto the canvas with his bare hands, using his bodily
powder and mixed with turmeric, spider’s web, and soot movements of silat as a ‘‘transducer’’ of divine power
to form a poultice applied twice daily. Pak Hamim Bujang from the sacred to the profane realm (Csordas 2002:163).
spent two years healing and removing the bits of dirt and
debris from Mohammad Din’s foot. Mohammad Din then
vowed to God that if he were to keep his foot he would The Art of Nature
himself become a traditional Malay healer and devote his
life to alleviating the suffering of others. Mohammad Din, Mohammad Din draws his inspiration from nature, in-
who learned some French while painting and exhibiting cluding sunshine, rain, the sea, lakes, rivers, streams,
in Paris, says that alleviating suffering is the prime mo- mountains, and waterfalls, and takes long sojourns into
tivation of his art and provides its raison d’être. the Malaysian jungle to experience its ‘‘natural calligra-
From his house he treats people with all kinds of phy.’’ For him, the oil palm appears calligraphic because
ailments, from headaches to cancer. ‘‘Generally the can-
cer patients come as a last resort,’’ he says. He tells them
he can offer no guarantees, but can sometimes help to
stop the growth. Failing that, he will stay with them until
they die, in order to ease their passage into the hereafter.
He treats his patients with massage (urut), stones, in-
cluding petrified dew (geliga embun), prayer (doa), jampi,
and herbal medicine (ubat), for topical application or
ingestion. In 2005, I witnessed Mohammad Din in action
when I took the French Canadian filmmaker Josette
Normandeau, the black-belt presenter of the Deadly Arts
series, on a reconnaissance trip to see him in Melaka at
his kampong (village) house. While tucking into a home-
cooked lunch of fresh river fish accompanied by hot and
spicy coconut gravy, Josette snared a fish bone in her
throat. She began to asphyxiate and clutched her own
neck in blue-faced agony. Mohammad Din sidled over to
her and asked, ‘‘Do you want to spit it out or swallow it?’’
Looking more dead than deadly at that moment, the
deadly arts star rasped ‘‘spit it out,’’ whereupon he
pressed a nerve in her throat with a pincer grip, making
her ‘‘vomit’’ the bone out in a fit of coughing.
For the most part, Mohammad Din uses his paintings
and sculptures to act as a kind of preventative medicine. FIGURE 6. Alif (Staircase of Life). Acrylic on canvas. 10590 cm.
38 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 24 Number 1 Spring 2008
of its uprightness; the money plant grows in harmony
with the wall; and epiphytic ferns live in harmony with
their hosts as they know how to share a space to survive.
‘‘Knowing how to share,’’ Mohammad Din says, is ‘‘the
whole idea of being on earth, and the plant knows it very
well; this is of course what we need in human life.’’ He
points out that there are more than 50 species of he-
liconia, a plant that is extremely difficult to draw unless
drawn in the form of calligraphy. Furthermore, the Great
Frangipani, known as a haunted temple and graveyard
tree, produces beautiful firm-looking leaves and flowers,
and has many medicinal qualities, being used to cure
boils, blisters, and swollen gums.
To paraphrase the artist, the Flora paintings (there
are four in the series) look like flowers, but if one refuses
to focus on the flowers then many other images may be
seen behind them (Figure 7).
The dreamlike quality of the Flora series accords
well with the following comment of Ziauddin:
One of the most notable characteristics of Malay
mysticism is its emphasis on miracles . . . . But the
Malays do not demand any old miracles. Since the
quest for miracles is essentially a desire for a belief
in the necessity of spiritual life, the miracles have to
be firmly outside the boundaries of rationality and
FIGURE 7. Flora (in red). Nature series. Acrylic on canvas.
material signs, areas Islam rules firmly within the
boundaries of routine normality. So dreams often
play an integral part in these miracles. [Ziauddin
2000:138]27
The viewer of paintings in the Flora series sees im-
ages of nature, of the garden, and looking deep enough
may discover a host of avatars or dreamlike apparitions
(see also Figure 1). Such enchanted beings are normally
unseen by human eyes, and may include ancestors, the
angelic host, faeries (pari pari), dragons, chthonic man-
ifestations of mythical heroes (such as Hang Tuah and
Hang Jebat), the black warrior spirit who protects the
gelanggang (Panglima Hitam), ghosts (hantu), female
vampires (pontianak), birth demons (toyol), the shadow
and reflection souls (baying-bayang), were-tigers (ha-
rimau), and any number of the vast pantheon of good
and evil indigenous and Islamic spirits (jinn).28
The images are polysemic and suggestive, and con-
tinuously provoke attribution and reattribution. By
hinting at a kaleidoscope of meanings they fascinate
spectators, transforming their role from passive observer
to eyewitness. Julie, for example, the owner of a brace of
paintings by Mohammad Din on the black warrior
Panglima Hitam in calligraphic styles, hangs the paint-
ings on either side of her bed. One night she awoke to the
sound of scraping noises coming from outside her win-
dow when suddenly the figure from the painting (Gell’s
prototype) leaped into the room. Julie was unsure
whether this was a startling dream or a shocking vision,
but now rests assured that the paintings will protect her
during her sleep.
During fieldwork, I trained silat, slept, and wrote my
field notes on the floor of the artist’s studio in a space
submersed in paintings and sculptures (Figure 1). The
Malaysian days commenced with thin rays of light, pro-
gressed to the white glare of noon, faded to the yellow
afternoon sun, and melted into the incarnadine dusk,
only to plunge back into night. Mohammad Din would
teach me silat by starlight, usually at about 3:00 a.m. The
prototypes in the Nature and Flora paintings change
markedly during the transitions from dawn to dusk. I
first noticed the transmogrifications when I awoke with
a sudden jolt on a moonlit night. Weird forms and im-
ages appeared within the paintings and their familiar,
taken for granted appearances vanished to reveal other
imagery, or calligraphy, depending on the strength and
the direction of light.29 The effect is startling, eerie, and
uncanny. From an innocuous-looking bit of Holy Scrip-
ture, a monstrous form would emerge and then vanish as
the gestalt continuously shifted. The slow subtle shift of
light causes an uncanny sense of cognitive disturbance:
one does not realize that the light has changed until

something different registers in the painting. Upon twi-
light black lines writhe beneath the now-invisible bright
colors that dominate the pictures at noon, and it is then
that one can best see the strange subterranean calligra-
phy underlying these images. As Mohammad Din
explains, ‘‘the shadowy images running around behind
the flowers make them appear to move. The background
consists of a clear energy flow, like a hurricane brought
into the forest.’’
While Mohammad Din sits in the garden a brigade of
corpse ants (semut mayat) traverse his foot without
pausing to bite him. He does not need my citronella re-
pellent against the ubiquitous mosquitoes because they
‘‘refuse’’ to suck his blood. I ask him, ‘‘How is this possi-
ble?’’ His reply is that one must catch a mosquito or an
ant and request them not to bite, asking not the individ-
ual critter, but their collective soul (semangat). He says
his ability is only possible given the living power of the
Quran, read not as series of dead words on paper, but
as the embodiment of Allah in all creation. Thus, he
demonstrates his oneness with the jungle and nature,
something modern Malay people are now more dis-
tanced from than ever, as everywhere hefty concrete
bungalows replace stilted wooden houses, while oil palm
plantations inexorably overwhelm the ancient rain for-
ests. Aside from reasons of propriety, deep-rooted fears
of losing control (amok or latah), death, and the super-
natural underlie the religious motives for owning the
protective talisman of Allah and Mohammad seen above
or upon the door of virtually every Malay house. Mo-
hammad Din casts his charms into this milieu: the artist
as hero using scripture from a divine book to battle the
powers of the unseen world surfacing through accident,
impotence, misfortune, sickness, and death.
For Mohammad Din, the Flower series ‘‘above all,’’ ‘‘is
a reflection of calligraphy in nature.’’ In his terms, medi-
cine, which largely derives from plants, is substance for the
essence of art. In sum, he takes his inspiration from what he
calls ‘‘natural calligraphy,’’ the calligraphy of the jungle in
the line of a branch against the sky, the ribbed pattern of a
leaf, and the trickle of water down a brook. His artwork
reveals and records his sensuous communion with the
ubiquitous spirits (semangat) of nature, including insects,
birds, and animals, trees, blades of grass, rocks, the sun and
the moon, night, different types of daylight, the sea, rivers,
lakes, and waterfalls, to name but a few.
The Modern Art of Calligraphy
The dreamlike quality of the Flora series is less pronounced
in Mohammad Din’s calligraphic Zikr series, which offers
the Islamic rationality of the material calligraphic signs of
The Healing Arts of the Malay Mystic FARRER 39
the Quran to protect routine normality, but also to celebrate
nature and the origin of the universe (Figure 8). Here he
breaks with tradition in his rendition of the seven styles of
traditional Islamic calligraphy known as khat, comprised
of the kufic, rikaah, diwani, nastaliq, thuloth, and naski
styles, because he does not paint with a kalam (bamboo
pen), but renders the paint directly onto the paper or the
canvas with his bare fingertips (Mohammad 2000).30 He
has a sophisticated theory of contemporary Islamic callig-
raphy as an endless form of creation: ‘‘My form of
calligraphy is limitless, it should be able to express not just
technique, not just feeling, but concept and philosophy,
and it comes back to Sufi thinking, looking for the essence
of things.’’
As noted above, Mohammad Din fuses natural cal-
ligraphy, traditional medicine, and martial arts into his
paintings and sculpture. Therefore, ‘‘when you see the
line, you also see the stroke, the therapeutic energy
which is transferred into calligraphy’’ (Mohammad Din).
Yet there is more to Mohammad Din’s calligraphic style
of painting than meets the eye, because the artist pro-
vides an audiovisual experience for those able to read
Arabic. As D’zul Haimi observes, ‘‘these expressive let-
ters contain sound and this sound only exists in the mind
of the audience’’ (2000).
Coming after the Nature and Flora series, the more than
50 paintings of the Zikr series, many in black and white,
comprise the majority of Mohammad Din’s recent artwork.
These stark renditions of Arabic calligraphy perform a host
of specific functions to ensure good health, fortune, pros-
perity, sexual potency, and spiritual cleanliness. Toh, for
FIGURE 8. Ah-Rahman (Blessing Light). Acrylic on canvas. 9191 cm.
40 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 24 Number 1 Spring 2008
example, is a calligraphic figure that looks like an enormous
phallus and testicles. Another painting in the Zikr series is
the Call of Blessing, Allah hu akbar (God is great), painted in
black and white to reflect the need to cleanse oneself in and
out, especially during the month of Ramadan. Throughout
Ramadan, Muslims must fast during the daylight hours and
avoid physical and spiritual vices, a difficult task that re-
quires much effort to accomplish properly.
Raja Majun
Raja Majun means the ‘‘King of Medicine’’ (Figure 9).
Majun is a traditional Malay medicine made from medic-
inal herbs, roots, and honey mixed into a small black ball.
This sculpture, the head of which is made with a
large round cannonball fruit, incorporates medicine into
art. The upright spine symbolizes the strength of the alif,
and the arms reflect human bones. The idea is to stretch
to feel good and strong, and to stand upright like the alif.
According to Mohammad Din, majun combines the
primitive and the modern to strengthen the body: ‘‘Ev-
erything starts with a dot and continues after only that.
In calligraphy, as with everything else, it is the start, or
the essence that counts, whether it’s a seed, a drawing, a
painting, architecture or a human life.’’
FIGURE 9. Raja Majun. Mixed media.
Mohammad Din regards Arabic calligraphy as the
language of God inscribed upon all creation. By his Sufi
reckoning Arabic words are polysemic, bearing multiple
layers or dimensions of meaning that stretch back
through history to the beginning of creation, religion,
writing, and the first day of humanity, a beginning that
starts from monochrome, before entering into color. For
him, ‘‘black is the last part of color and white is the first
part.’’ Hence, in his work, there are many black and
white pieces, to act as a reminder of the present, the past,
and the future.
Conclusion
This article has provided an in-depth case study of the
work of one Malay artist through which to regard Gell’s
theories of captivation and enchantment. Such a narrow
focus does not mean I subscribe to an art-cult where
Mohammad Din stands beyond his socio-historic con-
text. Many other Malay artists express Malay mysticism
through their artwork, including Ahmad Zakii Anwar,
Syed Hussein Alatas (the political writer, not the late
sociologist), and Raja Shahriman (of Perak). In other
words, Mohammad Din is an exemplar rather than an
exception. His work shows how calligraphy contains the
power of God in Islamic societies, although that power
is beyond representation. The ‘‘beyond-representation’’
in the representation of the beyond resonates with the
central condition of Islam (lit. submission), namely that
there is no God except Allah.
To skeptics, Mohammad Din may appear as a new
breed of bomoh, guru silat, and artist, one who feeds
upon the profits of artwork sold to royalty, multinational
corporations, banks, and private businessmen in the su-
pernatural rat race of modern Kuala Lumpur. According
to Ziauddin, in his discussion of Kuala Lumpur:
In these fantastical realms of the modern city, new
breeds of bomoh have adapted themselves to the
rapidly changing nature of Malay society. There are
the bomohs consulted by party officials and up-
wardly aspiring businessmen, not for exorcism in
the old sense, but a more proactive kind of exorcis-
ing of the constraints to advancement and the
accumulation of wealth and power. The existence of
the transmuted bomoh became evident in the most
sensational murder trial in KL’s history. Mona Aff-
andi was a female bomoh with, according to repute
and the rumour mill, an illustrious clientele of
movers and shakers. She was convicted of murder-
ing one of her clients, a member of parliament,
in circumstances that suggest the bomohs too are
seeking their share of wealth and profit by legal

pragmatism as well as by magical means. [Ziauddin
2000:161]
However, Ziauddin’s comment ill applies to the Ma-
lay (martial) artist, who genuinely believes that
maleficent forces exist in the community, which must be
checked by self-defense, combined with the arts of
healing, nature, and calligraphy.
Gell’s theory of Art and Agency and the essays col-
lected for his Art of Anthropology open an interpretive
window upon the artwork of the Malay artist Moham-
mad Din, just as Mohammad Din’s artwork provides
ample ethnographic evidence in support of Gell’s no-
tions of captivation and enchantment. Bowden’s (2004)
posthumous criticisms of Gell are premature when situ-
ated against the utility of Gell’s ingenuity, which is
better read together with Bateson’s (2000) essay on style
and Freud’s (1990) work on the uncanny. More than
simply a criticism of Bowden’s review essay (2004), this
article vindicates Gell’s coupling of art and enchantment
to explore the culturally distinctive ways in which art
objects extend their maker’s or user’s agency (Campbell
2001; Layton 2003:447). While Gell neglected perfor-
mance art, and did not provide an adequate account of
aesthetics, his insights concerning enchantment and
captivation operate well beyond his own ethnographic
examples. Mohammad Din Mohammad, through his
painting and sculptures, advances the direction of wis-
dom against a purely formalist approach to Islam that
would decry the representation of God. Against repre-
sentation, Mohammad Din’s art is a divine embodiment
of calligraphy.
Acknowledgments
Mohammad Din Mohammad passed away in May 2007. He is sur-
vived by his wife and five children. He carefully read this
manuscript and made several important adjustments. He said he
found the article ‘‘unusual’’ as he was ‘‘used to art reviews,’’ but
when I asked him, with furrowed brow, whether he liked it, he said,
‘‘No, I love it.’’ Ellis Finkelstein, Julie Farrer, and Roxana Waterson
also read through drafts of the article and offered valuable sug-
gestions. I must thank Mohammad Din and his wife, Hamidah, for
their help and guidance in my journey through Malay art and cul-
ture.
Notes
1
Benjamin points out that: ‘‘Historically, the Isthmus of
Kra, the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Riau, Sumatra, and
Kalimantan have belonged to one historical realityFthe
Malay World’’ (Benjamin 2003:5 n. 2), regions that were
historically ruled by a Malay Sultanate (Benjamin 2003:7;
Milner 1981).
The Healing Arts of the Malay Mystic FARRER 41
2
The literature regarding silat includes Anuar (1992),
Chambers and Draeger (1978), Cordes (1990), de Grave
(2001), Draeger (1972), Farrer (2006a, 2006b, 2007, in
press), Gartenberg (2000), Hamzah (1967), Ku and Wong
(1978), Orlando (1996), Maliszewski (1996), Maryono
(2002), Mohd. Anis Md. Nor (1986), Pauka (1998, 2002),
Rashid (1990), Shamsuddin (2005), Sheppard (1972, 1983),
Tuan Ismail Tuan Soh (1991), Wiley (1993, 1994, see also
1997), J. Wilson (1993), and L. Wilson (2004). Useful dis-
cussions of silat are scattered across the literature on
Southeast Asian dance and theater, including de Zoete
and Spies (1952:252–257), Fernando-Amilbangsa (1983),
Mohd. Chouse Nasuruddin (1995), and Simatupang (n.d.).
Silat also features in books on Malay magic: Skeat (1984),
Shaw (1976:22–29), Werner (1986:22–39).
3
‘‘Performance ethnography’’ was the primary research
method I used to study the secretive Malay art of silat be-
tween 1996 and 2003. ‘‘Performance ethnography’’ is a
fieldwork method whereby the researcher actively joins in
and learns the performance genre of the informants (Farrer
2006b, 2007, in press; Zarrilli 1998). Unless otherwise not-
ed, the material on Mohammad Din in this article consists
of verbatim conversation (barring grammatical adjust-
ments for readability) collected in field notes from 2002
to 2007 and from a video interview I filmed with him in
2003.
4
Likewise, Burrows (1963), in the first U.S. study of Micro-
nesian art (based on Ifaluk Atoll), had to redefine the study
of art given the apparent lack of sculpture, paintings, and
drawings in a region where there is little pigment
for paints, where coral is too crumbly for sculpting, and
where coconut wood is unsuitable for carving (Burrows
1963:6; Rainbird 2004:35–36). As Rainbird sums up,
‘‘Burrows soon found that there was much to be studied
in the ‘art’ of Ifaluk when a broader understanding was
adopted and detailed issues of body art, poetry, dance and
song’’ (2004:36).
5
There are several aspects to Gell’s discussion of agency.
Fundamentally, ‘‘whenever an event is believed to happen
because of an ‘intention’ lodged in the person or thing
which initiates the causal sequence, that is an instance of
agency’’ (Gell 1998:17).
6
My thanks to a Visual Anthropology Review anonymous
reviewer for supplying this reminder.
7
Bowden (2004:309) also criticizes Gell’s supposed ‘‘errors’’
and his supposed lack of originality.
8
Gell was working on the draft of Art and Agency (1998) on
his deathbed and consequently his book lacks polish.
9
The term performance in my formulation dispenses with
the notion of ‘‘technology,’’ itself probably an outcome of
Mauss’s (1979:107) techniques du corps. I prefer to use the
term skill (Ingold 2000:5) in place of Gell’s ([1999]1992)
technical complexity. However, skill and performance ad-
dress only half of Gell’s equation, the other half being
enchantment, which Gell tackles in many ways, including
volt sorcery, necromancy, demon traps, and transmogrifi-
cation.
42 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 24 Number 1 Spring 2008
10
On the impressive arsenal of Indonesian and Malay weap-
onry, see Draeger (1972).
11
On Hang Tuah, see Sheppard (1964), the recent film Putri
Gunung Ledang: A Legendary Love, and the classic P. Ram-
lee movie Hang Tuah.
12
In Malaysia it is illegal for Muslims to consume alcohol.
13
See also Pinney and Thomas (2001) and, for a con-
trary view, Sharman (2002) and Hobart and Kapferer
(2005).
14
For example, Winstedt (1993), in his book The Malay Ma-
gician: Being Shaman, Saiva and Sufi, omits the guru silat,
a colonial categorical error which then rebounds down
through the literature (see, e.g., Endicott 1970; Rashid
1990).
15
Several indigenous terms for traditional healer may be
mentioned here, including bomoh (of which bomoh silat is
a derivative). Believed to enter trance and practice relig-
ious beliefs outside of Islam, the bomoh is considered to be
objectionable in the current and ongoing dakwah climate
of Islamic reform (Hussin 1993; Nagata 1980, 1984;
Shamsul 1997:212–217). Dukun or pawang are sometimes
employed as alternatives for bomoh, although for Moham-
mad Din pawang (herbalist) is more acceptable. In
contemporary Singapore, many bomoh now refer to them-
selves with the Arabic substitution of tabib (traditional
Arabic doctor), or may simply refer to themselves as guru
silat. According to Werner (1986:17), a western doctor
who studied traditional medicine in Kelantan, the bomoh
may become a specialist in one of three fields to become
an herbalist (bomoh akar-kayu), an herbalist and med-
ical specialist (bomoh jampi), or a puppeteer of wayang
kulit (dalang). Werner (1986:17 n. 1) lists eight other types
of bomoh, including the bomoh patah (bone setter), tukang
urut (masseur), tukang bekam (specialist in blood-letting),
tok mudim (circumciser), bidan (birth-attendant), tok put-
eri (shamanic ritual specialist in the border region of
Thailand and Malaysia), tok minduk (the tok puteri’s ‘‘in-
terpreter’’), keramat hidup (a living saint), and pawang (a
‘‘nature-hygienist,’’ spiritual protector of the fields and
crops, but also in various specialties, including pawang
ular [snake specialist], pawang buaya [crocodile specialist],
and pawang laut [sea specialist]).
16
The embodied performance of healing in Malaysia is ad-
vanced by Laderman (1991, 1995, 2000) and Roseman
(1991).
17
At this juncture I have refined my earlier views (Farrer
2006a, 2006b).
18
‘‘Alternate states of consciousness’’ take subtler forms than
‘‘trance,’’ including ASCs resulting from dancing, day-
dreaming, deep thought, drugs, inhalation of smoke or
incense (benzoic stone), percussion from drumming or
gongs, sleep deprivation, and yoga-like martial arts move-
ments (Tart 1990).
19
On trance and possession in Southeast Asian performance
genres, for example, see Burridge (1961), Heinze (1988),
Rashid (1990), and Shaw (1976).
20
This paragraph is adapted from Farrer (2006b:186–187).
21
On kebatinan, see Beatty (1999), Errington (1989), Geertz
(1976), Keeler (1987), Maryono (2002), Mulder (1980),
Rashid (1990), and Wilson (1993).
22
In silat, control over the breath may be achieved through
breath training while submerged in the sea, rivers, wells, or
waterfalls, and through chanting dhikr at length.
23
On Malay magical stones, see Sheppard (1972).
24
Tattooing is forbidden in Islam.
25
Allah: Alif 5 A, Lam 5 L, Lam 5 L, Ha 5 H. There is a missing
a after the second L because Lam with a stroke on top is also
pronounced as ‘‘la’’ (Farrer 2006b:212–213, in press).
26
Regarding mystical experience and various silat applica-
tions for the same postures, see Farrer (2006b:213–219, in
press).
27
Shanafelt suggests the term marvel should be given to mir-
acles, the appearances of ghosts, UFOs, vampires, and
suchlike, where ‘‘marvel’’ refers ‘‘to any event or effect of
extraordinary wonder, thought to be tangibly real, that is
claimed to be the result of ultra-natural force’’ (Shanafelt
2004:336). Because it disassociates ‘‘miraculous’’ phenom-
ena from religious discourse, it is somewhat tempting to
dub miraculous, magical, or mystical phenomena as ‘‘mar-
vels.’’ However, to my mind, the term also conjures images
of Batman and a host of comic-strip heroes.
28
See Werner (1997) for a fascinating and beautifully illus-
trated study of Mah Meri carvings in Malaysia.
29
Of course, comprehending the specific details of the imag-
es depends on the cultural capital the observer brings to
the artwork, but the ability to perceive changes occurring
as one set of images changes to another, as signs become
symbols or vice versa, is facilitated by the strength, inten-
sity, and angle of the light.
30
For a spectacular visual introduction to Islamic calligraphy
combined with a thoughtful analysis from an Islamic per-
spective, see Khatibi and Sijelmassi (2001).
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