Soe’s Christianity and “Siram Rampe” Tradition

People or society in SoE best known as Dawanesse/Timoresse. According to the story that I heard from the elders and the information which I got from the internet, the name of Dawanesse was given by Western people who visited Soe town. This name was only given to the original inhabitant. Even though, there are some new comers called themselves as Dawanesse. It is because they have lived for long time in Soe.

            Even, it just a small town, Soe has many interesting things to be discussed, especially the things related to the people’s tradition and religion. One thing that always be an interesting thing to be discussed is “Soe’s Christianity and their traditions or habits.”

            Soe’s Christianity is the persons who live in Soe and their religion is Christian. It’s including Protestant and Catholic. Almost the societies in Soe are Christianity. As a Christian they go to church, believe in God/Lord, Jesus Christ, Christ’s teachings, Holly Gosh and the Bible. They live accordingly what they believe and based on what the Bible says.

            Beside almost all societies are Christianity, Soe also have many traditions or habits that the societies keep running them until now. The traditions become a part of them and be inseparable things of their life. One of the habits that the societies do until now is “Siram Rampe” 

            “Siram Rampe” is a habit where the members in a family go to the funeral to spread rampe or mixed flowers (it consists of some flowers and a plant called ‘Bonak’) on the gravestone of their family who passed away.

            People always go to the funeral on December or around Christmas day. But, there are some people go there in every month, once in two months, one in three months, and so on or if they have a dream about their family who passed away. The otherwise, if their family’s gravestones near them or next to their house, they can spread rampe whenever they want.

            There are some reasons why people do the habit. The first reason is to respect and remember their family who passed away. Through doing siram rampe, can decrease their yearning to the families or relatives who passed away. The second reason of doing “Siram Rampe”  is to block the soul of the died persons so they do not come and bother the alive people in their life or in their dream. The third reason why people keep doing this habit is for their calmness (The died persons). People always believe that before 40 days, the soul of someone who passed away does not go anywhere. His/her soul does not go far. The people also believe that the died persons’ soul is not calm/ feels comfortable if they leave the families. Therefore, people here (SoE Christianity)do the “Siram Rampe” tradition.

            I was born as a Christian in Dawanesse family. As Christian my parents do like the others. They go to the church, Christian meetings, and ec.t. I always follow them when I was a child. They also sent me and my brother to “penginjilan and sekolah minggu” every Saturday and Sunday. They would be angry if we didn’t go for once.

            Eventhough as Christian and do many things that related to Christianity, my parents are Dawanesse from their ancestors. My parents sometimes go to funeral and speard rampe especially on December. The reasons are same as the reasons I mention before. When I grow up (when I was in junior and vocational high school), I saw this as a bad thing. I thought this was not good. As Christianity, we should not do that. We should not believe things like that.

            However, my mind changed when I studied in STKIP SoE and took a subject called CCU (Cross Culture Understanding). In this subject, I learned that the religious things and the societies’ habits are the parts of diverse culture. The habits cannot be separated from the societies’ life. Then, going to funeral and doing “Siram Rampe” is not happen in Timor or in Christianity only.  Other religions also do “Siram Rampe”. In other places in Indonesia or around the world also do the same thing even though using different ways and having different names. In short, it is not a wrong thing of doing “Siram Rampe”. Siram Rampe is a habit, a part of socities’ life. The habit is a culture. The culture has to be preserved. Then, there is no wrong culture. There is no right culture. There is only the difference culture.