Could
be called on of the world’s most bizarre and best kept secrets of Indonesia.
Indonesia which is the world’s largest Muslim majority country,
has thousands of Indonesian pilgrims who travel to the Gunung Kemukus,
otherwise known as ‘Se*x Mountain’ in Central Java, to have se*x with strangers
as part of a religious ritual.
Dateline video journalist, Patrick Abboud, whose story is set to
show on SBS, got to uncover the incredible life on top of the
mountain, given unusual access to what goes on.
According to Daily Mail, Mr Abboud says every 35 days you have
to perform se*x seven consecutive times for the ritual to work.
‘It’s a pretty bizarre story. A few years ago I read a piece
about it and looked into it, it took a while to get there,’ he said.
And what he found he described as ‘incredibly surprising’.
‘More shock of the sheer size of the place and thousands of
people, up to 8,000 on a busy night,’ said Mr Abboud.
‘It was hard to make sense of it, after being there it took a
few weeks to digest.’
Dateline video journalist, Patrick Abboud (pictured) covered the
bizzare story of the Se*x Mountain and found it interesting and awkward
The ancient ritual dates back to the 16th century and is a
regular meeting of ritual believers participating in se*xual acts, with the
view that it brings good luck and fortune.
From married men, housewives, government officials and
prostitutes, there’s a variety of people who participate.
And for a country and religion where se*x out of wedlock is
taboo, Mr Abboud says the idea of a mountain top se*x ritual for Muslims in
Indonesia seems very strange.
‘Back in the 16th century, a young Indonesian prince had an
affair with his step mother,’ he said.
‘They ran away to the mountain and had se*x and mid coitus they
were caught, killed and buried.
‘There is a shrine there now and because they didn’t get to
finish the act, others believe that if you do, fortune will come to you, most
people like poor farmers who want to get ahead in life.’
He says he saw no Westerners there but people come from all over
Indonesia to see if their luck would change.
‘It’s a Javanese ritual which is very different to the Muslim
world, very different to everywhere else in Indonesia, the beliefs are a blend
of Islamic, Hindi and Buddhism,’ he said.
So popular the ritual has now turned into a tourist attraction
for locals with the government charging people to go there, with stalls and
even buskers.
‘It’s a bit of a carnival.’
‘It’s contradictory, the government knows adultery is happening
yet they’re preaching something different and turning a blind eye,’ he said.
While Mr Abboud, who was fascinated by the ritual, said the only
problem is that there is more men than women and in turn it has become prime
territory for commercial se*x workers.
He even got propositioned himself by a se*x worker whilst
filming but said he quickly declined the offer.
He said seeing inside doings of the religious ritual, it seems
very controversial.
‘I think there’s a growing contradiction with Se*x Mountain,
there’s the prostitution, so how it is possible this is all being condoned by
the government and religious leaders,’ he said.
‘The one thing is the problem of se*xually transmitted diseases,
there’s health clinics set up at mountain.’
‘I talked to a doctor and he said most se*x workers have se*xual
diseases and men don’t use condoms, so HIV is on the up.’
The Dateline video journalist was lucky enough to follow some
pilgrims to the mountain and talked to them about their experiences.
‘It took a lot of convincing, as it is adulterous, I followed
them, some came by boat or motorbike, from right across Indonesia and I had
access to friends and people before they got there.’
Mr Abboud followed a female pilgrim called Mardiyah who was a
widow and for two years had struggled financially.
Living in a small Javanese town, she had just completed her
mission of having se*x seven times when he was there.
‘She said business become better and made more money, it’s maybe
proof it does work,’ he said.
‘I met a male pilgrim called Gepeng, and his friends but he
didn’t want to kiss and tell.’
‘One of his friends said they went for fun and karaoke, another
said he does go for the se*x ritual but didn’t want to say too much because he
didn’t want his wife to find out, but felt his life would turn around.’
He also described another pilgrim he met that also didn’t want
to talk too much about it in fear of his wife finding out.
‘It’s Incredibly hard to get women talking, obviously cheating
on their husband.’
While he found the incredibly bizarre se*x ritual confronting
and rather ‘awkward’ to film and talk about, he said there was nothing unsafe
or dangerous about it.
‘Quite beautiful prayers, they give beautiful offerings of flowers,
at the grave of shrine people get teary and pray for hours on end.’
‘Never felt in any threat, it was a nice environment.’
He did however feel what needed to be mentioned is that the
religion was not specific of Islam.
‘It’s not something to demonise the religion,’ he said, ‘it’s
not strictly Islam as we know it.’
‘You’ll never find any ritual like this in any part of the
Muslim world and Indonesia, Javanese interpretation is much more liberal.’
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