Nothing much happens in Sumberlawang - except once every thirty-five days, every fifth Friday night "Jumat Pon" according to the Javanese calendar. On these Fridays, up to ten thousand people gather in the forest around the tomb of some old Javanese king, to pray for wealth, prosperity, and so on. In fact, this happens all around Java, and at each tomb, there is something different you have to do if you want the magic to work.
At some, you have to sit quietly without eating all night. At others, you can't take a leak all night. At Sumberlawang, to make your wish come true, you have to have sex with someone other than your lawful wedded spouse.
The tomb is set on the top a hill and is surrounded by a forest. On the right day, you wander round and it looks like a combination of Woodstock and a Fellini movie, couples shagging on blankets, up against trees, or, for the unduly modest, in these little shacks you can rent out for about a dollar.
The whole scene is just completely fucking surreal, with incense and kerosene torches burning, shamans at the tomb muttering spells, traders selling scorpion oil and other aphrodisiacs, small troupes of wandering minstrels. There is quite a large colony of sex-workers here who stay here all month long, but their main market is the villagers and farmers in the surrounding area. Enough said. But on the special Friday nights, women come pouring in from all over Central Java.
And not just sex-workers. Many, perhaps most, are married or divorced women, looking for a bit extra on the side. When I was there, I ran into a farmer's wife, quite cute in a village-girl sort of way. She approached me, and suggested we go to one of the shacks, and did the negotiating with the Ibu who ran the place. The girl had one of those thin, strong, wiry bodies that rural labor seems to build. She wasn't, it must be said, into anything other than straight sex, unless you count bringing her friend along with her.
