my 65-year-old grandmother to my youngest daughter—we all drink Beras Kencur and Kunir Asem every day and occasionally one of the bitter recipes, and we are very healthy,” she announces proudly. “But then my jamu is very safe. All raw materials are boiled before grinding.”
“My daughter helps me with the jamu,” explains Bu Atun.“We usually make just two kinds and start preparing the night before because I leave on my first round at about 7 am and I’m normally back by 9 am; it takes about two hours to sell everything.”Bu Atun makes a second batch of jamu in the afternoon ready for her 4–6 pm sales round in another district.
Although Bu Atun says she never accepts special orders, she does occasionally make a bitter brew from papaya leaves, a concoction which she says is good for flu. “However, it’s important to drink lots of water with papaya leaves to counteract the bitterness,” she stresses. She also makes Jamu Sirih to treat white vaginal discharge—a problem that affects many women in the tropics from time to time. It’s simply a matter of adding betel leaves to the basic Beras Kencur recipe.
Other interesting jamu in Bu Atun’s repertoire are Jamu Tujuh Laos, which helps cure rheumatism; Jamu Sehat Wanita recommended for women’s health; as well as jamu for amenorrhoea, and a recipe for coughs. She also makes a mix called Cekok, which is produced from a base of Beras Kencur. Although this tastes terrible, it helps small children get back their appetite after an illness.
People who are overweight or women wishing to tighten their stomachs also seek her help. She prepares concoctions from starfruit (Averrhoa carambola) for lowering high blood pressure, and other brews to raise it. Bu Atun suggests patients should consult a medical doctor if they are seriously ill, but says many people prefer to take the jamu gendong ’s advice for such chronic problems as migraine or white discharge.
Since moving to Jakarta, Bu Atun has been able to earn a better living than she would have done if she had stayed in her village. She also sets aside either Thursday or Sunday to perform massage—her grandmother taught her urut (see page 94)—which brings in extra money. Although most of the massages are not meant specifically for healing, Bu Atun does perform a special massage for women with sagging or painful wombs which she—and many of her patients—consider very effective.
Considering the substantial weight of a fully laden basket of jamu, I asked how long Bu Atun felt she would—and could—continue this work.
“As long as I’m strong enough, I’ll keep going.” was her confident reply.
A Holistic Approach
Jamu is a holistic therapy. The concept of harmony—balance between a person and their environment, or the balance between the hot and cold elements in the body—means that both illness and medicines are divided into hot and cold categories. The herbalist’s skill lies in contrasting a hot illness with the appropriate cold medicine and vice versa; hot medicine cures a cold illness and cold medicine is recommended for a hot illness. Jamu prescriptions always follow this rule, which is why there is a catalogue of antonyms: hot and cold; sweet and sour; bitter and sugary; strong and weak. Similarly, if a formula is developed to treat a specific problem in one organ of the body, the effect on the rest of the system must always be taken into consideration. The numerous leaves, roots or barks in a single jamu comprise three categories: the main ingredients, the supporting ingredients and those that are added simply to improve the taste of the jamu. Once mixed and administered, all the ingredients interact together to work on the symptoms.
Jamu has four basic functions. It treats particular illnesses (problems as varied as kidney stones, cervical cancer or diarrhoea); it maintains continuing good health (through the promotion of blood circulation and increased metabolism); it relieves aches and pains (by reducing inflammation or by aiding digestive problems); and it also addresses particular malfunctions in the body (such as lack of fertility or unpleasant body odour). Sometimes it can be multi-functional: for example, a jamu may be a general tonic, but it also acts as an antiseptic to prevent stomach infections.
Jamu is not an overnight remedy. Results can only be achieved with regular use over a period of time. And because the ‘cure’ is gradual, patients do not usually experience any side effects. Some jamu are made from poisonous herbs and if they are not made up and administered correctly, they can be potentially toxic. The herbalist’s art lies in knowing how to neutralize these poisonous elements to produce a powerful and curative medicine. Sometimes, jamu will be taken alongside a course of traditional massage to speed up the healing process.
Who Uses Jamu?
Practically every Javanese wo man and many Javanese men use jamu on a regular basis. Jamu is recommended for anything from making skin soft and glowing, to producing a tight vagina. It removes body odour—ask for a deodorant in Java and you are likely to be handed herbal pills. There is jamu for “ensuring harmonious marriage” and one to enhance any number of female charms. A woman is advised to drink Jamu Kamajaya-Kamaratih (‘God of Love–Goddess of Love’) before marriage in order to “become a housewife loved by her husband”. Judging by one copywriter’s claim for Jamu Indonesia Simona’s Extra Super Venus, no woman should be without it. “It goes without saying that every wife desires her husband’s love and attention. But she should also know that every husband desires to see his wife looking fresh, neat, vivacious, healthy, charming and fascinating, even though blessed with many children. If she knows the secret she will not put off taking Extra Super Venus from this moment!”
But not only women swear by jamu: men also worry about their looks and libido, and jamu is widely used to enhance male virility. Indonesian men may well have been amused by the intense publicity given to Viagra, the 1998 ‘wonder drug’ for impotence; they’ve had their own such remedies for generations. The number of men who queue for their daily dose of Jamu Laki Laki (the ‘Man’s Medicine’, said to keep a man in peak condition) make it one of the most popular drinks. There are pills that promise to “create new energy, man becomes more manly”, while another brand professes to change the lives of men who are “sadly lacking in that manly power to perform their part in coitus in spite of the fact that their desires still existed”.
The choice of remedies is enormous. There are creams for increasing the size of an erection along with specific directions concerning the massage techniques a woman should use to apply the cream. One helpful taxi driver from Surabaya cheerfully expanded on this theme to me and explained he personally swore by Kuda-Laut or ‘Seahorse Jamu’. Indonesian men also enthusiastically consume jamu to lose weight or to become healthier. Whilst it specializes in enhancing sexual performance, jamu can also cure bloodshot eyes or stiff limbs, reduce hangover headaches, relieve indigestion, stomach upsets, flu, colds and a host of other problems.
HOW JAMU WORKS
“The method of (jamu) treatment is very different from the conventional Western approach. In Western medicine drugs usually act to kill an infection, while jamu encourages the body to produce its own antibodies. In other words, jamu acts as a catalyst and does not replace the body’s functions. The cure comes from within.” —Part of an interview with Dutch healer, Father Lukman (see page 117).
However delicately (or bluntly) the notion is expressed, many of these lotions, potions and pills were developed to increase or enhance sexual performance. Why did appearance and sexual attraction become an obsession in Indonesia, an Islamic country where traditional values are extremely strong? The answer may lie in the position that Indonesian men hold in the family unit—one that can assume a quasi-godlike status. This attitude is
