Page 29 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

In addition to the recipes and formulae, Serat centhini includes a great

many stories and folk tales that illustrate the use of jamu in daily life. One such
tale relates to a newly married couple. The husband, who presented himself to
his bride on their wedding night, was told that his sexual equipment was not up
to the mark and that something must be done to rectify the matter. Feeling
thoroughly dejected, the young bridegroom set off in search of an answer. He
roamed far and wide until he came upon a magic mushroom one day. It appeared
this mushroom did the trick, because his wife, as the story went, was overjoyed
to find her husband suddenly so well-endowed.
Similar advice is found in other manuscripts or primbon in the Palace
library at Solo. These manuscripts span many subjects and comprise some 5,000
texts written on 700,000 pieces of paper, which are bound into over 2,100

volumes, some dating from as far back as the 1720s. They include historical
documents, political correspondence and court diaries, prophecies, poetry, moral
tracts, erotic lore, Islamic theology and law, Sufi lyrics, scripts for shadow
puppet plays, court customs and manuals of magical and divinatory practices,
not to mention the four sections devoted to ‘pharmacy, prescriptions and
recipes’. The latter provide detailed guidance on the curing of specific ailments.
Other manuscripts contain a prince’s advice on sexuality and marriage to one of
his children on the night before his wedding. Jamu inevitably plays an important
part in these discussions. Indeed, as part of their marriage trousseau, brides were
kitted out with a magnificently decorated, square-or pyramid-shaped box
comprising stacks of small drawers full of medicinal herbs.

A relief at borobudur depicts someone taking jamu from a bowl.