Ponari & His Magic Healing Stone
Feb 26th, 2009, in News, by Lairedion
The magical faith healing stone of young boy Ponari is big business for a small village in East Java.
East Javanese village is earning big bucks with its boy wonder
Even Ponari must go to school. He hasn’t been there for three weeks and this Monday is the time. The school director takes him there personally on his “moped”, and a platoon of riot police officers run alongside the 9 year old prodigy to protect him. It is not easy to get the boy away from his village. Thousands of people crowd between the houses and when they see Ponari they even press harder. But people have to wait because Ponari must go to school.
A month ago Ponari was hit by lightning, according to his story. When he regained consciousness there was a stone on top of his head. He threw it away but the stone came back so he took it home. There he discovered the healing effects of the stone: a neighbour healed of fever after he had touched it, the village head got rid of a bad pain in his arm and the local police officer, a pious Muslim, swears he has seen with his own eyes how Ponari healed a boy who had not spoken a single word for five years.
The news about the miraculous healings spread quickly and people started to flood to the small village of Balongsari, a few hours drive from Surabaya. First dozens, then hundreds, and now there are thousands. They bring cups, bottles and buckets of water in which the boy wonder plunges his stone. This allegedly turns the water into a powerful panacea. Ponari is carried around by his father. He looks tired.
A party tent protects him against the sun. There are barriers of bamboo put down to control the crowd. This has already led to accidents: four people have been trampled to death and an unknown number got injured. And also the healing doesn’t work that well. A child of three died after his parents had given him wonder water instead of taking him to a doctor. The media are interviewing more and more people who have been drinking the miracle water but didn’t notice anything. Hamzah (53) says that his eyes are just as bad as before. Such information may not deter visitors. They keep on flooding to the village.
Yet there is growing criticism of the Balongsari circus. Especially Muslim organizations condemn what is happening there. It is superstition and therefore sinful but also dangerous. Child welfare agencies demand closure of this ‘practice’ of Ponari in order to protect the boy against exploitation. Even his father says now enough is enough. He has already tried a few times to get Ponari to school but was always stopped by the crowd and his own neighbours which keep the family more or less as hostages. They want Ponari to continue because they earn big money: they sell food, they rent out parking spaces, sleeping places and sell water in which Ponari has immersed his stone. This poor peasant village is making a daily turnover of one billion rupiah (70,000 euros).
As long as the faithful continue to throng there’s no way back. Ponari says nothing. After school he is back on his father’s shoulders and he immerses his stone in water until he cannot hold it anymore….
This post is a translation of an article which appeared in Dutch daily “Volkskrant” on 24 February 2009 (link: http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/article1154300.ece/Indonesisch_dorp_teert_op_wonderkind).
249 Comments on “Ponari & His Magic Healing Stone”
-
Mr Tic Tac Toe says:
Tn. Oigal, Yth:
For the reasons I have just posted, I shall not continue with this with you. A shame really as strangely I have just as many reasons (and possibly more than yourself) to see this nation succeed.
Neah… not because of those reasons.
You have shown that you actually have no data. Just plain “Njeplak” and “Ngenyek”, and then hiding behind the term “Australian Intellectuals”.
it certainly happens but I suggest (as I have many times already) take a walk down your nearest street and see who is doing the master bating whilst the people of Indonesia suffer.
Again, dont assume that i havent. And dont assume that i havent done anything about it.
The fact is I was homeless in my teenage and slept on the street for a year, back then in the first years of crisis 10 years ago.Dont just assume things that you dont really know.
Even you should be able to see its not the 1% of foreigners (?) with happen to upset your little world of revisionist and dubious history
Maybe youre right, maybe youre wrong. But mere asserting that you are right, doesnt mean that its true. Show me your data, or as i said to some other debater:
Please, prove me wrong.UNLIKE YOU, Im willing to admit that im wrong if you give me confirmable comparative data on debts (vietnam? japan? philipines? what other country did you say?).
By proving me wrong, at least we can go back to that genetic discussion you have been avoiding by throwing more fishes.
is all some one elses responsibility to clena up the mess.
Look whos misquoting now.
Reality is the nation does not have the same time luxury that western nations had to develop.. Personally I don’t think Indonesia has another 20-30 years to get it right.
For the first time i agree to certain degree to some of your opinions.
-
Oigal says:
“Australian Intellectuals”.
I used that term??? Laugh.. your xenophobia is showing again..you really are your own worst enemy in a debate!
-
Okay, i was wrong about the term.
You only use “something” australian-ish:
https://indonesiamatters.com/4283/bromo-tengger/cp-8/#comment-141033 -
Barry Prima says:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jTToZb5_sZ3l5zoP7h4799CkAzIQ
does this dude qualify for the million squid someone mentioned at the begining of this post??
-
does this dude qualify for the million squid someone mentioned at the begining of this post??
Laugh .. The day he can do it under proper controlled and verifiable lab conditions yup..in the meantime would you like some references and new reports of snake charmers, rope climbers and mystics?
-
so what exactly do you mean by proper controlled and verifiable??
“Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television.”
A team of Scientist/Neurologist who observed him round the clock is not controlled and verifiable enough for you???
Laugh .. The day he can do it under proper controlled and verifiable lab conditions yup..in the meantime would you like some references and new reports of snake charmers, rope climbers and mystics?
hollow laughter….hoo haaah….
“When the lowest type of men hear Tao, They laugh heartily at it. If they did not laugh at it, it would not be Tao”.
-
“Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television.”
Laugh, yup thats the place I would choose for a test… :-). Let’s face it, no one would think for minute India has an issue with supposed mystics and other frauds..
You are aware of course of the endless examples of filmed rope climbing also verified within India?
-
In the name of disclosure and honesty don’t think it would be worth mentioning that Gujarat is a state famous for its mystics. In fact Gujarat relies upon them for tourism $$$ bit like the haunted houses of England (its true, i really saw it).
You also failed to mention ol Jani has been pulling this little scam since at least 2003
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/11/26/offbeat.india.fast/
You might have also wish to mention this from the Indian Rationalists Society..
I asked to be allowed to send an independent team to survey the room where this test is taking place, but I was repeatedly turned down. It is ridiculous to ask people to believe that any man can go 15 days, let alone 70 years, without food or water.
Dr. Shah has been in charge of three similar investigations over the past ten years, and he has never allowed independent verification. In 2000, he was asking for funds to investigate a man he claimed got his energy from the sun, just like plants do. In 2003, he even approached NASA for funds to investigate Mr. Jani, claiming astronauts might benefit from the research. This particular hospital, led by this particular doctor, keeps on making these claims without ever producing evidence or publishing research.
Another reason for being suspicious of Dr. Shah is that he is not presenting his evidence (including his alleged round-the-clock film surveillance of Jani) to a scientific journal or committee.
How are we going so far?
Comment on “Ponari & His Magic Healing Stone”.
Copyright Indonesia Matters 2006-2025
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact
TTT,
For the reasons I have just posted, I shall not continue with this with you. A shame really as strangely I have just as many reasons (and possibly more than yourself) to see this nation succeed.
My interest in how so many people in this country manage to take a certain set of facts and yet arrive at a WTF decision is genuine. You speak of master bating.. it certainly happens but I suggest (as I have many times already) take a walk down your nearest street and see who is doing the master bating whilst the people of Indonesia suffer.
Even you should be able to see its not the 1% of foreigners (?) with happen to upset your little world of revisionist and dubious history. Whilst the staus quo may feed your illusion that your are only a nation of 10 years (?) and is all some one elses responsibility to clena up the mess. Reality is the nation does not have the same time luxury that western nations had to develop.. Personally I don’t think Indonesia has another 20-30 years to get it right.
see ya