Before my son underwent his circumcision, he was curious as to what would happen. When I related my own experiences, I realised that my procedure, all those years ago, was different. Since then I discovered that even in the former days, there were not only variations to the ceremony but also to which bits to remove.

In the earlier days, having undergone the 'bersunat' rite was considered the mark of a true Muslim. Immediately before the circumcision, the boy would be asked to recite the 'kalimah shahadah' (profession of faith) and saying it before the procedure made him a true Muslim.

Circumcision is the removal of the foreskin of a boy's penis. The word is derived from two Latin words meaning "cut around".

But in Brunei more than 50 years ago, there was a variation. During the ceremony, the penyunat (circumcision master) would go to the base of the organ and snip a little nerve connected to the foreskin. The foreskin as a result, would 'pull back' thus 'circumcising' the boy.

Some say this is not true circumcision. However, you reached the same objective of not having the foreskin.

There were other ceremonial differences. In some, the boys would be given a shower where scented water is poured over them. In others, the boys would undergo 'lulur', whereby he is scrubbed with scented powder and water.

After that, the boys would be dressed in baju 'cara Melayu' with 'kain pelikat'. They might also wear songkok with decorative motifs known as 'kopiah berpisnin'.

They would then be taken outside to straddle banana tree trunks -- the trunks supposedly made one feel cool. In Kampong Ayer, the boys would sit in the lap of their fathers. On their foreheads would be smeared a white powdered 'lulur'.

The penyunat would use a sembilu (sharpened bamboo), which was later substituted with a sharpened folding knife, for the procedure.

There is no anesthetic. The boys are held by other people so that they could not move. The skin would be stretched out and cut.

If the knife is very sharp, there would hardly be time to feel pain, though there have been cases where boys screamed in pain. In Temburong, the skin will be held by a piece of split bamboo before being cut off.

The cut would be bandaged leaving it to heal. Sometimes powdered coffee, supposedly having fast healing abilities, would be placed on the wound. In most cases, the bandage would only be taken off in a few days. For Kampong Ayer boys, they would be asked to go into the water for the bandages to come off.

The cut skins were dealt with either by being buried in a piece of cloth with ash or, in the case of Kampong Ayer residents, kept in an ash-filled coconut shell and floated down the river.

Bersunat ceremony diaorama exhibition at Brunei Museum

Why ash? It is said that the many instances of people suffering from inability to urinate are due to their skins being 'disturbed' by 'pontianak' (vampires). To avoid this, the skin should be placed in ash.

After the circumcision, there would be a zikir ceremony. For the boys, it would be particularly painful as they have to walk around the crowd getting 'blessed' by them.
As usual there were many restrictions. One should not step over a lesung (stone pestle) fearing the organ would be of the same size as the pestle.

One practical pantang is not to have ladies walk in front of the boys. In those days, most boys were around 15 before they were circumcised. At 15, the last thing they needed to have is stimulating thoughts when recovering from a circumcision.

Fast forward to today. My seven-year-old was circumcised by a doctor in a very sterile surgery room. He had a choice of a local or general anesthetic. He recovered in two days, compared to my father who took a month.

Unfortunately, my son did not go through any of the traditional painful 'manhood' rites, but then the chances of his circumcision turning septic is almost nil, which is a fair trade off.

But it does not mean that what our elders went through did not teach us anything. There is the advancement of technology. From crude implement sembilu to a surgical knife, no anesthetics to a choice of them, from an ordinary penyunat to a doctor. Many things have improved as a result of lessons from the past.

The most important thing our elders left us is the legacy of being a Muslim. No matter how difficult and terrifying it was, the procedures and ceremonies must be undergone in order to comply with the sunnahs.

Our elders were brave and they lived in a difficult time. We learnt a lot from what they had undergone.

Rozan Yunos is the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Development. He has served the Brunei Civil Service since 1987 in many capacities including Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Managing Director, Tabung Amanah Pekerja. He has also served at Economic Planning and Development Department, Prime Minister's Office and Ministry of Communications. He writes about Brunei history in his spare time and his weekly Brunei Times articles have been compiled in two books - the Golden Warisan Volume 1 and Volume 2, both currently available at leading bookshops across Brunei.

24th March 2007

Footnote:

In April 2005, the website 'Brunei Resources' was born; designed during the Executive Development Program classes, a five month post graduate mid career program taught by Universiti Brunei Darussalam for Brunei Government senior officers. The website kept lecturers' presentations before other information was added.

By August 2005, it had its own domain name www.bruneiresources.com. By December, a blog was born on msn spaces, at first to update regular readers of the website what was new. The blog developed its own life and by March 2006, 'The Daily Brunei Resources' moved to blogspot.com on www.bruneiresources.blogspot.com.

The daily blog entries are mostly snippets about Brunei - its history, its culture and anything related to Brunei.

Sometime in December 2006, I was asked to write a special article about Bandar Seri Begawan for the March/ April 2007 edition of Muhibbah, the inflight magazine for Royal Brunei Airlines based on my previous entries on the blog.

In February 2007, The Brunei Times wanted to publish a weekly column on Brunei's history again partly based on the blogs' entries. The first article on 'bersunat' appeared on Saturday, 24th March 2007. Since then, an article has appeared on The Brunei Times every weekend.

This is the first compilation of all the articles written for 2007. Other volumes will follow suit. I hope you had enjoyed my writings and will continue to enjoy my writings in the future.

Note: I have been asked many times why I started the Golden Legacy column with an article about circumcision. The answer is that the then Features Editor at Brunei Times was a bit worried about having a historical column. She wanted something social as well as historical. Since my son had just undergone his circumcision, I thought, writing about circumcision would cover both the social as well as historical aspects.

Comments (1)

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LOL
written by Babe , October 16, 2009

hehehehehe seldom do i read a historical feature that make me laugh. *pestle* LOL~~!!

Enriching yet entertaining. Marks of a good writer. Keep it up rozan

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