Why are Malaysians fond of seeking/following advice from 'bomohs'?

I understand that it is a cultural thing but lately bomohs are also trying to become religious teachers too and this had led into cult-like practice and it seems like there is a huge following.





Frankly, there are things that can be solved/healed by oneself but I find that there are some people who take things for granted and could endanger their mental/physical health when things get a little too extreme.





I am Thai, so you can tell me all about bomohs, witchcraft and mumbo jumbos (its part of our culture too, but many of these bomohs do NOT usually attempt to become religious teachers or teach contradictory things about religion ---MOST (today) are there for the money and some are there because it is a heretical practice from their family's knowledge), I've seen and heard too much of it and this class of profession seems to have an 'industry' of their own, in the market of genuine healers to charlatans.





Any personal thoughts/experiences to share?Why are Malaysians fond of seeking/following advice from 'bomohs'?
I totally agree with HampehKunyit





I think people seeks bomoh treatment because they believe





1. There is something that science can't explain like existence of non physical entities like spirits, jinns, etc. So a doctor can't do much about it. Like the case explained by HampehKunyit.





2. There is always at least an alternatives to achieve something with the same/better result at the end. Modern way approach not the answer of everything





3. Bomoh 'fee' normally cheaper especially for treatment that involves surgery if the case referred to hospitals. They will go to bomoh first then to doctors when the bomoh unable to solve the problem





I'll continue later once i got time, got to go now....





-edit-


4. Doctors only treat the consequences, not the root cause - for example - feel pain- take pain killer, fever-take paracetamol, cancer - chemoteraphy [sorry for bad spelling], kidney problem - transplant it





5. Recovery time much shorter it treated by a bomoh, sometimes immediately or overnight [very magic you know]. So don't have to undergo very complicated procedure like in hospital





Note: This is what they believe, not what I believe





personal experience - Once, many years ago, I follow a friend to a thai village [kampong siam] to meet a thai bomoh [bomoh siam] in inner Kedah [ they called the man 'pakden']. After my friend finish with the bomoh, we chit chatting. The bomoh said he's going to Australia in a week to help someone there in a law court - a malaysian who failed to declare his money he brought in at Australian airport. he said he'll make the judge 'kapala pusing' and make wrong judgement so that the guy will be set free. So happen the guy was set free by the court! I don't know is it a coincidence or the bomoh is really very 'powerful'





Note: TheBear, is the word 'siam' sound offensive to thai people? If so, I'm sorry. What is 'pakden' by the way?





I agree with Sarah and Yuna, everything is on God's hand and willWhy are Malaysians fond of seeking/following advice from 'bomohs'?
Pakden is just a name, perhaps. Local Thais here use Malay terms for names sometimes. It is the assimilation and absorption of cultures and languages that shaped them into the local society. FYI, Thais in Thailand don't understand the local Thai dialect here.

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The most 'pekat' dialect is from Kelantan and heck, I don't even know what the hell they're talking about when they talk to each other. Kedahan Thai is more to the Southern Thai dialect but with some mixes in local slangs and words.

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not everyone believe in it
Insecurities, baby!! ;-)
i think it all started when someone in the family gotten ill from unknown diseases unexplained by professional doctors. thats when people start to resort to bomoh.





then they became curious about the unknown or the other unexplained mystical world that our eyes could not see. then they pay some money to learn the art to healing or 'berguru'.





Berguru is a dangerous territory. Some people lose their reality and forgot God in return. Especially once they have gotten some healing ability. To me, it okay to be curious about the mystics, but remember that all of us belonged to God. All the powers, all the unseen mystics, human, animals, plants, everything is His.
I didn't really believe in bomoh and quite skeptical about this previously. But after many weird things happened at my sister-in-law' house (long story) due to jealousy and she was continously ill (doctors can never detect her illness), I believe little bit as I witnessed few of those things. Ironically, that was done by Thai bomoh and we had to seek help from some ustazs. She's okay now, at least until another attack as the jealous person is still there.





Yes, bomoh mostly seek help from jinn, usually the jinn he keeps. Another confusing thing is Malay bomohs also use Quranic verses as their spell, but the verses are believed to be manipulated. So they seem as if to be following Islamic treatment practice whereas they are actually seeking satan or jinn's help. They can heal people, but most of the time they are hired to destroy people's health and life.





You'll have to differentiate this with those who practice real Islamic treatment that use only Quranic verses with no additional equipment except mainly water (no jinn, kemenyan, keris etc etc). But they are not called bomoh. They rarely expect money and of course no chicken, yellow rice etc, and they never guarantee results to heal as it is God's will, not ours.





But there are also fake bomoh, those who just seek money and ......sexual pleasure. Few of them will create their own cult and have their own deviant teachings. Anyway, all types of bomoh are menace to the society and against religion. In Islam, using jinn may lead to syirik (association with God) which is the biggest sin.





Main reason of using bomoh not only due to old mentality that all sickness are caused by jinn and ghost, but also the common problem in Malay community that is jealousy. Many of Malays still love to destroy their own fellow Malays and they use bomoh (Thai bomoh is the favourite).
hahaha... trustee, some bomohs are upgraded now, can tell code for reload card... so funny.





At my hometown, they are many bomohs that claimed to have special powers, means not just a bomoh by name. But not the one that give you nombor ekor or giving away reload code but the one who can cure illness or the one that can make people sick even death or to protect ones property (like house, farm with lots of durian hehe..)





Those who come to the bomohs are usually the elders. They grew up with those things so it's hard for them to just turn their back to new religions since they believe it was their religion.





I witness many rituals in my childhood. From curing someone to asking for blessing from the 'Gods', to talking to the other spirits. Aiyaaa... too many la to write here..


But so far, i only witness the good witch. My grandma one of them.





Our bomohs wont' take money on exchange of their services (at least most of them). They accept only stuff like rice or chicken, anything that you actually can cook and prefer to call it as a gift, rather than price.
i am totally against this bomoh thing..to me if you trust God you dont need this bomohs..to me its evil. Even Satan can heal and predict the future. But many people believe this bomoh i wonder why..


Personal experience : When my son was few months old, and so happen we were at a kampung (village)he had fever and my husband insisted that we see the so called 'bomoh'. I kept saying no way, but as persuaded by the in-law's i had no choice. So went to see this lady bomoh and she said few words (dunno wat, she was mumbling to herself something), then she took my son and held his leg one side upside down. I nearly freaked out and he was crying away. Imagine he was just a baby. I too cried to see my baby in tat position and he was having fever at that time. I told my husband thats enough and that i want to take my baby to the clinic. Paid the lady 10.00 and headed to the clinic, got some fever medicine for my baby and in few minutes he was fine...So i dont trust this bomoh...she said that the child will be fine but nothing that sort, they just freak me out...
I guess because sometimes their predictions can be correct or may be coincidently correct.





I think they have 'jinns' as their assistants.





Back in my hometown I know this bomoh, without fail, able to give RM10-50 password numbers for hotlink, celcom %26amp; digi.





Bomoh becoming cult leaders- quite rare, but if there are cases around, that certainly would be dangerous to our society.
before i have my operation in stomach 10 years ago, my pain almost killing me but my mom bring me to this bomoh and suprisingly, he managed to kill the pain..


but there are also bomohs who trying to 'ambil kesempatan' for our money and women too....


what im trying to say is....bomoh=


1)real bomoh


2)fake bomoh