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Concept
Sembah
Summary
Sembah (ꦱꦼꦩ꧀ꦧꦃ, ᮞᮨᮙᮘᮃᮠ, ᬲᬾᬫ᭄ᬩᬄ) is an Indonesian greeting and gesture as a way of demonstrating respect and reverence. While performing the sembah, the person clasped their palms together solemnly in a prayer-like fashion called suhun or susuhun in Javanese; or menyusun jari sepuluh ("to arrange the ten fingers") in Indonesian and Malay, and placed them in front of the chest, and moving the combined palms up to the chin, or all the way up until the thumbs touching the tip of the nose, while bowing slightly. Any of these two forms are made depending on the status of the person greeted.
Sembah is endemic and prevalent in Nusantara regional cultures that shares dharmic heritage — such as Balinese, Javanese, and Sundanese even as far as Malay as the testament of Indonesian Hindu-Buddhist past. It is cognate to the Cambodian sampeah and Thai wai. All of these greetings are based on the Indian Añjali Mudrā used in namasté.
In Indonesian and Malay, the term sembah means to pay the honour, obeisance, homage or to worship. It also the synonym with the Javanese word suhun. According to Indonesian writer Hamka in his book Dari Perbendaharaan Lama, the word derives from a Javanese word for position (susunan) of hands in reverential salutation, done with hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointed upwards, and bowing. This arrangement which has some similarities with Indian namaste is called "sembah", which is used to honor and praise. Thus "susuhunan" can refer to someone to give the "susunan" or "sembah" to, or a revered person. Another word for "susuhunan" is "sesembahan". The term sembah however, curiously sounds similar and cognate to Cambodian sampeah, which suggests their common origin or shared connections.
The word sembahyang in Indonesian and Malaysian Malay today is made synonymous with the Islamic salat ritual, means prayer or worship. — this comes from the merging of sembah itself with hyang (deity or holy spirits) thus meaning "hyang worship".
Official source
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