Tiger and Leopard Rituals at the Javanese Courts, 1605–1906

This chapter traces the history of two tiger-killing rituals, involving tigers and leopards, enacted at the royal courts and in some regional centers of Java: fighting between a tiger/leopard and a buffalo,; and tiger/leopard sticking. The two ceremonies had been combined at the central Javanese courts between the late eighteenth century and the 1880s. The tiger-sticking ritual seems to have developed from a tiger hunt supervised by the ruler, who did not take part in the actual hunt and who may have combined attempts to rid the countryside of marauding and man-eating tigers with an occasion for Mataram's warriors to show their prowess. Another ritual was fights between big and dangerous animals, particularly tiger, buffalo, and banteng. In the second half of the eighteenth century, the number of possibilities had narrowed down to the tiger–buffalo fight, always enacted in the presence of high-ranking Dutchmen.