VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The residents of Terusan Lama village, Tebing Tinggi district, Empat Lawang regency, have a unique annual tradition at the Terusan Sungai Musi beach. That unique tradition is Lumpatan. In the local language, Lumpatan means jump. Lumpatan is actually a gotong royong or mutual cooperation that is done together to catch fish in the Musi River. This tradition is done once a year usually in the rainy season when the Musi River water debit is fast.

Lumpatan itself is a building made of bamboo and rattan which was then erected in the middle of the Musi River to make fish jump and be trapped if the Musi river water overflows. Lumpatan has a length of about 15 to 20 meters with a width of 8 meters, where the pole is planted at the bottom of the river. To make Lumpatan, it costs a lot of money. Therefore, a Lumpatan is not owned by one family, but a group of villagers. Each group ranges from 10 to 15 people. The making process of Lumpatan also takes a long time, about 1 month. In Terusan Lama village, there are about 10 Lumpatan installed on the Musi River.

Lumpatan begins to be installed in the rainy season, namely in September.  Lumpatan tradition begins with the ritual of burning incense, reading prayers and Surah Yasin in the hope that God will give abundant fortune and keep them away from calamities. Lumpatan is then installed and left for some time to wait for the fish go into it. There are many types of fish that enter the Lumpatan, such as white baung, semah, gegali, coang idung, lanpam, patin, baong, cengkak, sengarat, mutal, and dengi itam. The types of fish that people usually get are white baung fish and semah. However, the most commonly found are semah fish. Semah fish is known in Sunda as kancra fish, tambra in Java, and sapan in Kalimantan. After the fish are caught, some of the fish will be cooked and enjoyed together by the local people.