Tradition-responsive Approach as Non-medical Treatment in Mitigating the Covid-19 Pandemic in Tengger, East Java, Indonesia

Indonesia has inherent various local wisdoms or traditions in response to natural and non-natural disasters. This ethnographic study situating in Tengger village, Pasuruan regency aims at scrutinizing tolak bala (ward off misfortune) ritual, popularly known as nambak lelakon toward Covid-19. The tradition of plague healing inseparable from religious expressions has been assumed having power to double non-medical effort effects toward human physical endurance quality. Thus, nambak lelakon tradition is an effort to maintain and protect human life through collective non-medical mitigation particularly in avoiding the wide spread of Covid-19. The implementation of this tradition is not only part of cultural inheritance passed down from generation to generation through oral tradition (folklore) and a model of shared behavior but also it is mitigation effort toward non-natural disasters. This religious-based tradition is historically of essential to create social collective peace of mind. Nambal lelakon becomes a means of praying with total surrender to God, and it turns out that completely surrendering to God creates peace of mind. Positive thinking effectively reduces anxiety and builds a better mental health.