THIS is a very Indonesian tale: dramatic, tragic and perhaps, unique to this nation. In the middle of a January downpour in the hamlet of Kedungsari, Jombang village, East Java, a flash of lightning struck a stone in the shape of an eel’s head. Ponari, a 10-year-old boy found the stone. Nobody knows where the idea came from, but he put the stone in water and people began to believe that the water could cure all types of illness.

Believe it or