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Male and female, god and goddess, are the polar manifestations (passive and
active, respectively) of a single transcendent principle and, as such, in essence
one, though in appearance two. The male is identified with eternity, the female
with time, and their embrace with the mystery of creation (Zimmer, 1969,
62n).
Billy Kwan remarks how Arjuna, like Shiva or any yogi, builds up his ‘spirit power’—
his sakti—through meditation, and that this causes ‘a turmoil in nature’ (YLD, 81). Without the
ordering effects of the female counterpart to the male figure, the turmoil would be merely
destructive and not preparatory to re-creation. The ‘dancer at the cemetery’ performs a
cathartic dance which is necessary to transform the restrained masculine heat and energy
through the workings of feminine Time, the destroyer, into a creative act. This explains the
genesis of the goddess Durga out of the heat and light of Vishnu, as well as many of the subtle,
ambiguous images in Koch’s novels.
So long as the feminine part inhabits the psyche, the ‘owner’ of the psyche—to use a
Hindu manner of expressing the concept roughly equivalent to that which the West would call
the ‘person’, but with all the masking elements of the ‘persona’ removed—will remain passive
and contemplative. As in the case of Durga leaving the psyche of Vishnu so that he will
awaken, or of Parvati manifesting herself to provoke Shiva out of his ascetic meditations, the
feminine element of the psyche must separate itself from the masculine element in order to
serve its role as the provocative force in the personality. Only under such influence of the
expressed feminine element will the masculine figure sway from his endless—and eventually
dangerous—building up of passive psychic energy.
Ly Keang plays the Durga role for Mike Langford. She is unmarried, though already
rather old for a single Cambodian woman, so that she can fight against the Khmer Rouge and
gain revenge for their murder of her father (HW, 376). This also permits her to entice
Langford out of his journalistic indifference to active participation in the war.
The feminine figure who projects the pent up energy of Billy Kwan and provokes him to
act is Ibu, the poor, illiterate woman who lures him into the Pasar Baru. This is the shadowy,
indigenous quarter which is described in wayang kulit terms, endowing it with the wayang’s
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