As we have seen, the imaginary landscape of Pamijahan, the abstraction of the space, has a significant influence in social and symbolic interaction. Accordingly, as a text landscape should be conceived, to borrow Umberto Eco's words, as an open text, opera aperta. (Eco 1962: 240) There is a point where people can negotiate the structure of the text. Precedence in time is affirmed and even contested by various ‘reading conventions’. To manage these ‘negotiations’, another narrative has come into existence. According to the villagers, the village must also be conceived of as a circle in which the centre where the shrine is located is the most sacred space. As evidence, another custodian has drawn a different type of map (below).

A space, which was previously empty or just a ‘wild forest’, has become an arena where various representations are ‘erected’. As seen in the second map (figure 12), the centre is believed by villagers to be the most sacred place in the village where the blessing of the Wali instantly materialises. The map was also drawn by a member of the staff of custodians. Unlike the previous map, the custodian here focuses in more detail on broader topography. This map also clearly supplies a marker for a boundary of the sacred village, or Pamijahan. In the custodian’s view, kapamijahanan is a cultural concept referring to a rectangular framed space on the map.

This spatial arrangement is associated with two factors. First, according to the villagers, the sacred area was established before Shaykh Abdul Muhyi was buried there. Oral tradition tells that once the Wali ‘went’ to Mecca to perform the Friday prayer together with another wali.^[4] Shaykh Abdul Muhyi travelled under the sea, while his colleague travelled on the surface. According to villagers, Shaykh Abdul Muhyi arrived in Mecca later than his friend, because he stopped to smoke a cigarette during the journey. He was unable to see the way to Mecca through the smoke and only after he put out his cigarette could he continue. After he returned to Pamijahan, he ordered his family, as well as followers, to refrain from smoking in his area.

The ‘non-smoking area’ in the centre of Pamijahan has a root in this narrative. The close relatives of the Wali, including the custodians, mostly occupy this area where the Wali was buried.

To maintain the inner space, the Pamijahanese have built a clear boundary between the outer and inner domains. The most obvious signs which distinguishes the sacred village from the profane one, is an arched entrance gate, or kaca-kaca. On each pillar of the gate prohibitions are written, reminding villagers and visitors that they are entering the sacred village. According to the guidelines written on the pillars, known as tali paranti, villagers and visitors are forbidden to smoke, to wear hats, to use umbrellas, and to drive vehicles into the inner area. Furthermore, upon passing through the gates, one should wear appropriate clothes based on Islamic tradition. Villagers and visitors believe that breaching this custom is disgraceful and puts them at risk of not receiving the Shaykh’s blessing.

The kaca-kaca, unlike other artefacts in the village, was devised by the contemporary relatives of the holy man. According to Mama Satibi, a senior custodian, some of the Wali’s relatives living outside the village, prominent Islamic scholars, raised funds to build the gate. Abdul Muhyi himself did not erect it. However, the relatives built it in response to the Wali’s testimony that all villagers and visitors who come to his place, Kampung Pamijahan, must obey his rules. The area covered by this tradition is marked by its original boundary: a small river in the North and the East, a small sacred mosque (masjid) in the West and a hill in the South.

In contemporary Pamijahan, these boundaries are the subject of reshaping and debate. Members of one pongpok have claimed that the present boundary embraces an area larger than the original one but another group believes that the present margin is the original one. This controversy has consequences, particularly for villagers who choose to live both inside and outside the sacred area. According to the first group, the gate should be erected outside the boundary, but, for the latter group, it should be exactly on the border. At he moment, the latter group still lives within the sacred area but many do not comply with rules prescribed for the sacred area. They smoke in this area without fear of their ancestor's prohibition.