Archive 'Religion and Culture'
by Putra - 17 Nov 2006 @ 6:50 am · Category Religion and Culture
While the village is open and communal, the Balinese home is hidden and private. High thatch-covered mud walls run along the roads, broken at intervals by high pillared porticos with thick, carved wooden doors, each the entrance to a family compound, invariably guarded by a barking dog or two. The thick mud walls of the enclosure define and protect the family; they would feel insecure without them.
A central ramp runs up the flight of steps so motorcycles can be ridden into the walled enclosure. These cells of unbroken, interlocking, single domestic courtyard homes are open only in the back, where the rubbish thrown and pigs root. Behind the main gate is a thin wall (aling-aling) which affords privacy and prevents evil spirits from entering; it’s difficult for the beasties to turn corners.
Just as the layout of the village reflects the grand order, so too does the layout of the family compound. The Balinese believe each part of the house corresponds to a part of the human anatomy: the head is the family shrine, the sexual organs are the gates, the arms are the bedrooms and the social parlor, the navel is the courtyard, the legs and feet are the kitchen and granary, and the anus is the backyard garbage pit. In each corner of the yard are temples dedicated to guardian spirits.
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by Putra - 07 Nov 2006 @ 3:27 am · Category Religion and Culture
Nyepi
The major festival of the sake year is New Year Nyepi, at the end of March or beginning of April the major purification ritual of the year. The days before Nyepi are full of activity - religious objects are taken in procession from temples to sacred springs or to the sea for purification. Sacrifices are made and displayed at crossroads where evil spirits are thought to linger, to lure them into the open. The night before Nyepi, the spirits are frightened away with drums, gongs, cymbals, firecrackers and huge paper-made monsters. On the day itself, everyone sits quietly at home to persuade any remaining evil spirits that Bali is completely deserted.
Saraswati
Another annual event, Saraswati, in honor of the goddess, takes place on the last day of the wake year. Books are particularly venerated and the faithful are not supposed to read, while students attend special ceremonies to pray for academic success.
Pagerwesi
The name literally means ‘iron fence’ on which day ceremonies and prayers are held for strong mental and spiritual defense in welcoming the Galungan holiday.
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by Putra - 04 Nov 2006 @ 4:02 am · Category Religion and Culture
Many Balinese marriages are still prearranged or negotiated, though young men may also “kidnap” their wives, and mixed-caste marriages are increasingly common. Marriage customs differ from caste to caste and village to village, but all Balinese marriage practices share fundamental similarities. There are basically two ways to get married on Bali, ‘ngerorod’ and ‘mapadik’.
Ngerorod
This is marriage by elopement, in which the prearranged honeymoon precedes the wedding ceremony. Since it’s otherwise quite expensive to marry on Bali, ‘ngerorod’ is becoming more and more popular. It has particular appeal to the Balinese sense of theater. Balinese love a spectacular kidnapping in which friends of the suitor capture a woman in the fields, on the road, or down by the river. Theatrics are paramount: she is expected to bite and kick her abductors in mock self-defense.
These days it’s more stylish and fashionable for the woman to be whisked away in a hired sedan, and more often than not she goes willingly. The couple then repairs to a friend’s house stocked with provisions, offerings, and the bride’s wardrobe. The woman’s infuriated father sounds the alarm demanding to know what has become of his daughter. A search party is organized which eventually returns unsuccessful and exhausted.
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by Putra - 02 Nov 2006 @ 3:49 am · Category Place of Interest, Religion and Culture
Bali’s oldest, largest, most impressive and austere temple complex sits one-third the way up the slopes of Gunung Agung. Besakih, actually consisting of three temple compounds, is the Mother Temple of Bali and the most important of the island’s Sad Kahyangan religious shrines. It’s Bali’s supreme holy place, the essence of all Bali’s 20,000 temples, a symbol of religious unity, and the only temple that serves all Balinese. Even though it’s touristy, it’s still spectacular-good energy!
History
Besakih was built on a terraced site where prehistoric rites, ceremonies, and feasts once took place. Perhaps it was here where the spirit of the great, angry mountain, which loomed menacingly above the island, received pagan sacrifices. Certain timeworn megaliths in some of the bale are reminiscent of old Indo-Polynesian structures.
Hindu theologians claim the temple was founded by the 8th century missionary Danghyang Markandeye, a priest credited with introducing the tradition of daily offerings (bebali) and the concept of a single god. His son, Empu Sang Kulputih, was the temple’s first high priest.
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by Putra - 13 Oct 2006 @ 3:09 am · Category Religion and Culture
A cremation is a superb study of all the most important symbols of Balinese ceremonial life, what anthropologist James Boon calls “a vast historical and ethnographic musing on the inevitability of death.” The Balinese believe a person’s sojourn on earth is but a short interlude in the long evolutionary process of the soul. Death occurs when the soul escapes from the body, but out of habit it continues to hover around the corpse. The soul cannot be freed as long as there is a body; only when the corporeal container is destroyed by the elements can the soul be liberated from all worldly ties.
The ‘ngaben’ ritual is the last and most important rite a family can perform for a loved one. Failure to free the soul by neglecting a cremation, or by incomplete or improper rites, renders the soul into a ghost who will wreak havoc on its neglectful descendants.
For hundreds of years, cremation was a privilege of the noble classes, but today it is estimated 10-30% of all Hindu Balinese cremates their dead. Except for the disappearance of suttee, the practice of widows immolating themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands (the last occurred in 1903), Balinese ‘ngaben’ rites haven’t changed significantly in well over 300 years. A priest’s main job is to consecrate the deceased and his effigy with holy water, cleanse the body before cremation, and write letters of introduction (ratnyadana) to open the doors of heaven for the soul. Only high Brahman priests may officiate at cremations of the highborn, and only the poor would hire a lesser ranking ‘pemangku’.
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by Putra - 11 Oct 2006 @ 3:03 am · Category Religion and Culture
All the many gods of Bali-Hinduism are merely realizations or manifestations of the holy rays from the one God, Sanghyang Widhi, the omnipotent Supreme Being. In this universal, all-embracing god, all deities and ancestral spirits achieve a higher unity.
Sanghyang Widhi manifests himself to the Balinese in three main forms: Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. This three-in-one embodiment is called the Trisakti, the Holy Trinity. The average Balinese does not utter prayers or make offerings directly to Sanghyang Widhi. Not one of the island’s temples, altars, or shrines is dedicated to him.
Instead, three-seated temple pedestals enshrine the Trisakti. Before a ceremony temple guardians will decorate the pedestal with bright wraps of colored cloth: red for Brahma, white for Shiva, black for Vishnu. These three powerfully symbolic colors predominate in all religious processions.
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by Putra - 10 Oct 2006 @ 3:51 am · Category Religion and Culture
Called ‘mapandes’ in High Balinese, ‘matatah’ in Common Balinese. The reason for filing is to control evil human characteristics (sad ripu): greed, lust, anger, confusion, stupidity, jealousy, ill-will, and intoxication by either passion or drunkenness. This important life-cycle event usually occurs when a Balinese boy or girl reaches puberty-at a girl’s first menstruation, when a boy’s voice changes. If not then, it must definitely take place before marriage; sometimes filing is incorporated into the marriage ceremony. After filing, a father’s duties to his female children are generally regarded as complete.
Before a cremation the teeth of a cadaver may be filed. Why? Pointed teeth are likened to those of ferocious witches, demons, wild animals, savages, or, almost as bad, dogs. A person’s canine teeth, regarded by the Balinese as animalistic fangs (caling), are filed flat so the child may become fully human, able to reign in the emotions. It’s believed a Balinese may be denied entrance into heaven if the teeth are not filed because s/he might be mistaken for a wild creature. In the old days the teeth of adolescents were also blackened with betel nut to distinguish them from the white teeth of animals.
‘Mapandes’ is a costly affair; invitations must be issued, musicians are hired, the fee of the ‘pedanda’ is paid, elaborate offerings are carried out, and a banquet is prepared for guests and villagers. Because of the great expense, it may be delayed until enough money has been saved. A number of families may participate in a mass toothfiling in order to share costs, or it may be held simultaneously with some other costly ceremony such as a cremation or wedding. The ‘banjar’ often determines that financial help should be extended to the lower castes to enable them to participate. To view the maximum pomp and ritual, attend a toothfiling ceremony sponsored by a Brahman family, where as many as 14 people may participate and expenses could top Rp 35 million.
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by Putra - 04 Oct 2006 @ 3:06 am · Category Religion and Culture
The Official Religion
With Rabindranath Tagore’s visit to the island in 1927, Balinese theologians restored contacts with India and began to align their brand of Hinduism more with Hinduism proper. Monotheism has been particularly emphasized since independence, and following the 1966-67 anti-Communist bloodbath Bali-Hinduism was recognized by the government as one of Indonesia’s state religions. A modern Hindu organization, the Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia (PHDI), or Hindu Council of Religious Affairs, is Bali’s highest religious body, officially sanctioned by the government to decide all spiritual matters. Similar to its Islamic counterpart Majelis Ulama Indonesia, the PHDI is more or less a rubber stamp for government policy, reflected by the large number of military figures and civil servants holding leadership posits in the organization.
Through the PHDI, however, Bali-Hinduism has achieved legal, international status. Since Bali is virtually surrounded by Muslims, some of whom are determined to turn Indonesia into an Iran-style theocratic state, the Balinese regard the government’s official sanction of their religion as a means of preserving their identity and way of life. The Balinese have further legitimized their religion by aligning it with the discoveries of modern science and by formulating their own independent canon, panca cradha.
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by Putra - 13 Sep 2006 @ 3:55 am · Category Religion and Culture
The four social systems that tie together the balinese people are klan system, caste, society(banjar), the group in desire and working system.
Clan System or Dadia
‘Dadia’ system content of the combine of the big family and all the ancestors. In this case, the relative meet together at the ceremonials event: at the temple (’sanggah’) for the nuclear family or at the tmple for the whole family. In the ceremonials, they expend their faithfull and devotion to the ancestors, for instance at the death-cremations (’nyumbah’), tribute the foods to the ancestor to eat together (’nyurud. This kind of activities could be tighty their relationship.
Caste or Kasta
The classification of ‘caste’ is derived from Hindu, based on the function for the society are: ‘Brahmana’ is the highest caste ( such as: ‘pedanda’), they responsible to ceremonial events; ‘Ksatria’ (consist of the king, the official, and the family, include the leader of irigation system or the village headman) who has to manage the government; ‘Wesia’ participate in businessman and prosperity life; and ‘Sudra’ consist of the farmers and do the duty of other caste.
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by Putra - 30 Aug 2006 @ 3:54 am · Category Religion and Culture
The Hinduism people of the Balinese does not gaze at women as the weak creature that has to be protected. They are considered to have the strenghten to create the beauty, however they also can make the dangerest life in the world. They who want to release from the worldly as include in ‘Sarasamucchaya’, should be avoid or even if its possible to release the women from our mind. This as one reason how worried a man to the women magical strongness that may be crush the powder to the Gods and make their struggle for imprisoned and united with the God become down.
In their daily life, the community respectful to the women, as seen when veneration to the Goddesses who have believed to help the human life in the world. The venetration for the dedication and the grateful for God’s generosity of ‘Dewi Sri’, the Goddesses of paddy that the sources of human life. The venetration as the grateful also for Dewi Saraswati, the knowledge Goddesses that is symbolised as a woman with four hands, that stand up the lotus flower.
She is the symbol of woman who has to be provided with a formula extolling God’s perfection at the first hand, She tribute ‘Hyang Widi Wasa’, with palmyra palm leaves at Her second hand She penetrate the knowledge, with the musical instruments at the third hand She enjoy and announce about The beauty and arts, and with a flower at the fourth hand She spread the fragance and softness.
Even in puppet story, ‘arja’, ‘mask’, and folklor are mainly expressed the character of strong, independent, wides experiences, and has a charismatic woman as the princes.
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