Archive on 'October, 2006'
by Putra - 22 Oct 2006 @ 6:39 am · Category About Bali
Usually people visit Bali for its lanscapes, festivals and petite dancers. There is another aspect to modern Bali though: business. Balinese religious symbolism and the use of offerings in all rituals have sreated a workforce exceptionally adepth in the production of art and handycraft.
Starting in the seventies, when backpackers and hippies started trading in Balinese art and craft to finance their stay in the island of the gods, businese in garment and textiles, jewelry, carving, furniture, antiques, and other items had been growing at a rate even outpacing that of the tourism industry.
As a result, the home-industry producing handycrafts and garment has become the most dynamic sector of the Balinese economy. Though it is difficult to know real figures as many exports are classified as souvenirs taken home by ‘tourists’, it is estimated that as musch as US$400 millions per annum, or a fifth of the regional annual income, are raked in by these home-industry businesses. Bali is also currently an important international production center for beach-style fashion and designer itms.
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by Putra - 14 Oct 2006 @ 6:38 am · Category Flora and Fauna
Twelve varieties of the coconut palm (nyuh) exist on Bali. The palm provides tools, food, drink, and habitation; every part of the tree is used by the Balinese. So essential is the coconut tree in everyday life that the Balinese make special offerings to it once a year. The farmer knocks the tree three times to waken it, prayers for a plentiful harvest are said, then the tree and offerings are sprinkled with holy water. Coconut palms are individually owned, often by a different person than the owner of the land. The coconuts on the tree are the property of the tree’s owner, but a coconut that falls belongs to the person who picks it up. A good tree produces about 50-100 mature nuts per year for 50 years.
One of the world’s biggest seeds, the coconut provides copra, and its milk and grated meat are important ingredients in many Balinese dishes. Young coconuts, always available on request, make a sweet and refreshing drink, and their soft jelly-like meat is a real treat. White coconut oil is the only oil used for cooking on Bali. Frothy palm beer, ‘tuak’, is also derived from this tree.
The strong, hard, pest-resistant wood of the tree makes outstanding building timber. The woody husk is excellent fuel for cooking fires, the black husk fiber (duk) is utilized as an abrasive dish cleaner, and for brushes, rope, brooms, and as a roofing material. The Balinese use the small leaves of the central branch to fashion containers.
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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 @ 6:37 am · Category Flora and Fauna
Offerings are frequently made to trees, especially in southern Bali. Selected, representative trees are adorned with ceremonial parasols and dressed in traditional black-and-white checkered cloth (kain poleng), scarf (saput), and headband (udeng) - the same dress Balinese men wear to temple.
The Balinese believe that in large trees dwell a host of spirits and demons; one often sees offerings placed on the ground before them, shrines constructed in their branches high above the ground. Legend has it that temples have even been founded next to important, spiritually charged trees. There are small, sacred reserves of trees all over the island, such as the Monkey Forest of Ubud and the majestic grove of dipterocarps at Sangeh.
Myriad uses are found for trees. Tree-trunk hollows are used as signal logs to call people to prayer, much like church bells in the West. The sacred milkwood (pule), sought after by woodworkers, is used to make the fearsome Rangda masks. In October, acacia trees, with huge clusters of bright yellow flowers, beautify the main road between Sanur and Tanjung Bungkak. Venerable tamarind trees line kilometer after kilometer of roads in northern Bali east of Singaraja; you can also see these huge shade trees on Jl. Suropati alongside Puputan Square in Denpasar.
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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 - 10 Oct 2006 @ 3:45 am · Category Shopping in Bali
The most important thing to remember when buying crafts is to take your time. It doesn’t take long to learn to distinguish quality. Leisurely browsing isn’t always possible if you take part in guided tours because the bus stops at preselected showrooms and galleries, but if you’re by yourself, you have all the time in the world.
All art shops accept traveler’s checks and major currencies, most accept credit cards, and some even take American Express. A surcharge of five percent is added to your bill if you use a credit card. Rate of exchange offered by shops for traveler’s checks is invariably worse than that given by moneychangers.
Much shopping on Bali still entails bargaining, a traditional and very acceptable way of doing business. Much to the relief of many Westerners, you may not bargain in fixed price shops. How can you tell a fixed-price shop? If it’s a hotel gift shop, it’s fixed price. And, generally speaking, if it’s an a/c store with glass doors and/or windows and the wares have price tags, it’s fixed price. But even if there’s a sign reading Harga Pasti (fixed price) or “Sorry-Fixed but very Reasonable Price,” and the clerk says all prices are fixed, always give it a try. Cut the asked price in half, then you may end up with a 25% discount. This technique used to work better but now the Balinese have responded by quadrupling their prices to ensure adequate profits.
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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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