Bali Experience

Visitors to Bali who are lucky enough to witness an authentic Balinese ceremony are sure never to forget the experience. From the spectacular creativity and complexity of the offerings presented to the gods as gifts to the extravagant color of the ritual costumes worn by the worshippers, from the silvery tones of the gamelan gong orchestra to the melodious sound of the priest ringing bells and chanting mantras, from the heavy perfume of the incense rising up to the heavens to the delicious aroma of traditional delicacies being prepared, a Balinese ceremony is a fabulous feast for all the senses.

Dealing with the Dark Side

Balinese ceremonies can be divided into five general categories. The first of these are the Bhuta Yadnya, ceremonies of exorcism or cleansing held to ward off the demons and other negative forces that inhabit Bali. These demons, called bhuta kala, are the dark side of the Balinese spiritual universe. Although their main home is in the world of the unseen, they sometimes pay visits to unlucky humans, assuming a fearsome array of forms. There are fanged demons, demons with bald heads and bulging eyes, demons who look like walking trees or long tailed monkeys. There are even demons consisting of only a leg - or two or three - strolling down a lonely, moonless road in the middle of the night. Some more enlightened philosophers say these demons are simply symbolic, representing the negative pole of the universe and the destructive energies - the greed, the passion and the ugliness - that exist within humankind. But to most Balinese, these are real life spooks, and those who stumble upon their haunts - the midnight crossroads, the isolated river bank, the deserted cemetery - or who fail to make the appropriate offerings to appease their ravenous hunger risk falling prey to their dark influence. Even in today’s modern Bali, where parents send their children for Western-style education and where hospitals boast the latest life-saving equipment, misfortune and illness are thought to derive not from germs or bad luck but from black magic, the result of angry or jealous neighbors manipulating these dark forces.

To keep these demons from turning their destructive energies upon humankind, and to realign the balance of good and evil in the world, Bhuta Yadnya rituals are held. They range from the small everyday act of placing offerings to feed the demons around one’s house and yard to the most elaborate ceremony of the century: the 1979 Eka Dasa Rudra when Balinese from all corners of the island descended upon the “mother temple” of Besakih to conduct a complex series of rituals that would rebalance the entire universe. One especially important cleansing ceremony takes place every year, on the day before Nyepi, the Balinese Day of Silence. Called the Taur Agung, or “Great Sacrifice,” this ceremony cleanses the island of the malevolent influences that have accumulated over the preceding year through the use of sacred substances such as holy water and the blood of animals killed as ritual sacrifices. At the close of the ceremony, people roam through the villages beating drums and gongs to scare off the demons.

Calling the Gods down to Earth

The second group of ceremonies in Bali are the Dewa Yadnya, rituals to worship the gods and divine ancestors. The most common and colorful of these ceremonies are the odalan, or temple anniversaries, when the deities are welcomed down to earth to visit their human followers. Because each Balinese can claim allegiance to at least three village temples, plus the temples for his or her clan, extended family or traditional irrigation association, most visitors to Bali can expect their trip to coincide with such a ceremony. Depending on the temple, different customs prevail, but all odalan, as welcoming ceremonies for the divine, include an array of entertainments, gifts and food for the gods and ancestors who sit in seats especially made for the occasion. Gamelan music is played and sacred dances performed to please the gods with their beauty and grace. A lavish banquet of offerings is laid out, consisting of gorgeous handcrafted creations made of fruits, flowers, rice, sculpted rice dough and colored cookies. Priests chant prayers and clouds of fragrant incense are sent up to the heavens to provide a ladder for the gods to descend by. Everyone who has a tie to the temple attends, dressed in their most exquisite traditional finery, to pray, catch up with family gossip, see how much the children have grown and, of course, to feast on the delicious ritual food made especially for the occasion. Temple anniversaries are joyous events, celebrating another year of the gods’ blessings and solidifying the sense of community and shared heritage so vital to Balinese culture.

The next category of Balinese ceremonies are the Resi Yadnya, or rituals to ordain priests, called pedanda in Balinese. Pedandas come from the Brahmana caste, with the exception of priests from the Pasek, Pande and Sungguh castes, who have their own ritual specialists. To become a priest, a man must first devote himself to years of study of the esoteric texts of Balinese religion and of the complex rituals Balinese life requires. After he has mastered the necessary knowledge, a ceremony is held during which he symbolically dies, is cremated, and is reborn. Thus consecrated and equipped with a store of ancient knowledge, he is now able to perform rituals himself. In Bali, priests must marry, and their wives are ordained with them. The wife of a priest will help her husband with ritual preparations and may, after her husband’s death, act as a priest herself.

Celebrating the Cycle of Life

The last class of Balinese ceremonies are the Manusa Yadnya or life cycle rituals, held to mark the stages of human development from the innocent, godlike child to the fully responsible adult. All these ceremonies are designed to help a person mature physically, socially and spiritually, by purifying and protecting them from negative influences, increasing their inner strength and integrating them into the community that will provide them support and sustenance as they grow.

The first of the Manusa Yadnya ceremonies is performed immediately following the birth of a baby. This ritual is directed at the newborn’s kanda empat or four spiritual siblings, represented by the umbilical cord, the blood, the vernix caseosa and the placenta. These siblings will protect the vulnerable baby if treated properly, and will continue to influence the child as it grows. The placenta is buried in front of the house, the spot marked with a stone, and offerings made to it to ensure the protection of the spiritual siblings. The next ceremony is the kepus pungsed, when the baby’s umbilical cord drops off. The cord is placed inside an offering shaped like a dove and hung over the baby’s bed, from where the spiritual siblings can look after the child. A shrine for the god Kumara, the guardian of all children, is also placed in the baby’s room and regular offerings made to it to ensure the god’s protection. The Balinese believe that babies are the reincarnation of their ancestors. But unlike in Hindu India, in Bali reincarnation generally takes place within families. After the umbilical cord falls off, the parents of the baby go to visit a balian, or psychic, who can tell them whose spirit has come back to earth to walk in the body of the child. Often the child is the reincarnation of a beloved grandmother or great-grandfather, making the birth a reunion with dear figures from the past, cementing close family relationships across generations.

Until three months after his or her birth, the newborn baby is considered to still be part of the realm of the gods, having just descended to earth. The child will often be spoken to in the most polite level of the Balinese language, and offered the respect one would show a divine guest. In traditional Balinese culture, the baby is not even allowed to touch the ground, for the earth would pollute its holy state. It is only after three Balinese months (105 days), when a ceremony is held to welcome the child to earth, that the baby is considered to be fully human. At this ceremony, the baby is dressed in a miniature version of Balinese ceremonial costume, complete with sarong and sash wrapped around its waist, and is given a name. An effigy of the child is made, which the mother carries like a baby as part of the ritual. The image is then thrown away, with the hope that any evil spirits lingering nearby will be confused and, mistaking the effigy for the real child, will turn their destructive energies on the image instead. White string is tied around the baby’s wrist and placed on the baby’s head, the long lengths of cotton representing a long, healthy life. The baby is also given his or her first jewelry: little silver or gold bracelets and anklets, and a silver box containing a piece of the umbilical cord to wear around the neck. This amulet offers the baby protection from evil spirits and black magic that might attack the still vulnerable child.

After six Balinese months (35 days each), the baby has its first “birthday” or otonan. This is often a large, lavish ceremony, with hundreds of guests in attendance. Even people of modest means may spend millions of rupiah on preparing a huge feast for their community and honoring the gods with elaborate offerings. Often traditional music performances will be held, or even a wayang kulit shadow puppet play. At this ceremony, the baby is allowed to touch the earth for the first time. A lock of the baby’s hair is cut by the priest, and many families even shave the whole head, believing that the hair will grow back thicker and fuller afterwards. A small silver disk is placed over the soft spot on the baby’s head to protect it from evil spirits. Like the other birth ceremonies, the otonan ritual is meant to ask the gods for their help in protecting the child, and to give the baby health and strength to withstand its new challenges as a growing human being. It also is a community celebration, a welcoming of yet another member into its midst, strengthening the ties that link families together across the generations.

The next ceremony to mark the life cycle is the famous Balinese tooth filing. This ritual is held on the edge of adulthood, as the child enters puberty. Tooth filing, despite its scary sounding name, is actually a ceremony of beauty, health and purification, designed to rid humans of the six vices: lust, greed, anger, drunkenness, confusion and jealousy. Like so many Balinese rituals, this ceremony works to bring different parts of the world into balance, in this case the world of the spirit and the world of the flesh, the microcosmos of the human body and the macrocosmos of the social environment. Modifying the body by filing down the sharp canine teeth, which symbolize animality, passion and coarse emotions, the soul of the young person is believed to be better equipped to exercise the self-control necessary to become a fully adult and responsible member of society. The Balinese, who dislike anything coarse and animal-like, find long, pointed teeth unattractive, and the tooth filing is also a beautification ritual, preparing young adults to find a partner and marry.

The young candidates for the ceremony are first dressed in the most lavish traditional costumes the family can afford, including cloth woven with gold threads, gold leaf hair decorations and fresh tropical flowers. The priest blesses them with holy water, draws sacred symbols on their teeth, and then gets to work with the file. As the family crowds around to offer their support and encouragement and the gamelan plays a distracting rhythm, the upper row of front teeth are filed down, leaving the filee a bit shaken, perhaps, but newly beautiful and spiritually strengthened.

Tooth filing is considered a crucial ritual that every Balinese must undergo. It is also an expensive one, however, involving musicians, a priest to perform the filing, food for guests, a huge array of offerings and the finest clothes for the person whose teeth are being filed. Thus many families will postpone the ceremony, or hold the ceremony for several children at once. Some people wait so long that they die with their teeth unfiled, in which case the ritual becomes part of the cremation preparations.

The next life cycle ceremony that most Balinese will experience is marriage. Not so long ago, most marriages in Bali were arranged matches, with the parents of the prospective bride and groom choosing a spouse for their sons and daughters based on practical considerations such as wealth, compatibility of caste, and family ties. The preferred marriage partner was actually a relative - cousins who were the children of two brothers or second cousins who were the children of two male cousins related through their fathers were thought to be the perfect match. Because Balinese society follows a pattern that anthropologists call “patrilineal,” with inheritance and temple membership being passed down through the male line, these practices assured that the daughter, and her future children, would be kept within the family. Brides and grooms would often be called to wed with little notice and little choice. Those who were set on choosing their own partners could be married by elopement, a traditional form of marriage where the bride and groom would spend a night together at a friend’s house before holding a simple ceremony to legalize their union. But refusing the chosen partner often meant ostracism by one’s family, a very serious threat in a highly communal society like Bali’s. In those days, romantic love was not considered to be the basis for marriage. Marriage was a working partnership, where husband and wife joined together to raise children, labor to provide for them, and to fulfill their responsibilities to the community and the gods. Sometimes men would take second or even third wives for love, or in cases where the first wife was unable to bear children, in matches that were held without the parent’s arranging. Today, while arranged marriages do sometimes still occur, especially in high caste families, for the most part modern love has taken over. Influenced by television love stories and by changing attitudes toward traditional values like caste, most young Balinese are determined to choose their own partners. Elopements are rare, for the government considers them to be unethical, and because most modern families have come to accept the idea that in a modern, democratic society young people should be free to choose.

But despite these social changes, wedding ceremonies have lost none of their spectacular beauty and fascinating symbolism. The morning of their wedding the bride and groom are dressed in exquisite and elaborate traditional costumes of hand woven cloth and gold. The groom may wear a magical keris dagger at his side, while the bride is crowned with a stunning headdress made of thin gold leaves, interwoven with fresh fragrant flowers. During the ceremony, the couple is blessed with holy water, incense and flower blossoms. A complex array of offerings to the gods is laid out to ask the divine powers for their blessings on the new union, and to purify the bride and groom so they may unite to produce healthy, happy children. Symbols of fertility, including eggs and rice, are used, and in the portion of the ritual sure to bring laughs and jokes from the crowd, the groom takes his keris dagger and pierces a mat woven from bamboo that symbolizes his bride’s virginity. These days, it is not unusual for the traditional ceremony to be followed by a modern, western-style reception, often for hundreds of friends and family. After marriage, the man and woman are now considered to be full members of the community, and must participate in the activities of the banjar, the traditional village association.

Closing the Cycle of Life

The last of the life cycle rituals is the one that closes the circle, returning the soul of the human being to the world of the divine, from where it can be born again. This ritual is, of course, the Balinese cremation. Tourists who are lucky enough to witness one of Bali’s spectacular cremation ceremonies may not realize that this ritual they are watching is but one short segment of an incredibly complex chain of ceremonial events that may take weeks or even months to prepare for. Because the cremation ceremony is meant to not merely dispose of the body but to send the soul of the deceased on the path toward becoming a deified ancestor who can send blessings to his or her family on earth before eventually being born again in the community, no expense is spared in performing these ceremonies. It is not unusual for a family to pay thousands of dollars for even a modest ceremony, and the cremations of former royal family members and priests may cost tens of thousands of dollars to prepare and require the labor of hundreds of people working around the clock for weeks. Because of this tremendous cost, some families may bury the body temporarily while they try to raise enough resources or until they can join in a large ceremony held by a wealthy family, paying a contribution to have their own deceased relative cremated at the same time.

Cremation preparations begin once the death is announced to the village by sounding the kulkul, the bell hung from the rafters of the village meeting hall. Hearing this traditional summons, family members gather to wash the body and, if it is to be buried, to wrap it in a cloth and transport it to the ceremony. If the cremation is to be held as soon as possible, the body will be placed in a pavilion of the family home, where it must be guarded around the clock, offerings placed regularly before it and food and drink offered to it as symbolic sustenance for the deceased, whose soul is believed to still be lingering around its body. Men from the village gather every night to share this guard duty, drinking, smoking and frequently gambling into the early hours of the morning. A festive atmosphere prevails over the inevitable sadness, for the preparations are already underway to send the soul of the beloved friend or family member on to the realm of the divine ancestors, releasing it from the burdens of the world until its next rebirth. A priest is consulted who decides on an auspicious day for the ceremony, and an array of women ritual specialists begins the work of constructing the thousands of offerings to the gods that will be required for the rituals. The house compound is decorated, and food is prepared for everyone who has come to lend their help. When the day of the cremation finally arrives, the body is carried to the traditional cremation grounds in a huge tower constructed of wood and covered with colorful decorations, supported on the shoulders of dozens of men. Forming a huge procession, the cremation tower is followed by a wooden sarcophagus shaped and decorated to resemble an animal - a bull, cow, lion or deer, depending on the caste of the deceased. This sarcophagus is the vehicle for the soul, which has already detached itself from its material form. A gamelan orchestra marches along with a group of women carrying the necessary offerings on their heads. An electric atmosphere of excitement and tension fills the air as the procession passes along, and the tower is spun in crazy circles designed to confuse the soul so it does not come back to haunt the family.

One the procession reaches the cremation grounds, the body is placed inside the animal sarcophagus, along with piles of cloth and offerings. Holy water is poured over the body, the sarcophagus closed, and wood packed around it. The priest lights the fire, and begins chanting prayers and ringing his sacred bell to help the soul along its journey. After the fire is spent, bone fragments are removed from the ashes and shaped into an effigy of the body, which is then placed in a special offering and carried in a procession to the sea. One the physical body has been returned to the elements of which is was composed - water, air, fire, earth and space - a series of ceremonies is held to purify the soul of the deceased and make a place for him or her in the group of divine ancestors. Only now, with the cycle of life finally closed and the ritual work completed, can everyone rest. The deceased is now a divine ancestor, who will continue to visit with their family on earth, bringing aid in times of trouble and receiving offerings and prayers, until the next rebirth when the cycle begins again.

Offerings: Glorious Gifts to the Gods, Ancestors and Demons

Visitors to Bali are certain to be impressed by the glorious combinations of art and piety that are Balinese offerings. From the simplest palm leaf baskets containing a few flower blossoms and pieces of betel nut that are placed around the house yard each evening to the huge, elaborate sculptures of fruit, flowers and dyed rice dough figurines that women carry on their heads to give to the gods at temple festivals, offerings are one of the most colorful sights in Bali, as well as being an essential aspect of the Balinese relationship with the divine. By making offerings and presenting them to the gods, ancestors and demons who inhabit the unseen world, the Balinese express their faith, their artistic genius and their intimate relationship with their environment.

The practice of making offerings to the gods is mentioned in the Mahabarata, the ancient Indian epic which is one of the major texts of the Hindu religion. In the famous passage known as the Bhagavad Gita, the god Krishna instructs the hero Arjuna to offer leaves, flowers, fruits or water to god as an expression of love and purity of purpose. Of course, if you ask a Balinese why she makes offerings, she will most likely respond with a simple answer: she, like her mother and her grandmother before her, makes offerings because that is what Balinese must do. Unless the woman is the wife of a priest or a priest herself and learned in the esoteric texts of Balinese Hinduism, offerings are so woven into the fabric of everyday life in Bali as to be taken for granted. Even in today’s Bali, where the modern world makes its presence felt through television, mass media and tourism, the practice of offering gifts to the gods has not diminished. A busy career woman may choose to buy ready made offerings in the market rather than to craft them at home herself, but virtually no Hindu Balinese would feel safe in a house where offerings were not regularly placed.

The most common form of offering in Bali is called a canang. These are little trays made of folded palm leaves, filled with bits of rice, banana, colored flowers and a small package of betel nut and leaves. These are the basic daily offerings which the woman of the household places each evening at the shrines and powerful spots that mark the house and yard. Like all offerings, canang are both material objects and spiritual ones, existing in both the world of the seen and the unseen. Placing the canang in the shrine, the worshipper uses a stick of burning incense and three graceful waves of her right hand to waft the spiritual essence, or sari, of the offering up to the gods where it is then consumed. Smaller offerings are placed on the ground, and water sprinkled upon them for the demons. Having thus eaten and drank, it is hoped that these creatures will protect the house and its inhabitants instead of turning their mischievous magic upon them. Dozens of other varieties of special offerings are also made to mark particular days in the Balinese calendar, for temple festivals and for life cycle rituals, some of which are incredibly complex creations taking days to produce. One the offering has been presented to the gods, it may not be used again for ritual purposes, although once the gods have consumed the essence, humans may take the fruits and snacks contained in them home to eat themselves.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Balinese culture is its incredible variety, and the making of offerings is no exception. Shapes, forms and ingredients will vary from one village to the next, with certain areas of the island renowned for their spectacular specialties. But almost all offerings, no matter where they are made and for what occasion they are to be used, share the same basic symbolism. All Balinese offerings are made of natural, perishable materials. Small cones of rice represent the cosmic mountain, eggs and coconuts represents the fertility of the earth and its inhabitants, while fruits evoke the bounty of the land. Flowers occupy a special place in Balinese religious devotion as a symbol of beauty and purity, and one form of prayer in Bali consists of the worshipper taking a few blooms from an offering and holding them up to the gods while asking for forgiveness and blessings. Taking these natural gifts of the gods, fashioning them into beautiful handmade creations, and then giving them back to the deities as thanks for their good will and protection, Balinese ritual closes the circle of life connecting humans, their environment and the divine.

In Balinese society, where women and men work together in the fields, share the raising of their children, and hold joint responsibility for providing the household with income, the practice of making offerings is unique in that it is almost entirely the domain of women. While many Balinese ceremonies are presided over by priests, it is almost always a group of women - generally elderly experts armed with the benefit of years of practice - who run the show from the sidelines, directing the worshippers, and placing the offerings in the correct spots to ensure the flow of the ritual. The techniques for cutting, folding and weaving palm leaves, shaping colored rice dough into complicated sculptural creations, and, most crucially, knowing how to combine different ingredients to make offerings for different purposes and occasions, is practical knowledge handed down from mothers to daughters, who learn by watching and imitating. The preparation of offerings is often a social occasion, with groups of relatives or neighbors gathering together to share the work and to ease the boredom of the repetitive activity by joking, gossiping or nowadays even watching a favorite soap opera. This crucial ritual work demands patience, artistry, knowledge, and a strong commitment to one’s religion and society. One anthropologist studying women’s ritual labor found that women spend, on average, 1800 hours a year engaged in such work, as well as devoting some 20% of their household income to it. Some women complain that these ritual responsibilities make it difficult for them to leave the home to educate themselves or find paid employment, but few go so far as to see the making of offerings as time poorly spent. An offering is a sacrifice of oneself - of one’s time, one’s creativity, and one’s material resources - and when given with a pure heart, it is believed to win the blessings of the gods, the help of the divine ancestors and protection from the malevolence of the demons. Without offerings and the intimate relationship with the unseen world that they represent, most Balinese agree that Bali would no longer be Bali.