Bali : The Island Of God

SILENT DAY (NYEPI)

2011-03-09T12:40:00.000+08:00

Bali is wellknown as an island with alot of uniqueness. The culture which based on Hindu religion and the mixture of ancient Java and Bali tradition, is so richful. This Hindu Bali culture, as a minority in Indonesia, has a huge value of impressive ritual and tradition. The Balinesse have their own calendar. With its complicated and sophisticated Lunar and Solar plus Wuku System, the rituals occur almost every day.

One of the rituals is Nyepi Holiday (The Silent Day). It occurs in the Ninth Month (in Bali Calendar System), or usually in March. This year, it occurs on 5th March. Before the Nyepi Day, the people have mecaru Tawur Agung (the ritual of Purification). In this ritual, they make an offering to the Bhutakala, performed the Ogoh-ogoh in the night before Nyepi. The creature of Ogoh-ogoh is a symbol of evil. This performance means a symbol of Satisfying the evil, trap them inside the Ogoh-ogoh, then burn it until the spirit of the evil be vanished.

When the Nyepi day, all arround the island is so silence, there are no outdoor activity. They have Brata Panyepian with no Fire, no Going Out, No Work, No Entertainment. Even the airplane is not allowed to fly.In the night, there's no light, so the night is the darkest night in the year, even they can't see their own nose. The Nyepi day means the purification for the world and the little one (the soul), as a New Year, The Saka Year. This Year is the Saka Year of 1933. So, if we talk about saving the world by energy saving, Bali did it along before and do it every year, at least for 24 hours in a year. You can imagine the pure air arround, after the mother earth has a little rest.

The Ogoh-ogoh In Kuta, Bali

NGABEN: Ritual about Cremation in Bali

2009-12-23T12:10:00.006+08:00

These are pictures presentation about the baliritual, Ngaben, the cremation in Kuta, Bali. This rituals occurs in the good day according to the balinese calendar system, that explained in the last post about WARA, which consist of ten groups of days call EKA WARA, DWI WARA, TRI WARA CATUR WARA, PANCA WARA, SAD WARA, SAPTA WARA (Similar to: week), ASTA WARA, SANGA WARA AND DASA WARA.These combinations and synchronization result a good day, the best day to do rituals.
The One of the most popular icon of these baliritual is BADE, a symbol of the transportation for the holy spirit in their journey to heaven.

The Corpses and their spirits were escorted to the cremation area in the cemetary

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust: In these pepople's words: The Five elements (Panca Maha Bhuta: Soil,water,fire,wind,etheric)spreads into the nature where they've been created from.

And finally, the ashes and their spirits were poured and spreaded into the holy water, the sea, to be purificated, and ready for the next journey, visit the God's dimension.

WARA

2009-11-25T11:35:00.018+08:00

WARA, is a system in balinese calendar that organized ten groups of days. These groups usually be combined and synchronized each other to be matched. The ten groups are :

1. Eka Wara contains one, named Luwang.

2. Dwi Wara contains two, named Menga and Pepet.
3. Tri Wara : Pasah, Beteng, Kajeng.

4. Catur Wara: Sri, Laba, Jaya, Mandala

5. Panca Wara: Umanis, Pahing, Pon, Wage, Kliwon

6. Sad Wara : Tungleh, Ariyang, Urukung, Paniron, Was, Mahulu

7. Sapta Wara : Redite, Soma, Anggara, Buda, Wraspati, Sukra, Saniscara
(=Sunday,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday.Friday,Saturday)

8. Asta Wara : Sri, Indra, Guru,Yama,Rudra,Brahma,Kala,Uma

9. Sanga Wara : Dangu, Jangur, Gigis, Nohan, Ogan, Erangan, Urungan,
Tulus, Dadi

10.Dasa Wara : Pandita, Pati, Suka, Duka, Sri, Manuh, Manusa, Raja, Dewa, Raksasa.

According to these ten group of days, the traditional rituals and ceremonies usually use the three of them, that are Tri Wara, Panca Wara and Sapta Wara (the others be used for synchronized the Good day and the Bad day according to any kind of traditional occasions). For Example, the sacred day called Kajeng Kliwon will fall if the day contains Kajeng and Kliwon. If The days contains of Anggara (=tuesday) and Kliwon, this is called Anggarkasih, the sacred day. The Galungan Holiday occurs on Buda (=wednesday) Kliwon, Wuku Dungulan ( falls in October 14th, 2009, the picture show above). And the next year, it will not falls on the same date, but in the same combinations of these days: Buda, Kliwon and Wuku Dungulan.

If Saniscara (saturday) meet Kliwon, this is called Tumpek, and if this Tumpek combined with WUKU , there will be called Tumpek Landep (wuku Landep), Tumpek Wayang (Wuku Wayang) Tumpek Kandang (Wuku Uye) and soon. This sacred days will be explained in the next post about Balinese Rituals.

This short description about Wara, maybe too simple, but it shows how complicated and sophisticated the balinese calendar in organizing a lot of the rituals, compares to the international system which only has dates,weeks(contains seven days), and months . The Balinese calendar has dates, month , ten group of days (called WARA) 30 group of weeks (called WUKU), Pranata Mangsa (Astronomic system) and Palintangan (astrology).

WUKU

2009-11-22T18:45:00.006+08:00

WUKU is a terms in balinese calendar that collect weeks into one periode or one cycle of days. Wuku contains thirty weeks, each of them has its own name, like Sinta for the first week/wuku, Landep for the second, Ukir for the third and so on until the 30 th named Watugunung. This system is usually use for the birthday or the anniversary, combined with Saptawara (week), and Pancawara (contains five days named Umanis, Pahing, Pon, Wage, Kliwon). For example, Galungan falls on Budha (wednesday) Kliwon, wuku Dungulan (11th wuku), Saraswati holiday falls on Saniscara (=saturday) Umanis, wuku Watugunung (30th wuku). So, the holiday or the birthday that uses Wuku as its base, will be always took place every same day, same pancawara and same wuku. It means, that holidays will cycle in every 210 days (Wuku contains of 30 week, a week contains of 7 days).

The Birthday also uses this kind. For example, my son were born on Wednesday, 12th December 2007. In balinese calendar the day had a lot of components: wednesday(in english), budha (saptawara), Pon (pancawara), Tolu (the 5th wuku), and another 8 names of days from the Wewaran (group of days). But here I just tell about the most usual kind of balinese calendar been used (Saptawara=week, Pancawara;contains 5 days, Wuku; contains 30 wuku/weeks). About the system of Wewaran, I'll post it in the next time. Similar to the Odalan, or the anniversary of the temple. There are two different system to do with this. The wuku, and the lunar system. If the odalan uses the wuku system, it will always fall on the same wuku, and if it uses the lunar system, it will fall on the same month, usually on the fullmoon (Red dot symbol on the date) of each month.

The Holidays that use the wuku system are: Galungan , Kuningan, Saraswati, Pagerwesi, Tumpek, Banyupinaruh. Now we can imagine, how many traditional rituals will be seen in Bali, if we consider that there are a lot of Temple with a different days of their anniversary (odalan) will be took place. There are almost everyday live events, the rituals ! No event organizer required, they're all alive !

WELCOME TO BALI

2009-11-21T17:17:00.005+08:00

Bali is a beatiful island and it has a several name to represent itself, such as The Island of God, Paradise Island, The Island of a Thousand Temple and so on. Bali is an island with a tropical climate because it's position is beyond the equator. For the people who have visited, they just like the weather. The island has a lot of beautiful spot to explore: the beach, the lake, the mount, the hill, the paddy terrace (this is one of traditional irrigation system), the landscape. To reach all of the spot, you do not need lots of days to take. Because the island spread from east to west about 250 kilometers, and from north to south about 200 kilometers (about 5,000 square kilometers width). Even for the two most popular beach: Kuta on the west side to Sanur on the east side, you just need a half an hour to take, and to go to the lake, just take one hour from the city of Denpasar (the capital of Bali).

The religion of the Balinese is Hindu Bali, which is the main influence of their culture, and it is a little bit differ from the Hinduism in India. Basicly they are the same, but in Bali it become a new kind of stream because of the acculturation with the local genious. This generate the culture and the arts of living. We can see and find the real life culture, not just a festival by an event organizer serve for the tourists. They just live their life just it does. With the global modernisation, they still do what the ancient have done, of course with a different style but still in the line. We can see almost every day of traditional ritual they do, and there are so many holidays and special sacred days they have (I'll explain about the unique and sophisticated calendar they have in the next post). For Example : Galungan, Kuningan, Saraswati, Pagerwesi, Nyepi, Siwaratri, Tumpek Landep, Tumpek Kandang, Kajeng Kliwon, Anggar Kasih. I'll give an illustration like this : if the intenational calendar has a group of days called week, which contains of seven days (sunday, monday, tuesday,wednesday,thursday,friday,saturday). In the balinese calendar week is similar to Sapta Wara, contains of seven days (Redite, soma, anggara, buda, wraspati, sukra,saniscara). But, not just Sapta Wara, they also have another nine kind of wara: Eka wara contains of one day, Dwi Wara contains two days until Dasa Wara contains ten days. So, there are ten group of days they have, compare to just one group of days (called week) in international calendar. Isn't that sophisticated?
And that was just a beginning. Because there are another kind of the period of days they also have, they also have a system that called WUKU (week) which contains 30 weeks, and each week has a name. This system usually be used for the anniversary of the temple called Odalan and for the birthday, combined with the Sapta wara and panca wara, and it makes more complex and sophisticated. Globally, they used a lunar and solar system to be combined. Another society use only one system, a lunar or solar system.
So, enjoy your trip, and you'll never loose the events because there are a lot of ritual events almost everyday. See you in the next story.

The Month

2009-11-21T12:20:00.005+08:00

Bali has alot of traditional rituals base on Hindu religion. All of them have their own special occasion according to the balinese calendar system. The Balinese Calendar is similar to the Javanese, but for the present day, only a part of the javanese still use this calendar for their living. As the first post of this topic, I try to tell here by a very simple way to understand, not to mention if it makes you bored or confuse, so the illustration below is easy to understand.

One Year in balinese calendar is similar to the international system. The year contains of twelve month, but named in numerical, like: Sasih Kasa (sasih=month, Kasa=first), Sasih Karo (karo=second), and so on. One month contains of 28 or 29 days. (compare to 30-31 days in international calendar). Although it has less days in a month, this lunar system will be combine with solar system, so in the last periode, the year in balinese calendar will always be synchronized with the international calendar. For example, Nyepi will always progress in March until April, and still stand there. In the lunar system, like the islamic calendar, the Idul Fitri Holiday always progress earlier every year. In 2008 it falls in October, in 2009 it falls in September.

The Month base rituals, such as Odalan (anniversary of the temple), Ngusabha Desa (Purification ritual for the local village) usually use the fullmoon moment, popularly in fullmoon of the Sasih Kapat (4th Month) or the Sasih Kedasa (10th Month). Nyepi (silence day) begins from Sasih Kesanga (9th month). The Wedding rituals also use the month, and this is more complex and sophisticated, because it combines several system of days, weeks (wuku) and month. For the itual like this, balinese people beliefe that there is agood day and bad day, so they prepare and select the best day of the days for the rituals, and hope the generousity from god, and they will be blessed.

For the illustration, the first month in balinese, falls between June or July, and synchronized through the next month and will be overlapped in every 4 years. So, Nyepi Holiday, will be falled steady in March or April.

NYEPI

2009-11-06T23:35:00.011+08:00

BALI has a name in a joke BAnyak LIbur means a lot of holidays. This could be happened because in their religion, Hindu Bali, has a lot of Ritual days which has it own special day. There are a common holidays like Nyepi, Galungan and Kuningan, Pagerwesi, Saraswati, Siwaratri. There are also a special sacred days among the clan, or the traditional territory, called Rahinan or Piodalan. Rahinan or Piodalan, means similar to the birthday or the anniversary of the temple, according to the balinese calendar. I will not explain the ritual in details, but at least I can tell in globally, what they always do in that rituals.

IN THE RITUALS, we always find the sense of art. The dance, the music, the dress code, the accesories. Here are what we can see for each of that rituals: Nyepi means silence. It begins with the ritual of purification of the Pratima (symbol of God and Goddest) to the sea, because they believe that the sea can purifying any kinds of sin. When they do this rituals, they usually perform the Baleganjur (traditional music contains of any percussions).
The next day, one day before Nyepi, called Ngerupuk, they have a sacrified rituals, then in the night they performed Ogoh-Ogoh (a giant statues as a symbol of the devil, just like in a Halloween party). And When Nyepi came, all arround the island would be in silence. Amati Geni (no fire/light), Amati Karya (no activities/work to do), Amati Lelungan ( no going out) Amati Lelangunan (no entertaining). Practically, all of the people who live or stay in Bali on that day must be stay at home, with no light and no noises. Can you imagine in 24 hours of silence? All activities in any other aspect, social, bussiness, government services, were called off. But there are an exceptional for the emergency services like the hospital, the doctor and paramedic. In the day, the smell so fresh raising up through the air because there is no pollution. And in the night, there's a darkest night (Nyepi fall on the 1st day in the Tenth Month of the lunar system of the balinese calender, and that is a darkest night), we can see the star shining so bright, the brigthest of the year, because the situation arround so dark, even we can't see our own hands !
The day after Nyepi, called Ngembak Geni , start the new day with the new hope, and the new year begins, called The Caka Year (1931 caka = year 2009). And if you want to see and share those, Nyepi usually falls between March to April. So enjoy your exploration !