on Nyepi, part 1

Published 5 months, 1 week ago in Arts & Culture by Kunta Yuni | 478 Views

The existence of Caka Lunar Calendar was the basis history that ended the hostilities among Indian tribes. They were Pahlawa, Yuehchi, Yuwana, Malawa, and Caka. They were fighting each other to have power. The Cakas were tired with this condition, so they changed their way of struggle not to defeat for power but for culture and prosperity.

125 BC the Kushana Dynasty from Yuehchi run India and was touched by the Caka’s effort, so the Kushana decided not to defeat the other tribes but it is used to tug all tribes in India by collecting every culture and put it as part of the palace culture. In year 79 AC, King Kaniska I from Kushana Dynasty and Yuehchi let the Caka Lunar Calendar system as the palace calendar. And on that day the tolerance among the Indian tribes arose. Due to the tolerance and unity, the Caka Lunar Calender System expanded through the spreading of Hindu.

In Indonesia, the Caka Lunar Calendar had been extended in the 4th century as the Hindu expansion. It was brought by Aji Caka, a priest of Caka Tribe from Kshatrapa Gujarat (India).

In Bali, the celebration of Caka Lunar Calendar is celebrated annually by doing Nyepi which means sepi (silent) on March or early of April. It is based on Lontar Sundarigama and Sanghyang Aji Swamandala (Hindu’s manuscript). The philosophy of Nyepi itself is to control our senses through catur brata penyepian (four ways to control ourselves); amati geni (to turn off the fire – the fire of anger, fire of passion), amati karya (not doing any work/activity except focusing on God), amati lelungan (not going anywhere), and amati lelanguan (far from the worldly pleasure). So, what is the correlation between the philosophy of Nyepi and the environment preservation?

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