In Balinese’s point of view, sin can cause many kinds of illness to the Balinese, which cannot be cured before they realized their sin, perform necessary ritual as a sign of repentance or to appease the wrath of the deities. A concept of sickness as a punishment for one’s sin or mistake still prevails in Balinese minds and influences their daily life.

When a Balinese is sick, there are two options to consider for curing his illness, first, consult a doctor or a witch doctor for a remedy and the second option is to reevaluate his actions, whether he has committed a mistake to deities or ancestors, desecrating holy or sacred places, breaking a taboo, conducting improper or incomplete ceremony, etc. If he is not sure of what sin or mistake ails him (since can’t figure out his sin or mistake) or which one (since he made so many sins or mistakes), he can ask a shaman to summon a spirit of ancestors or a deities to tell him what his sin or mistake that cause his sickness, what should be done to repent his mistake, and what ceremony or offering is needed to cure his illness or show his repentance.

Negligence in paying a promise to the deities is a sin or mistake that can also be punished with various illnesses. A Balinese usually makes promise to the deities (masaudan) when a sickness or misfortune befalls on a Balinese, he promise something to the deity, for example, a student who is going to take an important examination is usually makes a promise to present a certain offering to the deity if he manages to pass examination. If he fails to fulfill this promise after he pass the examination, a misfortune or sickness is certainly close at his heel.

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Paying homage and praying to a temple is not just an act of devotion to God for Balinese, it is more than just a religious activity. In socio-political context praying in a temple for a Balinese is also an act to justify his positions in the society, his position in a clan, his position in a village, etc in short praying to the temple is an act of justifying his identity.

Taman Ayun Temple

Justifying identity through worshipping in a temple is possible since most temple membership in Bali is exclusive, that is, only those who are member may worship there. One cannot as in Islam and Christianity, stop in at any temple and pray; for this privilege, in Bali someone must in some sense regular member of the congregation of the temple. From more 20,000 temples in Bali not more than five percents are public temple, where everybody can pray and pay homage and the rest of them are members only. (There are five types of temple in Bali: public temple, territorial temple, functional temple and clan temple).

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Every region must have their own tradition which is inherited from their ancestor. Such as India with their ‘mangal sutra’ tradition and the dowry from the bride, Japan for their tea ceremony and also the growth day for them who have reached the age of 20, and many other traditions around the world. And so does Indonesia with its various areas must have diversity on its tradition. One of them is Bali.

Gebogan offering

Bali is so popular with its ‘banten’ (means in the Balinese worship which is usually made from young coconut leaves and contains fruits, flowers, leaves, betel vine, cakes, and sesari – a little money as an offering). There are many kinds of ‘banten’, hundreds might be. It is so amazing that the old people are able to remember those kinds of ‘banten’ for each different ceremony meanwhile most of the young Balinese generations do not understand on ‘banten’ and everything related on it. That’s why this sentence appears; “It’s quite difficult to be a Balinese, isn’t it?”

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When a grand ceremony such as Ngenteg Lingih (held once every 30 years) or deification of ancestor soul (nyekah) is held both Balinese and visitors will have a chance to see the rare Ketungan and hear its unique rhythmic sound. Ketungan, as a matter of fact is not a musical instrument but a long wooden mortar made of tree trunk complete with some long wooden pestles which is used to thrash the rice in order to detach the grain from the husk. When the rice is thrashed using the mortar, the long trough of the mortar is filled with rice and then the rice is pounded using the tall wooden pestles.

The ketungan is sounded by pounding the wooden pestles continuously into the ketungan. The collision of wooden pestles against the wooden mortar will produce deep continuous sounds which can cover surprisingly long distance. Ketungan is usually sounded by 6 or more women; each of them hold a long wooden pestle and pound the mortar with a specific rhythm. The different rhythms of the pounding will produce a complex interlocking pattern of polyrhythm. Sometimes the outer side of the wooden mortar is also pounded with a wooden hammer or two, adding new rhythms to the complex rhythm of the wooden pestles.

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Here is an interesting piece of writing on Balinese Hinduism as a belief taken from Scott A Johnsen’s thesis which is entitled From Royal House to Nation: The Construction of Hinduism and Balinese Ethnicity In Indonesia.

When a man from a ward in Bangli married a Javanese Muslim woman, an official from the local Hindu Council office and another from the Department of Religion attended to make sure that this woman had formally stated her belief in the panca sraddha, the official Five Beliefs of Indonesian Hinduism:
1. Belief in (yakin akan) the existence of Hyang Widi Wasa (the high god)
2. Belief in the existence of the soul (atman)
3. Belief in the existence of the law of karma
4. Belief in the existence of reincarnation
5. Belief in the existence of liberation from reincarnation (moksa)

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On 9^th December 200 Balinese will celebrate Kuningan day. Kuningan takes its name from the fact that a special offering that is presented in this holyday is yellow rice (nasi kuning) is made by colouring ordinary white rice with tumeric (kunyit). Kuningan occurs once in every 210 days in the Balinese Pawukon cycle (traditional Balinese calendar). The Kuningan Day is the time for commemoration as the ancestors return to the heaven after ten days dwelling on earth and the Balinese express their gratitude to gods for His mercy to the human races.

flickr.com/photos/priyatnadp/

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