Bali Hotel Villa Blog Culture Travel Guide Indonesia - BALIwww.COM

Share Bali Indonesia experience with the rest of readers and exchange information, write to our blog instantly NOW!!!

Protecting House Compound: Guardian Spirit Shrine

Thursday, April 19th, 2007 by Sidarta Wijaya

For Balinese, protecting house compound is great task that cannot be handled effectively by walls and gate only, especially when dealing with mystical disturbances. For Balinese mystical disturbance is as real as the physical one and some Balinese put more emphasis on the mystical disturbance when dealing with protecting house compound issue since it cannot be perceived with mortal eyes and proven to be harder to deal with than a mere physical disturbance.

Balinese believe that a mystical disturbance should be handled by a mystical guardian since ordinary human has no adequate power to penetrate into the mystical realm even though someone has enough mystical power he simply cannot stay alert 24/7 in order to guard his house compound from mystical.

A typical Balinese house compound usually has two shrines for its two spirits that act as mystical guardians; each has its respective shrine. The shrines are located within the house compound. The first shrine is called Sanggah Pengijeng Karang or shrine of house compound guardian – the word “sanggah” means “shrine”, the word “pengijeng” means the one who stay at home (derived from the word “ijeng” means “to guard” or “to stay at home” and the word “karang” means “house compound”. The sanggah pengijeng karang is a roofed shrine with one compartment. It is located more or less in the middle of the house compound, not in the family temple. It is the home of the spirit of which acts as a guardian or caretaker of the property.

(more…)

Odalan: Temple Anniversary

Friday, March 9th, 2007 by Sidarta Wijaya

Every temple in Bali has a regularly scheduled festival, an odalan, to celebrate the anniversary of temple dedication. The Odalan are scheduled either by the lunar calendar, the Saka Calendar, or by the 210-day ceremonial cycle, the Pawukon calendar. The latter consist of 30 weeks, each seven days long. Most odalans are set by the Pawukon calendar, some temple fix their odalans according to lunar calendar or the Saka Calendar. Usually an odalan takes place at either full or new moon, more likely full than new.

(more…)