There is a holiday called Kajeng Kliwon in which Balinese serves Tipat or Belayag (rice-cake snack cooked in a small container of woven young coconut leaves) to The God. Besides in Kajeng Kliwon, Tipat is also used as an offering to the God in a day called Nyepi. A baby who enters temple for the first time is usually brought Tipat symbolizing that he or she asks permission from the deities who reside in the temple to enter the temple by presenting a Tipat.

There are many kinds of Tipat known in Bali. They can be differentiated in term of shape. A square-shape tipat is called Tipat Nasi, while the round one is called Tipat Taluh and for the pyramide-shape one, Balinese call it Tipat Sari, and many more shapes.

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Dusk for Balinese is considered the most dangerous time during the whole day especially around 6 or 7 PM. These hours are known as Sandhi Kala. The word “sandhi” means “secret” and the word “kala” means ‘time”; so “sandhi kala” means “a time full of secret”. Full of unknown things that cannot be seen or felt by common sense.

This time is believed to be the transition between day and night, the time when nocturnal spirits, bhuta kala, and other supernatural creatures come from their hiding place and enjoying their time since the night is believed to be the time for nocturnal creatures to do all their activities. It is believed that the spirits and bhuta kala are in high spirit during the sandi kala, in a magically dangerous day such as Kajeng Kliwon (Friday the 13th a la Balinese), a set of segehan offering is given to the Bhuta Kala during this time and since it is believed that the bhuta kala can only move in straight line and can not turn sharply to left or right there is a great chance for a human wander around during the sandhi kala to collide with the bhuta kala.

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On Monday night (11/19/07), my village summon the village protecting deities, a Barong which is named Ratu Ngurah Sakti and a Rangda which is revered as Ratu Istri to protect the village and all its inhabitants from the annual invasion of the king of demons, Ratu Gede Nusa and his army which spread plague and pestilence all over the island of Bali especially the south west coast of Bali. Monday (11/19/07) was chosen to be the time of summoning ritual since that day was a kajeng kliwon, an auspicious day which is believed to be full of magical power and it is occurred on the sixth month of Caka year (Kaenem), the month which is believed to be the month of invasion, the month of pestilence (this year Kaenem starts on 11/10/07 and last until 12/9/07).

The main ritual began around midnight; the protecting deities, ratu Ngurah Sakti and Ratu Istri were escorted to the main crossroad of the village. The deities stood on the center of the crossroad and given special offerings, a chicken was sacrificed for the deities. The main crossroad of the village was chosen to be the venue of ceremony since main crossroad in any Balinese village is the center of the village, the central point for community activities and ceremonial events. The crossroad is an open space where the four cardinal points meet and considered to have an extraordinary magical power as well as a strategic point to release the magical power of the deities to four cardinal points.

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Siwa and his wife Dewi Sri were walking once in the mountain walaraoe. And moved by the lonely beauty of place Siwa wanted to enjoy his wife. But she would not, because it seemed to her too solemn and godlike a place for such a thing. And while he strove with her two drops of sperma fell into a hollow of the mountain. Siwa was vexed with is wife because she had caused them to be wasted, and he said mantras over them, and they became twins, a boy and girl. Then he went away with Dewi Sri and left the children alone. And in heaven he heard them crying for food; and he went down to them and told them who their father was, and gave them names: kalawenara and kalekek, and told them to find their food in the graveyard. Kalekek was to eat, but after midday only, the offerings for the dead; Kalawenara was to live beside the magic spring, on the titi-gonggan and serve the god of the spring, whose name was Sanghyang Putrajaya. And his food was to be the coins which accompany the offerings, and one of the cremation offerings.

Meanwhile, Dewi Sri, who was rather out of favor, began to wander whether she too might be able to make a child without the help of her husband. So he began to haunt the temple of death. And at the full moon of Kajeng Kliwon (a magically powerful day) she went to bathe with her servant in the water spout in the middle of the graveyard. And by chance she laid her clothes on the grave of a woman who had died pregnant. When the night came she went again to the spot as Durga and said spells over the corpse, and a girl- child was born. And the after-birth she made into a boy. And she called the girl Bhuta Seliwer and the boy Cuildaki, and appointed both to be the guardians of the graveyard. But Buta Seliwer complained that her magic was not strong enough, so her name was changed to Seliwarmaya, and she was given the kepuh tree to live in. and Cuildaki was told to mingle with souls of uncremated people and cause trouble in the houses of their relations. And for their food she gave them, as Siwa had done to their children, the offering to the dead.

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For some Balinese house compound protection that is provided by walls, gate, and guardian spirit shrines are not enough. All these means of protection are useless against determine thieves, robbers or advanced level magical attack. These kind of disturbances create an urgent need in Balinese’s mind for a stronger mean of house compound protection at least a tool that can cover the weakness of walls, gate and guardian spirit shrines.

The best solution for this problem in Balinese culture is a house compound amulet. The amulet for house compound protection can be divided into two divisions: Tetaneman or Pependeman and Pepasangan.

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Tampaksiring for Balinese not just offers a magnificent view of terraced rice fields or a splendid temple with excellent architecture but also provides a holy bath place that consists of 23 non forbidden showers (there are few showers that are forbidden for melukat or recharge and purify the spiritual enthusiasm). Each of these non forbidden showers are believed by Balinese to have power to cure various illness range from minor skin problem to deadly heart or liver problem, purify their body, mind and soul (sudhamala), increase intelligence, luck and magical power, negate the effect of curse, black magic, and unfulfilled vow or promise, annihilating plague (gering), and nightmare (ipian ala), clean the body of a deceased person (pabersihan), clear his path to the next world (pangentas) and the source of holy water for a specific ceremony.

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