The Temple of Evil
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 by Sidarta WijayaMarch, the third month in Gregorian calendar, is Kesanga - the ninth month in Balinese Caka calendar - the month of evil, when the evil spirits sweep the mainland of Bali. Balinese believe that these evil spirits come from the island of Nusa Penida.
A great many mainland Balinese make the trip to Nusa Penida every 210 days for the odalan (temple anniversary) for Pura Peed (this year the temple anniversary falls on Wednesday, 3/28/2007). This temple is the spookiest (“angker”) place in all of Bali. The temple complex is the really angker part of the whole island, the home of the dreaded Ratu Gede Nusa, spreader of the disease, evil, and patron saint of the leyak (witches) of Bali. The celebration is on Buda Cemeng Kelawu. The temple is the home of I Macaling, also known as Ratu gede, Ratu gede Nusa, or ratu Gede Macaling. “Macaling” comes from caling, Balinese for “fang.” Fangs are characteristic of animals, evil spirits, and the mask of “coarse” or keras characters in any sort of Balinese drama are invariably fanged.
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