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Ancient village of Tenganan is surely fortified by nature to form a green sanctuary, flanked on both sides by hills and the majestic mount Agung on the back, surrounded by one of Bali’s most intact remaining rainforests. Once you set a foot on the soil of Tenganan rice fields or forest area, the phrase “green sanctuary” is just a modest string of words to describe the beauty of Tenganan environment.
Galungan, a Christmas for Balinese will soon come. And if you happen to visit Bali on Galungan day you will be hailed by thousands of Penjor along the roadside all over of Bali.
What is Penjor? Penjor is made from a long bamboo pole about eight meter high with curved end, and decorated with palm leaves, rice paddies, corn on the cob, coconut, cakes, a piece of white or yellow cloth, etc. It is the symbol of Mount Agung and also as gratitude for the agricultural produce. The arched top of the bamboo pole represents Mount Agung, the body of the pole is a river that flows from the mountains to the sea, and along its route are the products of the harvest, tied to the pole.
Yesterday, I accidentally visit the Pura Sadha (Sadha temple) in Kapal village, Badung regency. A feature in this temple quickly arouse my curiosity, this temple has replicas of sacred mountains in form of multi-tiered-roofs shrines known as meru that can be found in the north and east part of inner courtyard of the temple.
As a matter of fact the replica of mountains and lakes in the form of multi-tiered-roofs shrines (meru) are standard features of South Bali temples, but only when I visited Sadha Temple I realized their significant and function. The main purpose of placing replicas of mountains and lakes in temple is to save the time and effort needed to actually visit them since in the yester centuries pilgrimage to the mountains and lakes need a great deal preparation and time. These replicas serve as representative shrines for the gods who resides in the mountains or lakes all over Bali.
The Balinese are just one of Indonesia’s 250 ethnic groups. Like most Indonesians they are a blend of races, with the accent on the deutero-malayan race of Central and East Java, with traces, of Polynesian and Melanesian blood, as well as Indian and Chinese. This genetic back ground explains the variety of radical types seen on the island most Balinese are small hand some people with round delicate features thick black hair long sweeping eyelashes heart shaped lips and warm brown complexions others are darker skinned and straight haired like pacific islanders, or curly haired with flat noses like Papuans.
Çudamani Gamelan troupe
The Balinese are an extraordinarily creative people with a highly sensual theatrical culture. Culturally, the Javanese lean more toward refinement and modesty, keeping themselves in check in life and art, while the Balinese prefer the headier, flashier sensations – laugh, terror, spicier and sweeter foods. Balinese are more lavish and baroque in their colors and decorations, with more explosive music and fast, jerky dancing.
From dozens of tropical fruits that can be found in Bali, Salak or snake fruit is the oddest looking one. It is about the size and shape of a ripe fig usually round with a distinct tip, with an edible pulp; to peel, pinch the tip of the fruit and pull away. The fruit inside consists of three lobes, each lobe containing a large inedible seed. The lobes look and have the consistency of peeled garlic cloves, creamy yellow in color and have a sweet acid taste rather like a pineapple, but are crisp and crunchy. But the most distinctive feature of Salak is its reddish-brown scaly skin, and due to this feature salak is dubbed as snake fruit.
Salak plant needs high temperature and humidity throughout the year and also high and continuous water requirement. Due to this requirements, Salak plantations in Bali are concentrated in central and east Bali especially Karangasem Regency, especially in the southern slope of Mount Agung.
Ngaben is always translated into “cremation ceremony” in English, but unfortunately not all cremation ceremonies in Bali can be categorized as ngaben. There are two types of cremation ceremonies in Bali, Ngaben and Mekingsan ring Geni (buried or left in the fire) with the main differences lie on the offerings and paraphernalias which are used and the function of the ceremony.
A Ngaben ceremony can be done in a modest to extravagant way, a modest ngaben needs a few basic offerings and preparations; while the extravagant ngaben will involve massive offerings, cremation tower, cow sarcophagi (befitting the caste of the deceased), gamelan orchestra and hundreds of manpower; while Mekingsan ring Geni (buried in the fire) is always a simple affair regardless the caste of the deceased, with only a few offerings, few manpower and little preparations.
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