Penampahan Galungan, is a day before Galungan (a Christmas for Balinese). The word “Penampahan Galungan” derives from the word “tampah” which means “to slaughter” and “galungan” which means victory. So Penampahan Galungan is a day for Balinese to slay their Sad Ripu (six internal enemies, they are: kama (lust), loba (greed), krodha (anger), mada (drunkeness), moha (confusion) in order to achieve victory.

For six months Balinese engage with the battle of Dharma (Virtue) versus Adharma (Evil), and Penampahan Galungan is the last day of this great battle. On this day, Bhuta Amangkurat (King of negative force) comes to the world to temp Balinese. Amangkurat derives from the word “Mangku” which means “king”, “lord” or “master”. Bhuta Amangkurat temps human with the lust for power over others. If we were not in alert and weak, it would succeed in tempting us. On this day Bhuta Yadnya (offering for demon or other negative force) is held in Catuspata, (the houseyard), offering is distributed based on urip (special number for five direction, 4 for north, 5 for east, 7 for south, 9 for west and 8 for center) and direction, dedicated to Sang Tiga Bhuta Galungan (Three Evil force of Galungan which are Bhuta Galungan, Bhuta Dunggulan and Bhuta Amangkurat) in order to placate them so they will not disturb the human life.

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On Saturday 26th July 2008 Balinese celebrated a holiday that is called Tumpek Wariga or Tumpek Pengatag. Tumpek Wariga is the day when a blessing ceremony is given to the plants, the ceremony held at every plantation and farm throughout the island. Tumpek Wariga is celebrated every 210 days or 6 months of the Balinese calendar.

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In Bali, almost everyday you can a find a ceremony or two are held, in an auspicious or lucky day thousands of ceremonies are held all over the islands. These ceremonies cannot just be prepared in a day or two, many workforces and work hours are devoted for the preparation of these ceremonies. These massive workforces and work hours are usually managed based on gender system.

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Did you ever attend a Balinese Wedding party? And had meals there? Take a look at what do Balinese use to serve the food? Yes, Balinese usually use ‘ingka’ as a substitute for plate in many ceremonies. It has similar form and function with plate.

Ingka is a kind of plate that is made from spine of ivory-colored coconut leaves. Those spines are woven like a plate. On the average, one ingka needs 105 spines. Well, how many coconut leave spines are needed if we want to make 100 ingka? More or less they need 10500. Yet, Bali has abundance of materials to make Ingka.

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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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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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