Today, thousands of Balinese flock to the beaches, lakes or springs to hold the Melasti ritual. Melasti is a ritual in which Balinese escort the deities to the sea, lakes or springs but mostly to the sea with the purposes to throw away impurities, miseries and poor mundane elements and take tirtha amertha, or holy water of life in the sea, lake or springs. (deeper analysis on Melasti)

The deities which attend the melasti ritual usually in the form of pratima (sacred statues), barong (personification positive force usually in form of mythical beast animated by two people inside it) and Rangda (personification of negative in form a scary witch). They are accompanied by Balaganjur orchestras and groups of singers, which sing traditional hymns.

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Here is an interesting piece of writing on Balinese Giant Demon Puppet (ogoh-ogoh) taken from Scott A Johnsen’s thesis which is entitled From Royal House to Nation: The Construction of Hinduism and Balinese Ethnicity In Indonesia.

Another aspect of the ogoh-ogoh debate having implications for the use of custom / culture / religion categories concerns the fact that some makers of these figures include realistic genitalia in their depictions of demons. A massive government campaign was underway during my fieldwork to stamp out pornographic video CDs and other examples of porno. Hindu Council officials were instructing gathered local officials that ogoh-ogoh should not be made with genitals, and furthermore that this was the responsibility of the entire village (desa), not simply the ward (banjar) making the ogoh-ogoh. I only saw one example of a “porno” ogoh-ogoh, in a village in Gianyar; however, this was well into the campaign to educate the public.

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Heirlooms in Bali are found in the forms of magically powerful weapons (pajenengan) such as dagger (kris), spears (tumbak), whips (pecut), etc; palm leaves manuscripts (lontar); metal plates inscribe with a piece of sacred text on various themes (prasasti); jewelries; rare coins and precious stones. Some Balinese also consider various kinds of poisons (cetik), their antidotes (usada cetik), potion (lelengisan), pieces of various rare woods that are believed to be imbued with magical power and parts of rare animals as heirlooms.

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Every religion or culture all over the world has its own way to define and celebrate their New Year. The same thing also occurs in Bali, however the Balinese commence this occasion with a 24 hour period of silence. This is called Nyepi, which falls on the day following the dark moon of the spring equinox. It is a day to make and keep the balance of nature.

The lead up to Nyepi day (usually three days prior) involves the Melasti or Melis ceremony. This is essentially a ritual cleansing rite where all the effigies of the Gods (Pratima) from all the village temples are taken to the river or sea in long and colourful parades to be purified by the waters.

Exactly one day before Nyepi, all villages in Bali hold a large exorcism ceremony (Tawur Agung Kesanga) at the main village cross-road, which is believed to be the meeting place of demons. The community usually makes Ogoh Ogoh (large monster effigies) that symbolizes the evil spirits that exist within our environment. Noisy processions of these effigies take place just after sunset and are held all over Bali – called Ngrupuk. Every Hindu household will also hold a small, boisterous ceremony by clanging tin pots and burning torches to eliminate the presence of evil spirits and their disturbing forces.

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Pratima - small stone figures which portray religious personages. These serve as receptacles or vehicles for deified ancestors or the various manifestations of gods during their visits to earth.

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Most of Museum Bali’s collections are ethnographical objects of Bali consisting of equipments and tools of religious ceremonies, sacred dances, parts of a sacred building such as temple, etc, similar to those which are still having sacred functions in the present society. In order to appreciate the sense of their sacredness, and to observe the local norms as well, that collections in Museum Bali are generally displayed following the existing concept of Trimandala, the three divisions of an area, i.e. utama mandala, the primary or the holiest part of the area, referring to the mountain direction (kaja), madya mandala, middle area (tengah), and nista mandala, the profane area (kelod) the ocean direction. This concept in Balinese society life is applied to the palemahan desa, a village layout, as well as to the palemahan pawongan, layout of a house compound. Besides horizontally, the concept also applies vertically.

Specially for the exhibition in Denpasar Building where we exhibit collections which do not have any sacred characteristics, besides the. concept of Trimandala we also use periodisation in displaying the collections.

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