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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.
Today, 12/29/07, Balinese celebrate the birthday of the trees. This holiday is called Tumpek Wariga or Tumpek Pengarah. There a lot some articles in this blog which describe how Balinese express their gratitude to the trees through the celebration of Tumpek Uduh and how this holiday serves as a remainder of the importance of trees for Balinese’s life and also serves as a message for the Balinese to preserve the tree. So this time I will put emphasis on unique mepengarah ritual which is practiced on the celebration of this ceremony.
Mepengarah ritual is a unique ritual in which Balinese give an instruction to the trees (menpengarah means giving an instruction). The ritual is conducted right after the ceremony to honor the god of the trees is finished. Balinese will tap the tree three times to wake it up and give the instruction to it. It runs as follow: Kaki-kaki titiang pengarah, malih selae rahina Galunganne, mabuah nyen apang nged. Nged, nged, nged”; the free translation of this instruction runs as follow “Grandpa-grandpa, I have an instruction, it is 25 days left for Galungan day, produce a lot of fruit, a lot of fruit, a lot of fruit.” In this ritual Balinese inform the trees that Galungan (Christmas a la Balinese) holiday will soon arrive and to celebrate the Galungan holiday many fruits and other and rice will be needed to make offerings which are going to be presented to the God and ancestors in this holiday and Balinese ask the trees and other plants to produce plenty of fruits and rice to fulfill the demand on this resources.
Balinese religion, Hindu with all its numerous religious ritual and ceremonies depends largely on the nature for its survival. There is a constant demand leave – coconut leave, banana leave, bamboo leave, jackfruit leave virtually all leave native to Bali; flower – all flower that have fragrance scent and bright color; trunk – areca nut trunk, banana trunk, bamboo, etc. Sometimes even branch and twig are used in the ceremony. All parts of plant from most of the plants that grown in Bali are needed in the ceremony.
Animal just the same, thousands of chickens, hundreds of ducks and dozens of other animals are sacrificed each month in Bali, this small figure can be doubled when the month is full with auspicious day suitable for a ceremony. The biggest animal sacrifice in Bali is in Eka Dasa Rudra ceremony (a great exorcism once every a hundred years) where every sort of animal native to Bali, and that including everything from insect up to tiger, from turtle up to eagle is sacrificed in the ceremony. These never-ending animal sacrifices create a constant demand on the animal.
Balinese believe that good and evil, right and left, gods and demons are banded into two opposing faction, constantly at war but depend on each other as a unity. To counterbalance the healthy influence of the gods who produce cleanliness, luck and fertility, there are evil spirits responsible for all illness and misfortune. If there is no demon, the god will also ceased to exist; there is nothing that can be called ‘good’ if there is no ‘evil’. This concept of duality in unity (rwa bhineda) is applied in almost every part of Balinese daily life, man and woman, day and night, happy and sad, etc.
Balinese believe that their action will be reciprocated, an eye for an eye. When a Balinese help someone he believes that someday someone will help him. Another example is the cremation ceremony. There is a compulsion to help other in the time of death since some day our turn and of that our family members will come and we want other to help us in a same compulsion. A breech in this reciprocated cycle is heavily punished by the society. The worst punishment for this breech is expelled from society, for Balinese this punishment is a living hell, worst than dead.
Ritually, Balinese have a special ceremony to beg any prosperity for vegetations so they can always provide their crops for mankind. The ceremony is called Tumpek Wariga or Tumpek Pengatag will be held on Saturday 4th November 2006. Tumpek Wariga or devoted to Sanghyang Sangkara, Lord of all food - plants when blessing ceremony is given to them for good crops and products, held at every plantation and farm throughout the island. Tumpek Wariga is celebrated every 210 days or 6 months of the Balinese calendar. It’s a right time to beg the God to give His grace so the vegetation can provide a lot of crops. Tumpek Wariga is also called Tumpek Bubuh, because the offerings contain bubuh (porridge) such as bubuh sumsum (porridge made using refined flour). In committing the ceremony, the bubuh is smeared on the tree bark as a symbol of fertilizers (the proper food for vegetation).
The offering is dedicated to all plants that help human life, such as coconuts, mangoes, durian, bananas, etc. Not just by presenting an offering, plants are also decorated with clothes and special decoration made from coconut leaf.
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