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This dance is normally performed to entertain the gods and the goddesses to appease
them or to ask for their blessings. A bad harvest or an outburst of an illness may warrant
such a dance. The preparation for this dance may take months, as prepubescent girls who
have never danced are trained to relax their mind to be able to get into a trance state. Day
after day they visit the priest at the local temple to receive their lessons. When the priest
concludes that they are ready, and the time is right, the dance will be performed in the
court of the temple.
incense, the two young girls slowly dance as the accompanying chant of the village
women gradually relax them to get into trance. The gods and the goddesses will enter
their bodies as they enter trance, and they will dance with movements that they have not
mastered in their normal state. They may act and sound like a horse or a monkey; at
times, they end up dancing while balancing their back on a piece of bamboo supported by
two men on both ends. When they collapse, the village women will chant to ask the gods
and the goddesses to peacefully leave the bodies of the young girls. If they refuse,
dancing will continue until they agree, at which point the girls will simply collapse
In villages life is concentrated under the tropical vegetation of palm, breadfruit, mango, papaya, and banana trees. The centre of a village has an open meeting space, temples, the town market, perhaps a former prince's home, the kulkul (hollow tree-trunk drum used to sound a warning or call meetings) tower and quite likely a big banyan tree. The banjar (local division of village consisting of all the married adult males) continues the strong community spirit by organising village festivals, marriage ceremonies, cremations and the local gamelan (traditional Balinese orchestra). The headquarters is the open-side bale banjar (communal meeting place of a banjar) where you might see a gamelan practice, a meeting, food being prepared for a feast, or men preening their roosters for the next round of cockfights.
In the more urbanized south however, life embodies many of the same hassles of modern life anywhere. There's traffic, noise that drowns out even the loudest barking dog and various social ills such as drugs. There is though still a concept of village life under it all in that people are part of a greater group beyond their immediate family. This is important as women are finding much to do outside of the home, whether it's work or even cultural activities, Child care becomes an adult responsibility, not just a family or maternal one. In the end, an air-conditioned mall fills in for the village banyan tree as a meeting place for many.
The last ceremony, Pitra yadnya,Ngaben (cremation), is often the biggest, most spectacular, noisy and exciting event. Because of the burdensome cost of even a modest cremation ceremony, the deceased are buried, sometimes for years, and disinterred for a mass cremation with the cost shared among families. Brahmanas (high priests), however, must be cremated immediately.
The body is carried in a tall, incredibly artistic multitiered tower made of bamboo, paper, tinsel, silk, cloth, mirrors, flowers and anything else colourful, on the shoulders of a group of men. The number of tiers of the tower depends on the importance of the deceased. The funeral of a rajah or high priest may require hundreds of men to tote the 11-tiered structure.
Along the way, the group confuses the deceased's spirit so it cannot find its way back home. They shake the tower, run it around in circles, throw water at it and generally make the trip anything but a stately funeral crawl. Meanwhile, the priest halfway up the tower hangs on grimly, doing his best to soak bystanders with holy water. A gamelan sprints behind, providing an exciting musical accompaniment.
At the cremation ground, the body is transferred to a funeral sarcophagus which corresponds to the deceased's caste, a black bull for a Brahmana, white bull for priests, winged lion for a Ksatriya, and elephant-fish etc. for a sudra. Finally, it all goes up in flames and the ashes are taken to the sea to be scattered on the waves. With the material body well and truly destroyed, the soul is free to descend to heaven and wait for the next incarnation.
The much-repeated Balinese names - which are gender neutral - carry a symbolic meaning, indicating social status and birth order. Low caste Balinese name their first child Wayan, Putu or Gede; the second is Made, Kadek or Nengah; the third is Nyoman or Komang; and the fourth is Ketut. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eight children re-use the same set. The large number of Balinese named Anak Agung, a name denoting the child of a royal concubine, attest to the fertility of the Balinese rajahs (princes).
A child goes through 13 celebrations, or manusa yadnya. At 105 days, the baby is welcomed to the family and its feet are allowed to touch the ground for the first time - ground is considered impure, so babies are held until then.
At 210 days (first Balinese year) the baby is spiritually blessed in the ancestral temple and there's a huge feast for the family and community.
A rite of passage to adulthood is the tooth-filing ceremony, when a priest symbolically files a teenager's (around 16 to 18 years) upper front teeth to produce a pleasing line. Crooked fangs are, after all, one of the chief distinguishing marks of evil spirits - just have a look at Rangda mask! No-one may marry unless their teeth have been filed.
The respectable way to marry, known as mepadik, is when the family of the man visits the family of the woman and politely proposes. The Balinese, however, like their fun and often prefer marriage by ngrorod (elopement). Nobody is too surprised when the young man spirits away his bride-to-be. The couple go into hiding and somehow the girl's parents, no matter how assiduously they search, never manage to fine her.
Eventually the couple re-emerge, the marriage is officially recognised and everybody has had a lot of fun and games. Elopement has another advantage; apart from being exciting and mildly heroic, it's cheaper.
Images by:baliluwih.blogspot.com
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