The mother of the owner (Nyoman) passed away two weeks prior to my visit and as a tradition a ceremony should take place to purify the house with her and evil spirits before the divine powers are addressed. This is done by offerings, holy water and hand gestures. Prior to the day of the ceremony the family members were busy with preparations which mainly is making offerings from coconut leaves, these would vary from small square boxes to umbrella shaped versions with creative sized attachments to house the offerings (rice, flowers, sweets). The whole family including the young girls were busy with this.
On the day of the ceremony I was woken up by females singing / chanting and when I looked outside my window they were in the temple area, than walked around the whole building complex from offering area to offering area. This was to connect with the spirits and greet them, one female would put some flowers at the area and sprinkle some alcohol on it too. The smell of the incense has the purpose to make you feel happy, this works for both for the spirits and for us.
The offering area was a big cross shaped pile of flowers, coconut leaf offerings which were filled with flowers, food and as my hosts explained it has a meaning: NORTH facing is associated with the color red and the highest hierarchy which is the duck with number 88 SOUTH; black and has the lowest level the dog with number 8, WEST; is the color yellow with and EAST; is the colour white with the chicken. Each area had a coconut decorated with the colour and the years in Chinese coins.
I’ve met the dog Bobo who was a young puppy and was killed that morning to be offered to the gods as it would re-incarnate as a human.
The process of the women went on for a while till they felt the spirits were satisfied and by waving the incense smoke upwards they were guiding the spirits out of the house. The final was a procession of loud noise and chanting to finally ‘clear’ the offering areas and literality brushing the spirits away with a brush and a bunch of burning incense. Suddenly, everyone started clearing the offering areas and the coconut leaf and flowers were all put into bags for burning at the sea. Within 10 minutes the place looked tidy and the next stage would start which as that the priest would go round and give his blessing to the whole area and finish at the temple where a praying ceremony would take place. All family members gathered into the temple as they had to be ‘cleaned’ too with water and rice and when this was done the ceremony was finished and we enjoyed a traditional Balinese meal of rice, jackfruit curry, chicken and pork packages of banana leaves.
The cremation would take place in September with another family member that passed away so till then the bodies are kept in a special place till the ceremony in the sea.
I found the whole process very fascination as I could see that this is a tradition and people are following it out of respect of the spirits. It is beautiful but nothing different than other religions where people follow the founder or foundation of this religion but here it feels that is has emotions and comes from the heart without forcing outstanders to join or follow. As Nyoman (guesthouse owner) said; we are open and liberate so please join the ceremony as it is my pleasure to have you here.
In Bali they call their children the same in the following order: Child no 1; Wayan or Putu, No 2: Made or Kadet, no3: Nyoman or Komang, no 4 Ketut and with no 5 you start again at no 1; etc. Usually one is also given another name to identify themselves too.
The pictures give a view of the ceremony, the monkey forest sanctuary and Ubud surroundings like rice paddies and temples.
www.dropbox.com/sc/b5pxbv4ytnqk53m/92RmO1qqbm
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| The offerings |
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| The lovely Nyoman Murjana family |
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