Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
always been problematic. As part of its code of national law, or
Pancasila
, the Jakarta ad-
ministration requires that all Indonesian faiths be monotheistic and embrace just one God - a
proviso that doesn't sit easily with either Hindu or animist tenets. The compromise decided
on by Bali's Hindu Council was to emphasize the role of the supreme deity,
Sanghyang Widi
Wasa
(who manifests himself as the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Siwa and Wisnu); this con-
vinced the Ministry of Religion that Bali was essentially monotheistic, and in 1962 Balinese
Hinduism was formally recognized by Jakarta.
The beliefs
At the root of
agama Hindu
is the understanding that the world - both natural and super-
natural - is composed of opposing forces. These can be defined as good and evil, positive
and negative, pure and impure, order and disorder, gods and demons, or as a mixture of all
these things, but must in any event be balanced. The desire to achieve
equilibrium
and har-
mony in all things dictates every spiritual activity.
Positive forces
, or
dharma
, are represen-
ted by the gods (
dewa
and
bhatara
), and need to be entertained and honoured with offerings,
dances, beautiful artworks, fine earthly abodes (temples) and ministrations from devotees.
The
malevolent forces
,
adharma
, which manifest themselves as earth demons (
bhuta
,
kala
and
leyak
) and cause sickness, death and volcanic eruptions, need to be neutralized with rites
and special offerings.
Ritual uncleanliness (
sebel
)
To ensure that malevolent forces never take the upper hand, elaborate purification rituals are
undertaken for the exorcism of spirits. Crucial to this is the notion of
ritual uncleanliness
(
sebel
), a state which can affect an individual (during a woman's period, for example, or after
a serious illness), a family (after the death of a close relative, or if twins are born), or even
a whole community (a plague of rats in the village ricefields, or a fire in village buildings).
The whole island can even become
sebel
, and
island-wide exorcisms
are held every new
year (Nyepi) to restore the spiritual health of Bali and all its people. The 2002 Kuta bombing
caused the whole island to become ritually unclean, and as well as a huge purification cere-
mony at Ground Zero a month after the attack, exorcism rites were performed simultaneously
across the island. Other regular, very elaborate island-cleansing rituals are performed every
five, ten and 25 years, climaxing with the centennial
Eka Dasa Rudra
rite, which is held at
the mother temple, Besakih. In addition, there are all sorts of
purification rituals
(
yadnya
)
that
Balinese
must go through at various significant stages in their lives.
Holy water
The focus of every purification ritual is the ministering of
holy water
(
agama Hindu
is some-
times known as
agama tirta
, the religion of holy water). Ordinary well or tap water can be
transformed into holy water by a
pedanda
(high priest), but water from certain sources is con-
sidered to be particularly sacred - the springs at Tirta Empul in Tampaksiring and on Gunung
Agung, for example, and the water taken from the lakeside Pura Danu Batur.
