Bali - A Celebration of Spirit

by Linda Country, Journeys Off the Tourist Track

The island of Bali is just one out of approximately 6,000 inhabited islands in the large Indonesian Archipelago – and the only one that is predominantly Hindu. On the world map it is just a small dot, yet when I’m there it seems huge. It is a land with extensive volcanic terrain and the absence of highways. Small roads wind over the mountains past crater lakes, and exquisite rice terraces are carved into the hillsides. There are more than 400 villages, tens of thousands of temples, including temples in each home compound, and a large number of festivals. This is a world of balance where everything has its place and order.

For the past 10 years I have been bringing groups there for what I call “Bali Journeys off the Tourist Track,” creating individualized trips that give travelers a deeper experience of Bali’s fascinating culture. Spirit, in Bali, lives in all things. The unseen forces seem as real as what is seen. Ritual and magic exist everywhere. There are many forces – including gods, evil spirits and spirit guardians, to name a few, coexisting with the human population. 

The entire structure of the Balinese world is organized around a spiritual order that reflects the three parts of the Hindu cosmos. Heaven is the home of the gods who live on the highest mountains. In Bali, that is Mt. Agung. The world that includes man is in the middle, and the demons and evil spirits are below. The three-tiered cosmos also relates to the three main gods of the Hindu triad: Brahma the creator, Wisnu (Vishnu) the preserver and Siwa (Shiva) the dissolver. These are aspects of the one supreme god, Sanghyang Widhi.

Every structure mirrors the cosmos. Each village has three main temples, and each village temple has three courtyards. Just as the human body has three parts, head, torso and feet—the home compound has three parts as well. For example, in the family compound the family temple is the head, and therefore considered the most sacred, so it is oriented toward Mt. Agung. The torso is the living area of man, and the feet is the area where pigs or other animals are kept and the garbage is placed.

The Balinese way of thinking is animistic, which means they do not make the same differentiation between animate and inanimate objects that we do. So when I say everything is alive with spirit, it is not just symbolic. Because objects contain spirit, they also can contain a power we usually do not consider. That is, objects can exert influences on other objects or people. Food that’s used in offerings is powerful and must be treated carefully. In essence, everything gets treated with care, love and reverence. If problems arise, people believe they may have not treated something properly.

There are ceremonies throughout a person’s life from birth to death. There are celebrations for the family and the village, and even a ceremony held every hundred years for the purification of the world. There’s also a special day to purify from forces that have built up during the past year.

As part of honoring spirit and for protection against the dangers of the world, each day every place is purified with prayer. It is the women’s job to prepare simple daily offerings. Baskets woven out of palm leaves contain at least three necessary ingredients: rice, betel from the betel palm and colored flowers (to represent Brahman, Wisnu and Siwa, respectively). The women walk with incense and, praying, leave these small offerings on shrines or in the front of a shop, room, hotel, restaurant or on a beach. This form of purification creates a very clear feeling. 

Let me mention a temple festival. The whole experience is a feast for all the senses – smells of the fragrant flowers and incense, the sounds of the kul kul ringing out “gong-gong, gong-gong” in a certain pattern, calling the villagers to the temple. The fast, shimmering tones of the gamelan metallophones mix with the resonant sounds of the gongs. The high offerings of fruits, cakes and rice cakes are carried on the heads of the women with ease and grace, and placed on lofty platforms in the inner courtyard. Later, after praying, each woman will carry her offering home the same way. After the gods have taken the essence of the offering, at home her family will enjoy the treats. The people’s beautiful outfits, including lace kabayas, batik sarongs and bright colors, dazzle the eye. Attending a festival in a village temple, I feel fed by spirit.

OM SHANTI SHANTI OM! which means good blessings.

Linda Country operates Journeys Off the Tourist Track, a Fairfax, CA-based company.