Tomorrow is Galungan, a great Balinese festival. This is an annual event on the 210th day of the Balinese Wuku calendar.
Candika wanted to pray at the Chinese Klenteng, and so we headed off to Jl. Blambangan which virtually runs parallel to Jl Buni Sari. I have mentioned this temple before in a previous blog and it is worth a look-see.
The full name of the temple is Vihara Dharmayana Kuta and it was established in 1953. It has only been recently that the Chinese in Indonesia have been allowed to celebrate their various religious events such as Chinese New Year and Waisak Day. Up until the fall of President Soeharto, all religions other than Islam were forbidden to practice their relgion openly.
It has been an absolutely beautiful day here in Bali except for the early morning eain and I thought about Nick and Chris ripping up the asphalt on their way to the east coast of Bali. So with all this glorious sunshine, who could refuse a walk around the gangs of Kuta!. As soon as Candika had finished setting fire to the Klenteng with the incense sticks, we walked along Jl Padri.
We got talking to Ketut, a young man, who was busily making a Penjor for outside his house. Penjor’s are long bamboo poles with colourful decorations on the ends and down the length of the pole. The decorations are made from strips of semi-dried palm leaves and the pole itself is bound in the same strips to strengthen it. Penjors are erected along pathways and roads outside houses and they hang in arches looking quite spectacular.
Today is the day of slaughter in peparation for Galungan. So this means there was a lot of worried pigs and chickens in Bali!. Talk about sacrificing yourself for a good cause. Everywhere we went there was chickens in rattan baskets and the odd pig tied up. The food is prepared for the coming dawn and the ceremoniees that follow. Ketut told me that there are Tektekan or ceremonial parades all over the island, and the biggest being in Denpasar.
In 10 days time, the Balinese will follow up Galungan with Kuningan, another religious celebration.
Candika wanted to see the Kuta Art Market after hearing so much from me about it and so we headed down to the rear of Kuta Square. I must admit that when I first saw it this morning I was stunned. My how things change. I can remember the Kuta Market when it sprawled over a fair area, but now it seems to have been squashed and forgotten. Gone are the Kaki Lima which sold such delicacies as Nasi Padang from Sumatra, Bakso from Java, and yummy Balinese food at a cheap price. Now it is two lanes of stalls back to back with owners looking very despondent and rather pushy for a sale. Candika wasn’t impressed and so we headed back to the hotel to check out the ISCR Centre and have a swim, then devour the Balinese food we had bought earlier that morning from a kaki lima in Jl Legian. Before you ask Nick, it has become very quiet in the Centre but a report will follow soon!.
Back at Internet Outpost tonight, things are very busy. The speed and connection are now excellent. I had to wait an hour before I could use a computer. Anyway, Candika has been pestering me to go to Sanur as she has never seen the place. Thankfullly and very luckily I was spared the travel to there tomorow as Mellie from IO is taking Candika on her motorbike. Oh no, Thelma and Louise in Bali!.
Nick and Chris should be back from Ahmed on the east coast tomorrow afternoon and it will be great to hear what Chris’s impressions are of that part of this beautiful island.
Somebody did ask a few weeks ago about the availability of World Music CD’s in Bali. As a great lover of world music I can assure you there are plenty around. I bought four African CD’s this afternoon and a Brazillian electro-rock. There’s plenty out there folks and at good prices.
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{ 3 comments }
during Suharto years, Taoism and Confucian rituals are not openly celebrated but other religious activities are as openly celebrated as Islamic rituals…not forbidden at all!
I was wondering what Penjor’s were called, Barrie. I’ve been seeing them everywhere and cruising past people in the various stages of making them. They do look amazing when there’s a bunch in a row down a street, so intricate.
I also saw a pig being hauled into the street to be taken somewhere. It was already dead, so there was much heavy lifting to be done.
Riding through the villages of east Bali over the last couple of days Chris and saw many people sitting at the side of the road making Penjors. We also saw guys on motorbikes riding down the road with 30ft long bamboo poles over their shoulder heading off to make one.
On the windy roads coming back from Amed we saw lines of locals all wearing tradition outfits and people kneeling and giving offerings at roadside temples.
Passing through one village I spotted several guys cutting up chicken about in someones driveway.
Speaking of the ban on religious practice they also used to ban Chinese script on shops or anywhere in public. I was surpised to learn there are quite a few Chinese muslims here in Indonesia and in fact many of them may well of been muslim before they came over from China as the muslim influence goes back a long way. I saw an article in the Jakarta Post where Chinese muslims wearing Chinese silk outfits and slippers were being allowed to hang Chinese lanterns in their mosque to celebrate Chine New Year.
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