Melasti ceremony at Pura Petitenget Bali

This morning at Café Moka I noticed the place was rather empty looking.

Eating my bread and sipping the Bali coffee I asked the staff if anything was going on. They told me a big ceremony was happening this morning at Pura Petitenget at the beach as a prelude to Nyepi, the day of silence which is this Sunday.

Riding over at around 9.30am I noticed a ton of traffic at the end of Jl. Oberoi with motorbikes parked everywhere. I parked my bike at Body Works on Jl. Oberoi along with about 100 locals and walked to the temple at the beach.

The Balinese locals were decked out in ceremonial gear, the men usually in white or cream and the ladies in colorful sarongs and kebayas. Kids were all over figuring out the routine they will go through year after year.

I asked the pecaling (banjar traffic police) if it was okay for me to walk down to the beach and they said it was okay.

Locals made a colorful spectacle on the steps of the Pura Masceti and after checking them out for 15 minutes I walked past the small market that had formed between there and the beach. Satay and drink vendors were doing a fine trade and I actually picked up a bag of 10 pork satay sticks for 5,000rp…its the smell that got me.

Seated on the beach were groups of locals who has placed offerings around small floats which were carried to the shore and then placed higher on the beach. I stayed for about 40 minutes and witnessed an endless stream of these come in accompanied by musicians and ladies supporting large cloths. The teenage guys using the occasion to practice looking cool.

I bumped into Iluh, one of the ladies from Moka who told me this ceremony is called Melasti and ‘cleanses’ the temple in preparation for Nyepi. Its funny because the beach was fast becoming a waste dump of offerings and plastic, you don’t want to go swimming at the next high tide. The cleansing involves all the temple objects, some of which are heavy and I saw 1 or 2 trolleys with traditional decorations on top carrying this load to the waters edge.

The reason the sea is believed to spiritually cleanse is due to the fact that it is the domain of God Siwa (the destroyer) in his manifestation as Baruna who destroys and dissolves all the evil spirits.

One of the things that is very different at Balinese Hindu ceremonies compared to a Christian one is the chattering that goes on and the hanging out that people do. Us westerners are all about efficiency and get it over with quickly. The time and money the Balinese spend on ceremonies must make a huge dent in their budgets though and I’m sure there are many employers toda who had to deal with staff absences.

While on the beach I did see about a dozen other foreigners who were mostly snapping away like me. Its a weird vibe you get at these events from other ‘bules’, they never speak and there seems to be a ‘don’t spoil my traditional event’ attitude with some people. For me I try to stay in the background and out of the way of the ceremony so as not to spoil the event and give others te chance of taking their fantasy ‘foreign shots’.

Today was a real scorcher and I had to get out of the sun. The local ladies wore more hats today than I’ve seen before.

Leaving I saw the number of arrivals was actually increasing and I asked the pecalang guy if all these people were from the immedediate area of from all over. He said Kerobokan an Seminyak.

There must be all kinds of ceremonies going on today in Bali, its almost better than ogah ogah ( the monsters) as its more colorful and the locals are all involed, not just spectators.

• Balinese ladies attend beach ceremony on Kuta Beach Bali
• Balinese ladies attend ceremony in Kuta Bali
• Ladies handing out flowers on Kuta Beach Bali
• Balinese dancing on Kuta Beach Bali
• Photos from Saturday in Ubud

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