Thousands devotees join 'tarawih'prayer

DENPASAR: Thousands of Balinese and non-Balinese Muslims flocked to mosques in Denpasar for tarawih mass prayer on Sunday evening to mark the start of the Ramadan Islamic fasting month.

All mosques were full of devotees so that many of them were forced to pray at parking lots and nearby streets due to lack of space.

At the Sudirman mosque, the largest mosque in Bali, over 1,000 Muslims prayed.

"It's like this every Ramadan, everyone just pours out to the yards, the garages and over to the streets," said Hajah Ita, a prominent figure among Muslim women in the area.

Despite being predominantly Hindu, Bali has a number of Muslim enclaves located beside Hindu villages, such as the community near Ukhuwah mosque on Jl. Gajah Mada, Baiturahman mosque in Kampung Jawa and Nurul Falah mosque at Banjar Dukuh, Dalung, in North Kuta.

The tarawih prayer began on 8:45 p.m., after the government officially announced that Ramadan would began on Monday -- or Ramadhan 1, 1429, according to the Islamic lunar calendar -- when Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual relations from dawn to sunset for a month.

There are at least 600 mosques and mushola throughout Bali, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data. Muslims account for about 10 percent of Bali's 3.5 million population, the data shows. -- JP