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In Bali, balancing the universe
Effigy: Rangda, the wife of Shiva, as a barong effigy made of seeds
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Effigy: Rangda, the wife of Shiva, as a barong effigy made of seeds.
Balinese Hindus believe that prayer is needed to create the power to balance our world as it traverses the Kali Yuga.
In the village of Juga outside Ubud, thousands have come to 're-charge' their temple's batteries to bring harmony to a world in chaos.
Working in shifts over five months, men and women have been preparing for the Upacara Karya Perdudusan Agung ceremony, which will cost the community around US$150,000 to stage.
One volunteer on the project, tour guide Nyoman Darmu, says the last ceremony was held around 40 years ago, when he was still in grade school.
'We believe the ceremony needs to be repeated every 30 or 40 years, because the power created in the ceremony starts to run down, like it's getting a flat battery,' he says.
The goal of the Upacara Karya Perdudusan Agung is not only to re-balance the village in Bali, but the entire world.
'What we seek in this ceremony is five points; these are safety, peace, wealth, health and balance,' Nyoman says. 'Health is the most important. If we have our health, we can work and educate our kids, so health is very important for the other four points to develop.'
Wayan Padra, the head of Juga village, says that the lead-up to the main ceremony on Jan. 6 involves 226 families from the village and help from eight surrounding villages. 'There are thousands of people involved. From this ceremony, we pray for the balance of nature, including people. It is part of our Tri Hita Karena philosophy that seeks balance between man, the natural world and the gods.'
Padra continues. 'We hope to bring positive thinking to the world. With this, our aura is better and our atmosphere is more holy. This is not only for our village, this is for the whole world ' to balance the world. We are in the time of the Kali Yuga, a negative period of chaos, so when we have this ceremony we will have more positive results from the gods.'
At the center of the ritual are Rangda and Barong, the incarnations of the wedded gods Durga and Shiva, who are masters of life and death.
In crafting their effigies for the ceremony, the Balinese Hindus have celebrated the life-giving power of the gods. Rangda and Barong have been decorated with 23 different types of seeds and six different strains of rice.
Bringing each of these gods to life takes 10 people working every day for a month, to glue seeds as tiny as a sesame seed to the bodies, creating a mosaic from thousands of individual seeds.
'These are the symbols of a married couple,' Nyoman says. 'We have good in the Barong and evil in Rangda, two sides of the same coin that we believe cannot exist without the other. Neither positive nor negative is more important than the other. With this ceremony we try to balance them.'
The man in charge of making the effigies, Ketut Bonar explained why seeds were used. 'With this we give thanks to the gods for food. From seeds, we humans have food to eat and food for our livestock. We need a huge volume of seeds for the effigies. First we look to our farmers, so we take from the natural world around us, then from local markets. There are sesame, green beans, rice and many more types of seeds used.'
Ketut continues. 'After the ceremony on Jan. 6, Rangda and Barong will be placed in the temple. Then people can pray and ask for the seeds so these return to the earth. So the seeds meet the gods in thanks then return to the natural world.'
The story of Durga and Shiva is one of faithfulness, says Ketut.
'After Shiva banished Durga to earth as Rangda he missed her so much he became the Barong so he could again be close to his wife. So it's a story of love and faithfulness and the balance between,' says Ketut of the grand ceremony's central gods and of their adherents who hope to bring that balance into human lives through prayer.
-Images by J.B.Djwan
