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Macabre transformed to the sublime
Complex craft: This miniature temple housed in the inner sanctum of Siwaâs temple in Juga village is formed of pork paste on plywood
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span class="inline inline-left">Complex craft: This miniature temple housed in the inner sanctum of Siwa's temple in Juga village is formed of pork paste on plywood.
At first glance, reliefs being sculpted onto plywood appear to be of rice flour pastes, however, on closer viewing a more macabre substance is found.
Finely minced pork is used to create the heavily adorned walls of a temple in miniature, each jigsaw like a section charred under a blowtorch for this very rare Balinese Hindu offering.
These pork paste offerings are created with the great care and delicacy as befits food for the gods and on Tuesday were carried on prayers and incense emanations to Siwa during Juga village's Karya Padudusan Agung ceremony.
It has been 46 years since this small village on the outskirts of Ubud has held the ceremony and this is the first time many of the men have been called on for this difficult task.
'This is the first time in my life we have held this ceremony and the first time I have made these offerings,' says Putu Widi Astra, who works as a wood carver, like many others in his village.
Working in a temple pavilion alongside the men is a local priest, Mangku Ketut Suarjana, who was barely into his teens when the last Karya Padudusan Agung was held in Juga.
'We have learned how to make these special offerings through sharing our skills, but also this rite and how we do this, are handed down from our ancestors,' says the 55-year-old, patiently marking out whorls and flower forms into the meat paste with his index finger.
As a backdrop to the sculptors and standing more than 2 meters high is another form of these pork meat offerings, circling its broad peak are white carved arabesques formed from the skin and fat of the pork, the grotesque transformed.
This crafting of the rarely seen offerings to Siwa began days before with the butchering of the pigs.
'These pigs were not sacrificed to the demons. These are pigs specially butchered and their meat made into offerings to Siwa,' says Wayan Lebih from Juga village and one of the coordinators of the massive Karya Padudusan Agung ceremony, which has taken almost US$150,000 and six months of intensive work to reach its culmination.
'This meat is special because this food is for the gods. The meat is butchered here for the ceremony and after that, it is shared out to the families,' says Lebih, explaining that the pork offerings are a symbol of nature that is being returned to the gods, or the source.
Despite the three-day hiatus between the ceremony and the sharing of the meat for the local people, it does not go off.
'We put spices into the pork mix that preserves it and it is still good after three days,' says Lebih, adding that some meat from animals sacrificed to the demons, rather than the gods, is also shared among the local population after the ceremony.
One of the men charged with the ritual slaughter of animals in this great ceremony is Kadek Bona, who has been deeply involved in preparations for this once-in-a-lifetime event since August 2014.
'My normal job is as a woodcarver, but due to the Padudusan I have been selected to sacrifice some of the animals. Before the ritual we hold ceremonies to the goddess Pertiwi, the earth goddess,' says Bona, a gentle and shy man who takes on his religious duties with a calm heart.
'Why am I chosen to do this? I feel it is because I often work on holy preparations for our temple. Before the sacrifices I am sanctified by the priests and a mantra is placed over my body as protection. I do know the death of the animals is very quick, about one second. Afterward I don't feel anything because I am protected by the mantra, like a trance,' says Bona of his role in these difficult rituals.
While animal sacrifices to draw demons away from towns are undertaken outside the temple walls, the ceremonial offerings of pork meat being crafted by the men of Juga are carried to the inner sanctum
where they stand alongside other offerings of fruits and flowers; the world's gifts to man symbolically returned to the creator.
Through both the sacrifices to the demons and offerings to the gods, the people of Juga village believe their prayers and gifts will restore the balance between good and evil and herald happier times for all.
' Photos by JB Djwan
