Like time itself, the volume reveals information bit by bit in increments that unfolds unexpectedly.  

The reader can get lost for several pages in the flow of its prose recounting a mythical fable, or stop to savor an enigmatic reference to a 'web of meaning according to which the distinction between people and rice is blurred'.

One could also spend hours puzzling over abundant charts and illustrations that visualize the logic behind Bali's multiple overlapping calendars, or simply choose to flip through the pages to enjoy the extraordinary drawings of I Gusti Nyoman Darta that document Balinese rituals in a visual sequence from birth to death and back again.  

The illuminating captions beneath these exquisitely detailed line drawings are worthy of a book on their own, but the imagery tells stories that transcend language.  

As an example, consider the drawing of Sinta combing the hair of her husband Watugunung while he reclines on their bed. This mundane task is framed by the presence of the god Siwa above her head and the demon Durga at the foot of the bed. The artist Darta has chosen to depict the moment when Sinta first sees the scar on Watugunung's scalp that identifies him as her long-lost son.  

The discovery of her unintentional incest will lead to a series of supernatural events culminating in the establishment of the Balinese calendar, which mandates appropriate times for a wide range of human behaviors.  

According to Balinese cosmology, this is seminal to the birth of consciousness and the establishment of civilization.  

The authors of the book present this myth with persuasive intellectual analysis, but the drawing has a vivid emotional impact that cannot be expressed in words.

The benign and malevolent deities on opposite sides of the drawing show the couple caught in a moral dilemma that exemplifies the Balinese concept of ruabineda in which good and evil coexist in a state of dynamic equilibrium.  

The decorative wheel on the edge of the bedspread beneath them resembles the pattern of the pengider bhuana or wheel of life radiating out of a sacred lotus blossom.  

Its presence suggests that Sinta and Watugunung are experiencing an event that links the microcosm of human life to the macrocosm of the divine universe as embodied by Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge. Time, morality and the birth of civilization intersect in the startling intensity of this single black and white drawing.

Darta is credited as one of the three authors of this valuable book.

The other two are the French scholar Jean Couteau and the Swiss scientist Georges Breguet. This international team has produced a volume that should be read by anyone with a serious interest in Balinese culture.

The authors' most notable accomplishment is to call attention to the importance of the story of Sinta and Watugunung.

Each week of the calendar at the heart of Bali's complex ritual life is named after a character from their saga and its significance deserves the thoughtful explication provided by Darta, Couteau and Breguet.  

By presenting the lontar manuscript that tells the story of Sinta and Watugunung with all its fascinating twists, the authors invite readers to reinterpret its multiple meanings for themselves.

This book presents time as a concept that links the Balinese to their gods on a daily basis, even as modern times threaten the survival of their island's timeless cultural identity.

Time, Rites and Festivals in Bali
I Gusti Nyoman Darta, Jean Couteau, Georges Breguet
Editor: Sherry Kasman Entus
BAB Publishing Indonesia, 2014
244 pages

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