Balinese Hinduism — Life Abundant

I really loved visiting Bali, although many had warned us about the touristic feel of the island. The tourism is quite evident, as well as the accompanying relative increase in cost compared to Java. But despite all of that, it was totally worth the 2 weeks we spent there. We spent 10 days in Ubud and 4 days on Nusa Penida. There is so much more to see of Bali, but our kids could not really manage too many transitions.

The thing the struck me the most was the deep devotion many of the people have towards the dominant religion of Hinduism. The rest of Indonesia is primarily Muslim, and it feels quite different on Bali in comparison.

I was totally blown away when upon waking on our first day in Bali, our guest house owners were having a ceremony at 7am right in front of our door. There were people dressed in sarongs, beautiful offerings displayed, a priest chanting, holy water being splashed here and there, and the smell and sight of smoke from incense everywhere. We were in Bali where, as our guest house host Budi puts it, form, function, and meaning come together.

Offerings to the gods. There is actually quite a variety of shapes of the palm leaves that people make to hold the flowers and offerings. We took a class on how to make them. Super Fun! Here’s a link to video about these offerings: https://www.youtu… — Offerings to the gods. There is actually quite a variety of shapes of the palm leaves that people make to hold the flowers and offerings. We took a class on how to make them. Super Fun! Here’s a link to video about these offerings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OjObJpakuE&feature=youtu.be

This priest was sitting one door down from our girls room. He’s chanting, ringing a bell, splashing holy water around with blessings, and a whole lot of other spiritual ceremonial things I’m sure.

A group of women climbing the steps of this guest house’s home temple and placing offerings with prayer. Lots of laughter along the way.

Form comes in the display of beauty so valued here. It was apparent during our taxi ride from the airport to Ubud that adornment, intricacy, craftsmanship, and just straight up beauty is abundant everywhere you look. It really felt different from where we had just been on Java. Here in Bali there are temples of all sizes everywhere with sculptures of beautiful women, gods, demons, animals everywhere you looked. And the homes were so intricately decorated with wood carved doors and temple like stupas that it was difficult to know what was a home and what was a temple. In fact, all the homes we saw had a family temple inside of it.

Ganesh – Lord of Learning and Remover of Obstacles. He is a very common god here. Usually, he is the the first thing you see when you enter a door here in Bali.

This is a picture of the temple up close. This type of detailed sculpture is everywhere here.

When I first saw this door, i asked if it was the entrance to a temple, and I was told, “no, its just someone’s house.” Wow! It was just across the street from where we were staying.

And its not just appearances. One driver told me that 30-40% of Balinese incomes AND 30-40% of one’s time are dedicated to preparing for ceremonies, going to ceremonies, cleaning up after ceremonies, paying for the materials for ceremonies, giving to the temples, and praying. One third of one’s money and time is devoted to a spiritual practice based in gratitude. Ah, can you imagine tithing this much of your money and time? Well it really seemed apparent to me that all this resource spent on spirituality pays off in the increased wellness of the Balinese people. Never have I been to a place so willing to connect with you with their eyes, smiles, and hearts. And there is a ton of tourism, which i think could easily make a foreigner look like a dollar sign rather than a person, but I never really felt that way on the streets. The big temples did get a bit aggressive with selling, but still the people held a lovely smile and overall good intent.

As far as the function and meaning of Balinese Hinduism, those are things I am still learning about. Its my understanding that the families in an area form defined communities, and these communities form tight villages. The religious ceremonies tightly weave all of the people together since there are several levels of offerings to the gods starting in the home 3-5 x per day, to the family temples, to the community temple, to the village temple, and to the public temple. There are “a lot” of celebrations every year. That’s what you hear from the locals as if there are too many to count.

We were there for Galungan, which happens every 210 days. It is a time when the gods are invited to come down to earth. And it symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. Evil never goes away in the world or in ourselves, but with the right attention and action good can overcome evil. Offerings are made for both the gods in the temples and the demons on the ground. I could go on about this fascinating religion that is unique to Bali, but I’ll hold off for now. I’ll just say it is a Hinduism unique to Bali because there is a strong influence of the previous rituals for the ancestors and the mixing in of aninism*.

*Animism (from Latin anima, "breath, spirit, life") is the religious belief that objects, places and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially,animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork and perhaps even words—as animated and alive.