the women of the family prepare an offering according to their means....ranging from small ones containing some fruits,rice, incense and flowers in a woven box and up to large silver boxes with layers and layers of sweets, holy water, cakes, and bunches of bananas and other fruits. these are brought to the temple, placed on the altars, and the women sit on the ground along with the other devotees as the priests sanctify the offerings with incense, prayer, water, etc. then the devotees join in in prayer and are also sanctified afterwards by the priests that go and sprinkle the holy water on every 2-3 people at a time, then return to their place and all recite together :om shanti shanti shanti om which signifies the end of the ceremony.
this procedure has been going on for the past 3 days at the chosen temple from 4 a.m. till 12 p.m., all members of the village make an effort to come to their particular village temple for this occasion. so even villagers that go to work down south (4 hour drive) because that is where the money is, return to the village for the ceremony.the famous masked wyong won
having seen a one of the episodes a few days ago, i decided to forego the crowds and just come in the evening after everyone has gone home and then see the special women and men dancers that i have yet to see perform....so, all dressed up in temple clothes, decked out with my little bag of flowers, incense sticks and matches i left after dinner for the temple. ss="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">nyomann> had told me that that was when they would be performing. time and events is very "rubbery" here....everyone telling you something else, and in the end something else happens anyways...
i walked in the dark along the path and, not wanting to miss the performance, decided to try a new shortcut to the temple. as i made the turn, i suddenly saw one of the dancers in costume, walking in front of me. i hoped he was "going" and not "coming back". unsure of the way, i followed a few steps behind him, grateful for his sudden appearance. when we nearly reached the end of the narrow paths i decided to try out my indonesian and ask him what time the performance is. i started with "LLING_ERROR_12">maafan>' ("excuse me") and when the dancer i had seen from the back until now, turned around, i was surprised to see an old man! his walk and build and black hair were like that of a 30 year old. "="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">anda bisa bicharra class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">bahasa
so we crossed the main road where i was surprised to see tons of motorbikes parked everywhere! at the resort, and down the narrow alley, things seemed empty and quiet, and here on the main road it was clear something big was happening. i remember last week when i went through the woods for my gamelon lesson on the back of mithas motorbike, we passed a large area in the woods with a sign "parking" (or maybe in rror" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">balinese it said "paking") and i had wondered "what is this big parking lot for?" and a few meters away saw a lovely large roped off area, and i thought that maybe it was for special performances or summer camp or something. the next day when p-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">mitha again took me to the lesson, even before we reached the parking lots there were tons of motorbikes lined up along the narrow dirt path, and the lot had over 150 bikes (i counted them as we drove by,,,spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">i'm quick at math) and as we continued i saw TONS of men from the back, with their left arm leaning on the shoulder of the man next to them,,,,all huddled together...what a site, each one joined together into one unit...what were they doing??! and then "the coin fell..." betting on cock fights....so this is where the tejakula men hang out and lose their money after a days work (or no work!). if each bike held 2 people (minimum! you should see how they pile on entire families on a bike) so there were some 300 men here. what does this have to do with my walk to the temple? that there is NOT a "paking" lot for the temple! but they have arranged one for the cock fight site....
anyways, i continued to follow my dancer to the temple, past all of the vendors selling cheap plastic toys and ice cream to the kids, and was suddenly standing in a big line-up of men and women that had also come to the temple now! hmm....i guess this is a really cool performance so everyone has come out again at night for it! i stood with the crowd. everyone in temple clothing, the women with the offerings on their heads, the men with cell phones in their hands....to my right and left were open air areas with tons of men sitting around, gambling, or smoking (i don't think any women smoke here....it is mens' stuff) or just the priests taking a breather in between the non-stop procession of devotees that have been pouring in for the past days, wanting to bring offerings and receive blessings.
one young (smart-ass) guy started speaking to me in lightening fast balinese, and with alcohol on his breath. i knew he was just teasing me since here i was with hundreds if not thousands of balinese, dressed like them and coming to the temple. i didn't answer him, but he continued to tease and after reflecting for a moment what the best answer would be i decided to answer him back in lightening fast english "how do you like it when i speak to you so fast in a foreign language too so that you do not understand a single thing i am saying to you in english?!" (thinking "take that!") and to my surprise he answered me back in lightening fast lass="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">english "so you want to speak english, so no problem, just say so, so what are you doing here?" i laughed....
we spoke a little, i asked him if all these people have come to see the dance?! "what dance?" i pointed to the men with the white bandana and black sarong that is tied in a special way in the back....he said, no one is dancing now...maybe when it is all over at 11 at night or something. (it was 8 p.m. now). ahhh...so why is everybody here now? "Because now is the time everyone comes to pray," it was only then that i realized that my approach to the dance performance was very "western". here there is no such thing. the performance is not a show for an audience that has come to watch it for its beauty or interest. the performance is part of a temple ritual that the devotees witness. so....now, to stay in this crowd and see what it is like to go pray at night with hundreds of people, or go back to the resort. staying and experiencing it won out.
so, we stand....and stand....and stand....mushed together, every now and then a balinese woman notices me and starts to giggle and points at me as she tells all of her family to look at the american in temple dress standing here mushed with us! i smile back at their giggles, they don't try to hide the giggling...and then i feel a kind of pinching on my forearm from behind. at first i think i imagined it. but when it occurs again i suddenly remember that this is the way woman (or maybe the men too?!) get you to turn around and speak to them. it happened a few days earlier to me when i was "hanging out" with mithas relatives on the cement block in front of their, sorry to say, slum. and since the block is square shaped my back was to a woman who sat down behind me without me realizing it. she kept poking my and finally i turned around and she just wanted to make conversation. but such a strange way....or maybe tapping someone on the shoulder would seem just as strange to them! so anyways, here i am in the mush, feeling someone pinching me, and i turn around and a nice 40 year old woman smiles at me. i smile back a while later, again pinching. i turn around and she asks in english "are you okay?" "yes". and continue to just look around me trying to understand it all, how do i feel, what are they doing, why are they doing it, how heavy it is for the women with these offerings on their heads....
after a little less than an hour there is a quick yell of excitement as they realize that the people that were inside the temple courtyard for the blessings have just exited and we get to go in. and ....all hell breaks loose...no more rules, it doesn't matter; men women, children, offerings, old, young, we are all one huge mass being pushed and pushing forward through a narrow entrance into the temple, via steps that you can't even see, with people coming from all sides, and some more sassy teenager boys thinking it is cute to pull my sash on my waist towards them behind me, while i'm being pushed forward.... but at least i have made it into the courtyard where hardly a piece of grass is open in order to sit down on. i decide to just sit exactly where i am standing at the moment period. we must be a thousand people filling up the space sitting next to each other in make shift rows with barely any room between the rows for your feet to be in a folded position,
the usual ritual takes place, and i am wondering how the last part, when the priest comes up to each person and drips water on him, can possibly happen with this crowd?! and suddenly, out of nowhere a row of some 15 priests start off dripping the water on each one with total ease. within minutes they have gone from one end of the courtyard to where i am sitting in the back. i am watching them trying to figure out where they even placed their foot down?! no one moved for them to get by, no one was missed, no one slipped, it was as if they floated across everyone! and then floated back to their places up front, ending with "om shanti shanit shanti om" and out we went....no dancers tonight, and the next crowd came in.
the following day i asked nyoman," how can it be that everyone pushes like that, and for what?! to pray to be blessed with goodness when you act like that in order to sit down?!" she said she knows it is a problem, but sometimes people wait 4 hours to get in and it is very difficult and she didn't go since she has a 6 month old and didn't want her to be hurt in the squeeze.
another slice of bali
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