Galungan

I arrived in Tejakula, Bali, one year ago. The day I arrived they were inaugurating a renovation of one of the temples and the street was decked out with tall bamboo braches with decorations hanging from the leaves, and the women were all carrying big offerings on their heads and dressed in their white kabiya blouses on their way to the temple. Never one to miss a ceremony, I quickly dropped my things off at the resort and returned by foot to the said temple, and walked through the gateway. Many people were there doing various things, and as I shyly made my way across the courtyard to look and see, Ketut came up to me and speaking excellent English began to explain everything and made me feel quite at home. That was my first temple experience here.

Over the past year I have been to many temples here, for various ceremonies. One time it was to play in the gamelon band with the women for a temple anniversary celebration. Another time it was for their New Year procession. Each time was a touching connection for me; each space was different and left its mark on me.

When I asked people what Galungan celebration is all about, they explained that it is the victory of good over evil (our inner positive traits over our negative ones), and that we bring offerings to the temples in gratitude and joy. With over 30 temples in Tejakula I wondered how people decide which ones to go to. The answer was "Go to those that you feel close with." Hmm….when I was told that last year, I didn't really have any feelings towards any of them. But when one of the staff invited me to go with her and her family yesterday to begin their temple rounds the night before Galungan I happily joined in.

I rode with her husband on the back of his motorbike holding a huge tray piled up with offerings for all the different altars. My girlfriend followed behind us with her 6 year old sandwiching the 1 year old baby between her and her mother. And thus we wiggled our way through the narrow and busy pathways among all of the other villagers that were doing the same. As we went into each one, suddenly a memory of the past year arose, of when I had been at that temple, and how special that first time was. By the end of the evening we had been to about 6 of them, along with hundreds of other devotees.

The ceremonial praying that went on continuously for almost 24 hours, repeating itself in each temple every 15 minutes or so, as another round of devotees arrived, and the previous ones finished, was done in spite of the rain. Everyones' beautiful white clothes were not a concern as we sat on the wet ground or under dripping awnings in puddles. The important thing was we were grateful to be praying and together. As usual, in each temple either I met one of the "angels" that I had met over the past year that I lived here (among the 11,000 residents) and was happy to see them again, or suddenly discovered how all of these angels that I have a "click:" with, are all somehow related to each other! I laughed each time I arrived at another temple only to find out, for example,that my computer man is actually the son of the woman that I so admire from the gamelon band, or that my adopted familys' father has a grandfather that was the brother of my girlfriends grandfather, and that the other son was married to the sister of my first angel, etc., so it is no surprise to find them all praying at the same family temple on this holiday.

The chanting and praying continued on till midnight and began again the following day before dawn. I had agreed to cook for the guests, since the owners wanted to let all of the staff have the day off for their holiday. I didn't realize that it would mean I couldn't participate in the celebration,since I would be in the kitchen all day cooking. But as it turned out, all I had to do was heat up the prepared food, and so I found myself with time to spare and a desire to be part of the holiday mood. I invited the other 3 guests to join me in a round of some of the temples that had touched me and that I wanted to pay my respects to. We set out after I gave them a rundown on how one prays, and dressed them all in sarongs and sashes.

The Balinese spend approximately 2/3's of their money on temple related causes; offerings, renovating, ritual donations…And I usually just join in without spending the hours and dollars to prepare the offerings given. I realized as we started to walk to the various temples around the village, that I had been blessed so many times by the priests, had had such touching experiences in each of the temples, that today was a good day to at least give back something for all that I have received, and so I took some money to give as donations. At each temple sat at least 4 men, at the small donation table, all laughing and smiling, and grateful for my small donation of $1. (Remember that an average salary for 8 hours work is $2). I marveled how even the donation table they do all together. One man could have easily handled a shift at the table, but probably for several reasons, they were 4 men; to keep each other company, to help each other, and to recognize the temptation that is in front of each one of us to steal and to assist him to write receipts for everyone and overcome with good the bad….

When we reached the second of the 4 temples that I took them to, I related to them how this had been the first temple I had ever been to in Tejakula on my first day here, and how the warmth and welcome had made my integration into the village that much nicer. And here I was, a year later, visiting it for the second time, and suddenly being the "tour guide" for the other guests, explaining to them what everything means and how it is done….everything that had been a blur to me a year before. As I sat on the wet tarp in the rain waiting to pray, a lovely voice began to chant, and I turned to my left to see who it was. There sat a thin woman, my age, with barely any physical expression on her face, singing in a peaceful but powerful voice into the microphone a song of praise. The humility and simplicity of it all brought me to tears. This is Bali. Anonymous acts of service. Simple people acting as priests, chanters, helpers to the priests, guardians of the temple that seem to be totally detached from their ego. Their whole attitude to life is one of community, togetherness, helping, contributing, respect, gratitude, and a lightness of being. Laughter is the key to it all.

One of the highlights of our temple rounds was that at one of them we were only about 8 devotees, and I realized that there was no priest officiating, but rather the water holder and whisk and wet raw rice were placed on a small altar and everyone was anointing each other. So as the ritual objects were returned to the altar, my guest rose and sprinkled the holy water on me and then I did it to her. It was the perfect culmination of temple experience for me…. how each of us is there for the other, all equal, all with the same intention, and the symbolic acts are inner gestures of uniting with the one God of all and everything.

The other highlight was going into the temple this morning to place my daily offerings there and the altars and grounds had heaps of offerings left from the Galungan celebration. As i stood there looking at it all i realized that in most of the little palm leaf decorated offerings there was real paper money folded and placed into each one. All this money just soaking wet from the rain,amongst all the food and flowers that were strewn all over since the dogs and chickens and cats enjoy partaking in eating the symbolic gesture of the offerings that have been left there. I was surprised to see all this money and wondered what would happen to it? On the one hand it was living proof of the priorities in the life of the Balinese. Money is not top priority. Devotion is. And the perfect gesture of intention and anonymity, rather than pride and recognition. They had placed the paper monetary notes in their offerings as a blessing to the gods for prosperity for them, along with all the sweets and fruits for their nourishment. Whether or not the money would actually be collected and used by the temple was irrelevant to them....it is intentions rather than the material world that is the foundation of their belief system.