the making of a priest

Each time I see a priest I wonder how he became one. There is something so ordinary about them, and together with that something so special. And I wonder how it all began. Last night I heard the story of the puppeteer priest that was told to my friend by his father.

When he finished junior high school some 35 years ago, he was very poor and unskilled. He lived outside in the forest and would collect dry wood from the forest and sell it in order to make a living. It was a difficult life. He married and decided to try his luck in java as a truck driver. There he lived with his wife and children. After a while he met a muslim leader there that told him he needs to return to bali. He is not meant to be a truck driver in java, but a leader in his village. The muslim had had a vision of him with a straggly white goatee making offerings as an old man. So this is what he is meant to do in this life.

The man returned with his family to bali, and again they lived in the forest, a very poor life. Still unskilled he tried to support his family as a repairman, and fixing torn upholstery. They were not happy, and life was very difficult and his wife decided she is not willing to live like this anymore and so they divorced. She left for the city and supported herself and the young children. His situation continued to be one of despair for the next three years. He knew that he should be listening to the muslim leaders advice and become a priest in the village, but he did not feel confident or capable. Others would be able to recite the mantras and perform the rituals much better than him. He is uneducated and unskilled and not fit to be a priest.

Finally one day he could not continue the struggle anymore and he spoke with the head priest of the village and told him that he is meant to be a priest. They accepted him and he began to study the teachings and also began to carve the leather shadow puppet characters. Slowly his life began to change and his wife and children returned to him, and no longer denying and struggling with his role in this lifetime, he began to prosper.  and at the age of 30 became the official dalam (storyteller/puppeteer) of the area. One day a tourist saw the shadow puppets and recognized the sacred art that it represented and gave him a generous donation in order to build a workshop and keep this ancient skill alive.

Since then he has passed on his skills to two of his sons.  One of his daughters lives in Holland and helps support the family with her large income. He and his wife live in a large house with a lovely garden and a separate sacred meditation room. He has just built a large workshop where visitors are able to watch the making and performing of the shadow puppets.

I laughed to myself how never in my wildest imagination would I have thought that this priest who smokes individually gold wrapped cigarettes, had started off as an uneducated  pauper selling firewood.