Growing tension at Besakih Temple<\/p>\n
By Degung Santikarma<\/p>\n
KLUNGKUNG, East Bali (JP): As the afternoon shadows lengthen
\nacross an elite neighborhood in Denpasar, a normally quiet house
\nbecomes a feverish flurry of activity.<\/p>\n
The booming voice of the father echoes through the halls,
\nordering the maids to finish pressing his sarong and ceremonial
\nshirt. The mother, who is having her lips glossed and hair woven
\ninto an elaborate construction crowned with fresh flowers and
\ngold leaves, yells at the children to stop playing video games
\nand start getting ready.<\/p>\n
The houseboy checks the oil in the Mercedes, and the maids
\nload ritual offerings and incense, artfully arranged on a silver
\ntray, into the trunk. After warning the security guard to look
\nafter the house, the father makes certain he has everything he
\nneeds -- his mobile phone, driving glasses and hand-held hacksaw
\n-- and shepherds the family into the car for the long drive to
\nBesakih Temple.<\/p>\n
According to tourist guidebooks and official Balinese Hindu
\nbureaucracy, Parisadha Hindu Dharma Indonesia (PHDI), Besakih is
\nBali's \"mother temple,\" where all Balinese have the right and
\nobligation to worship.<\/p>\n
Rituals are held regularly at the temple, some on a truly
\nmassive scale, such as the Eka Dasa Rudra, held every 100 years
\nin the Balinese calendar, and the Panca Wali Krama, held every 10
\nyears. These rituals, supported financially and supervised
\nlogistically by PHDI, attract worshipers from all over the
\nisland, for every Balinese clan can claim a link to the temple.<\/p>\n
And with its ancient history, its elaborate architecture and
\nits stunning location on the slopes of the sacred Mount Agung,
\nBesakih also attracts those traveling on more secular
\npilgrimages: those sightseeing tourists seeking to experience
\nauthentic Hindu holiness and exotic island allure.<\/p>\n
Indeed, for many visitors to Bali, a postcard-perfect image of
\nBesakih reflects a condensed conception of all that is thought to
\nbe special about the island: enduring traditions, deep
\nspirituality and harmonious relations within and between
\ncommunities. But what the casual visitor might not notice is that
\nBesakih has become, for many Balinese, a deeply divided place.<\/p>\n
After a two-hour drive along steep winding roads, the family
\nfrom Denpasar finally arrives at Besakih. Night has already
\nfallen, but the huge parking lot at the base of the temple is a
\nbuzz of life. Thousands of Balinese, dressed in their finest
\ntraditional clothing, are making their way up the steep steps
\ntoward the temple, ready to participate in the elaborate ritual
\nknown as betara turun kabeh, or \"the gods descend to earth,\"
\nwhich takes place at the temple once every Balinese year.<\/p>\n
But despite the festive scene, as the several thousand-strong
\ncrowd prepares to witness the sacred rejang dewa dance to welcome
\nthe gods and the tawur agung or \"great sacrifice\" designed to
\nbring the visible and invisible worlds back into harmony, there
\nis an undercurrent of anxiety in the air.<\/p>\n
As the family steps out of their car, they spot familiar faces
\nin the crowd, including a group of men all dressed in identical
\nclothing and all, like the father, carrying saws.<\/p>\n
They call out their greetings, and exchange the latest rumors
\nabout tonight's ceremony. \"Is it really going to go as Parisadha
\npromised?\" asks one of the men, his red shirt emblazoned with the
\nname of his family clan, the powerful Pande, or traditional
\nmetalsmiths of Bali.<\/p>\n
\"Don't worry, if our priest doesn't get to sit on the same
\nlevel as the other priests, we're going to use these saws to cut
\ndown the platforms,\" the Denpasar man threatens, to the approval
\nof the group now gathered around him.<\/p>\n
In precolonial Bali, Besakih Temple was held by the ruler of
\nthe powerful kingdom of Klungkung. It eventually came under Dutch
\nrule when the Klungkung army was defeated by the Dutch colonial
\nmilitary at the turn of the 20th century.<\/p>\n
With Indonesian independence, the Balinese reestablished their
\nsovereignty over the temple, turning it into an icon of
\nnationalism and placing it under state control. But with
\nbureaucratic intervention came politicization, and Besakih became
\na place to express growing tensions among different strains of
\nBalinese Hindu ideology, especially conflicts around the issue of
\ncaste.<\/p>\n
For the postcolonial period brought an expansion of economic
\nopportunities, especially as Bali became a center for
\ninternational tourism, and saw the emergence of a progressive,
\nanticaste movement challenging a system which consolidated power
\nin the hands of the triwangsa, those \"three peoples\" -- the
\nBrahmana priests, Ksatria rulers and Wesia merchants -- who were
\nregarded as having caste status. Many of these progressives were
\nwell educated and economically powerful members of those clans
\nwho were considered to fall outside of the caste structure,
\nincluding the Pande, Pasek and Bujangga.<\/p>\n
They decried the fact that within the official Balinese Hindu
\nmodel they were jaba, or \"outsiders,\" with no caste status, and
\nthat their own priests were forced to sit lower than the Brahmana
\npriests at rituals. Ceremonies at Besakih, where Balinese from
\nall castes, classes and clans gathered, and where these
\ndifferences became visible in the spatial arrangement of
\nworshipers, priests and offerings, became a site for articulating
\ncontesting opinions with the potential to erupt into conflict.<\/p>\n
Even in contemporary Bali, where the ring of cash registers
\nand the cries of protesters sometimes seem to sound louder than
\nthe bells of the priests, these social and religious rifts still
\nhave an extraordinary power to provoke dissent.<\/p>\n
As the family makes their way to the temple, a swirl of talk
\nsurrounds them. \"If our pedanda (Brahmana priest) is seated on
\nthe same level as all the other priests, I'm going to boycott the
\nritual,\" one man says to his neighbors. Another man, a noted
\nHindu reformist intellectual, argues to his friends, \"If all the
\npriests are not sitting together, it goes against the democracy
\nwe have all been working for.<\/p>\n
We will have to demonstrate in front of the Parisadha office.\"
\nAnd yet another man, whose meager salary as a tour guide has not
\nprevented him from showing up in an expensive ritual outfit,
\nresponds worriedly, \"I wish everyone would just calm down. There
\nare tourists and TV cameras here, and we're giving a bad
\nimpression of Bali.\"<\/p>\n
Nervous with anticipation, the Denpasar family finally enters
\nthe main temple grounds. Sure enough, the ritual is being
\nconducted as a sarwa sedaka, one where \"all holy people\" are
\ngiven equal place, rather than a tri sedaka, where Brahmana
\npriests are given higher standing. Relieved, they stay to be
\nblessed and take back some holy water to use for their own
\nceremonies. It's past midnight when they finally arrive home.<\/p>\n
After the traditional clothes have been exchanged for pajamas
\nand the children tucked into their beds, the father gets up and
\nwalks out the front door. \"Where are you going at this time of
\nnight?\" his wife calls after him worriedly. \"I left the saw in
\nthe car,\" he says with a smile. \"You never know when we might
\nneed it again.\"<\/p>",
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