Balinese celebrate victory of good over evil

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali.

The scorching sun and dust that filled the air did not deter thousands of Balinese Hindu devotees from celebrating at the Kuningan festival last Saturday at Sakenan Temple, some 12 kilometers east of here.

The Kuningan festival marks the end of a series of ceremonies to celebrate the victory of Dharma (the righteous incidentally made famous to Westerners by Kerouac's classic 'the Dharma Bums') over Adharma (Evil).

The name Kuningan was derived from the word kuning (yellow) referring to the specially-colored rice commonly cooked and served to celebrate the festival.

The devotees began flowing into the temple from as early as 6 a.m. and continued until late in the evening. Some came alone, but most arrived with their families. Dressed in colorful Balinese traditional accoutrements, they brought all manner of alms from the very simple Canang, which consisted mainly of various colorful flora, to the somewhat expensive Gebogan, flamboyantly adorned fruits and cakes.

The pungent fragrance of incense was all-encompassing in the air when each family prayed in the innermost atrium of the ancient temple. At the end of each prayer session a Pemangku (temple priest) adorned in stark white traditional fabric conveyed the blessing from the spiritual realm by sprinkling holy water on the gratified devotees.

The temple is located on picturesque Serangan island, the island formerly known as Turtle Island before the turtle poachers pushed the local turtle population over the precipice of extinction. Another calamitous environmental debacle was later inflicted by the unregulated development widely attributed to the megaproject Bali Turtle Island Development (BTID) that embarked upon a massive reclamation project to enlarge the size of the island. The project's aims were to build an upmarket tourist resort but later, amid fears of economic and political instability throughout Indonesia, the international investors decided to cut their losses and abandon the island.

The ancient Balinese text of Usana Bali mentioned that Sakenan Temple was built by one of Bali's most revered spiritual figures, the legendary Mpu Kuturan, during the reign of King Masula-Masuli in the 12th century.

Three centuries later, during the reign of arguably Bali's greatest king Dalem Waturenggong, another sage Danghyang Nirartha, who was on a pilgrimage from Java to Bali, stayed for a spell on the island, long enough to build yet another temple, the majestic Dalem Sakenan Temple on the western tip of the island.

These temples have been an exquisitely appropriate spot to celebrate Kuningan over the years.

Needless to say, the journey to the island has lost much of its allure due to the completion of a modern concrete and steel viaduct that connects mainland Bali with the island formerly known as Turtle Island. Until recently visitors boarding a traditionally revered Jukung boat was the only way to reach paradise.