Balinese people prepare Nyepi rituals for recovery

I Wayan Juniartha and Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

Balinese Hindu followers on Monday made necessary preparations for the Tawur Agung Kesanga and Nyepi rituals that would mark the beginning of the Saka New Year 1925 amid a somber atmosphere of economic difficulties that have been gradually choking the island ever since the Oct. 12, 2002 terror bombings.

"Economically speaking, we are certainly much poorer than last year. But, I believe that it is the sense of insecurity and anxiety over the future of our island's tourism industry, thus the future of everybody's jobs and income, that have created this gloomy atmosphere," A Hindu scholar Ketut Wiana said.

The bombings not only claimed more than 200 lives, mostly tourists, but also destroyed the island's image as a safe tourist destination and shattered the Balinese confidence in the spiritual protection by the gods.

"Many people have already lost their job or received a pay- cut, business is slow, and, with the current war in Iraq and the SARS virus, there is little hope that the tourism industry --this island's economic backbone-- will rebound anytime in the near future," a local businessman Putu Widiana told.

"Our occupancy rate is only 20 percent, much lower than last year's Nyepi period," the five-star Bali Padma's Marketing Communication Manager Sophia Suzylowati said.

Wiana, however, stressed that the Balinese should use Nyepi Day as an opportunity to review and evaluate both the personal course of their own lives and the collective course of Balinese Hinduism.

"Have we been faithful to the ideals and principles of our religion and spirituality? Or, have we been deluded by material wealth that the tourism industry had pampered us with?," he asked.

Unlike any new year celebration in other cultures, Balinese Hindus celebrate the Nyepi Day not by staging a noisy parties but by refraining themselves from enjoying any entertainment, from traveling outside their family compound, from doing any physical work or from lighting any fires or electric lights.

The whole island will descend into total silence and darkness during Nyepi, on Wednesday. Harbors and the airport will be closed, as will all the public services and inter-island transportation.

"When Nyepi Day ends a 6 a.m. local time on Thursday morning, hopefully all Hindu followers will be able to embrace the new year with a clear and fresh outlook and the cosmic harmony will be restored," Wiana said.

The preparatory rituals of Nyepi began on Sunday, during which thousands of Hindus took their sacred objects and temple effigies to various beaches on the island for a series of purification ceremonies locally known as Melasti.

On Tuesday morning, the Tawur Agung Kesanga sacrificial rituals will be held at city squares, major intersections and family compounds all over Bali.

The biggest Tawur Agung Kesanga rite will take place at Puputan Badung square in the heart of the island's capital of Denpasar. At least nine high Hindu priests will preside over the rituals, during which the Panca Kelud Bhuwana offering, comprising five chickens, a duck and a goat, will be offered.

"This ritual is aimed at phasing out the destructive forces of Nature, known in Bali as Bhuta Kala, and restoring the cosmic balance that had been disrupted by man's greed in exploiting the earth," Wiana said.

In the evening of that day, in a ritual known as Ngerupuk, Hindus will participate in raucous, festive parades that encircle their own respective family homes and villages. Carrying bamboo torches and ogoh-ogoh (papier-mache ogres symbolizing evil spirits) and accompanied by spirited traditional gong ensembles, the Hindus will pour down into the street and make as much noise as is humanly possible to scare away all the evil spirits and demons.

This year, one ogoh-ogoh will surely attract more attention than the others. It is ogoh-ogoh that depicts Amrozi, one of the main suspects of the terror bombings. The right hand tightly grips sticks of dynamite while toting the figure of Dhurga -- the queen of black magic and the consort of Lord Shiva the Destroyer in Hinduism.