Balinese people prepare Nyepi rituals for recovery

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.