Balinese traveling in search of tradition

Balinese traveling in search of tradition

By Degung Santikarma

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): With over one million visitors descending
on their tiny island each year, the Balinese are no strangers to
tourism.

As air routes and information networks expand, and as Bali is
boxed into easy-to-consume packages -- the honeymoon package, the
spiritual retreat package, the millennium package -- Bali has
become a typical stop on the transnational traveler's itinerary.

Indeed, under pressure to provide the ultimate in authenticity
to their experience-hungry guests, tourist advertisers tout not
just the beauty of the Balinese landscape and the colorful
complexity of Balinese culture, but the charms of the Balinese
themselves, who are said to be a natural, graceful, artistic,
spiritual and peace-loving people, whose ancient way of life
remains unchanged and uncorrupted.

Yet for many contemporary Balinese, it is no longer enough to
simply play the part of the tourist attraction. As the flow of
foreign funds enriches that segment of Balinese society that has
managed to tap the tourism market, many Balinese are using this
newfound wealth and their newly certain sense of modernity to
become tourists themselves.

Many of them, sponsored by their new foreign friends, go to
places like Australia, America and Europe, where they can
practice their foreign language skills, anthropologize their
adopted homeland and possibly even do some business.

Returning home to Bali, they acquire a new social status as
someone who, equipped not only with foreign currency but with
firsthand knowledge of the weird ways of the West, can become
mediators of transnational encounters, acting as brokers,
interpreters, cultural commentators and guides, helping other
Balinese to meet the demands of the modern tourism market.

Yet for many other Balinese, these secular sightseeing
journeys, despite their potential for worldly profit, have grown
stale. These days, the latest trend is to head not west but east,
in search not of the marvels of the modern world but the ancient
glories of the past.

Seeing themselves not as tourists but as pilgrims, on a
spiritual journey rather than a leisure tour, these travelers are
elaborating upon the traditional Balinese custom of tirtha yatra
(journeying in search of holy water). In years past, before the
advent of buses, bemo (motorized three-wheeled vehicle),
automobiles and asphalt, Balinese would make long journeys on
foot to temples like Besakih or Batur to find holy water to use
in special ceremonies.

Trips

These trips were often grueling, requiring days of travel
along winding, mountainous roads, and the difficulties faced by
travelers became themselves signs of the sacrifice one was
willing to make and the hardships one was prepared to endure to
fulfill one's responsibilities to the gods.

While holy water from Bali's six major temples is still a
crucial requirement for many ceremonies, these days, with the
parking lots of Bali's temples packed with air conditioned luxury
tour buses, pilgrims in search of a spiritual challenge often
choose to go elsewhere.

At the same time as many Western tourists are heading to Bali,
intent on discovering the pristine pleasures of a premodern
society and engaging with its centuries-old spiritual wisdom,
these Balinese, taking advantage of a modern culture of mobility,
are looking to rediscover their own sense of "Balineseness" by
using their new wealth to trace back connections to their
cultural and religious origins.

One of the most popular spots on this new itinerary is a Hindu
temple on the slopes of Mount Semeru, East Java. According to
Balinese historical chronicles, Hinduism established itself on
the island when migrants from the ancient Javanese kingdom of
Majapahit took refuge on Bali.

Recently, this temple was renovated, with funding from wealthy
Balinese patrons, and now sees caravans of rented cars and
minibuses unloading groups of Balinese worshipers eager to
reestablish their links with what they see as their own past. One
recent pilgrim to the temple was Made, a 30-year-old man who has
worked on the fringes of the tourism trade as a masseuse for the
past 10 years, after a childhood illness left him blind and
unable to find other employment.

Recently, Made was called to the home of a wealthy French
expatriate to try and heal the man's painful back injury. After a
number of long massage sessions, the Frenchman was cured.

Impressed with Made's skill and determination to work hard
despite the obstacles in his life, the Frenchman decided he
wanted to give Made a gift.

"What would you really like?" he asked, expecting Made to
reply by requesting a cassette tape player or some new, Western-
style clothes. But instead of asking for the latest modern
marvel, Made responded that what he wanted more than anything
else in the world was to visit the temple at Semeru.

Confused but willing, the Frenchman called a travel agent and
booked a tour bus that could take Made, his wife, and 30 of his
friends from a local school for the blind on a trip to the
temple.

"Going to Semeru made me realize how old Balinese culture is,
and how important it is to preserve it," Made said upon his
return. "It made me think that the Balinese need to learn not
just English or French, but about their own history."

And for those Balinese who want to travel even further afield
and back in history -- and who are willing and capable of paying
US$1,750 to do so -- the ultimate spiritual excursion is sold by
Denpasar-based Krishna Tours.

This trip, advertised as the Tirta Yatra India Tour, takes
Balinese pilgrims on a two-week visit to see the sacred sights of
Singapore, Malaysia and, of course, India.

Pilgrims make stops mentioned in the ancient Indian epic story
Mahabarata, and journey to the Ganges River, where they may
obtain holy water to take back to Bali. "The most amazing part of
the trip for me was seeing that those places from the old stories
really exist," said Ibu Sukerti, a 60-year-old woman who made the
pilgrimage last year.

"Even though India is a poor country, even poorer than
Indonesia, the people there are happy because they have such a
strong spiritual tradition," she said. "And, of course, the
shopping in Singapore was wonderful," she added.

Traveling home with two suitcases, one full of bottles of
Ganges water and the other crammed with chic fashion and the
latest electronic gadgetry, Ibu Sukerti perhaps epitomizes the
contemporary Balinese pilgrim/tourist: materially successful yet
spiritually seeking, using one's modern means to travel in search
of tradition.