Bomb instills fear in Bali's Hindus
Bomb instills fear in Bali's Hindus
Joanne Collins, Reuters, Bali
Hindu priest Mangku Gama sits cross-legged inside a roadside temple on Bali skewering pieces of beef on to bamboo sticks and wondering if the weekend bomb blasts have disrupted the island's tranquility for good.
Cauldrons of chicken and duck are cooking, a boar is penned up for slaughter and meat carcasses are being strung up from the roof. Women in fancy sarongs and ornate hair pieces shuttle in and out.
Festive scenes like this are not uncommon in the predominantly Hindu island which has long been seen as an oasis of peace.
But religious elders like Gama say last week's devastating blasts -- about an hour's drive from his temple -- could be a bad omen.
"The priests and holymen are very anxious about the bombings. We are concerned this could cause great loss for the Balinese, Indonesia and the world in general," Gama said, sitting in a circle of priests at the temple in the village of Beraban.
"If this cannot be solved and the perpetrators arrested, maybe it will happen again."
Indonesia has detained two suspects in connection with Saturday night's bomb blasts which killed more than 180 mostly foreign tourists partying in the throbbing Kuta beach strip.
It has also said the bombs were a sign the al Qaeda terrorist network was operating in the world's most populous Muslim nation, something Indonesia's anxious neighbors have suspected for months.
Tourism has long been the lifeblood of Bali and government figures show almost 1.5 million visitors flocked to the picture postcard island last year -- out of an Indonesia total of five million tourists -- but many travel agencies are now predicting a grim future.
Al Qaeda, blamed for last year's September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, is a foreign concept to most villagers in Beraban where life revolves around tending rice paddies and cattle and making daily offerings to the gods.
"We look and hear about al Qaeda on the television but we don't understand. If many tourists do not come to Bali now because of this, it will be bankrupt," Gama said.
A few kilometers (miles) away, one of Bali's biggest tourist magnets, the revered Tanah Lot temple, is already showing the strain.
Staff at the centuries-old temple not only fear shrinking numbers of sightseers but say the bomb bodes ill for their culture and happy-go-lucky people.
"Balinese people like to play and do not usually worry about things but a big incident like this is very, very bad and in my mind, will bring bad luck," said 29-year-old temple worker Made Sujana.
"All the regency chiefs have already had a conference and take offerings in the hope that Bali will stay safe," he added.
Mysticism and omens aside, the numbers of local and foreign tourists visiting Tanah Lot speak for themselves.
Visitors were down about a third on Sunday, typically the busiest day at the rocky islet temple.
On Tuesday, Briton Pat Nutting, 36, was the only tourist there.
"Everyone thinks there will be another blast but things like this tend to happen only once," he told Reuters as he smoked a cigarette.
"I had seen this place on all the postcards and wanted to come. So here I am."