Deviant rituals still occur in Balinese Hindu community

By Putu Wirata

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): The Balinese Hindu community, which is strongly fused with religious and traditional ceremonies, has deviant rituals that still occur on the island.

Thousands of Balinese people gathered at Puri Gianyar to hold the cremation of the late King of the Gianyar aristocracy, Ida Anak Agung Gde Agung recently. But at the same time a middle-aged man, Nengah Gading, held a very unusual ritual called ngaben idup-idup, a cremation for the living in the village of Juukmanis in Karangasem, east Bali.

He conducted the ceremony to honor the souls of his sixteen- year-old son Nengah Sutama and his brother Mangku Duduk, 60. Such ceremonies have been carried out 11 times by the group in the last three years.

Nengah Gading acknowledged that he belongs to the Tri Murti group, which, he claims, has numerous fanatic followers.

Gde Artama, a resident of the village who witnessed the ceremony, said the event started at 10 p.m. when two live bodies were cleansed and wrapped with white fabric. The bodies were then taken by a bamboo carriage to a nearby cemetery.

Prior to the event, dozens of faithful Tri Murti devotees prepared various offerings and held prayers and meditation sessions similar to those performed in the ngaben ceremony.

Upon arrival at the cemetery, they unwrapped the fabric. The hair and nails of the "corpses" were cut and formed into two dolls. The dolls were thrown in the river to symbolize leaving souls.

The scene in the cemetery was as frightening as an act out of a Calonarang story. Nengah Gading and his followers hysterically shouted Leak (the evil spirit in the cemetery) and challenged it to fight.

Gading explained he received pawisik (an order) from the supernatural world to hold the ritual in order to save the world from disaster.

The odd ritual has sparked controversy among community members, especially Hindu religious leaders from Parisada Hindu Dharma (the Hindu Council) in Karangasem. They consider the ritual against pure Hindu teachings.

Based on several ancient Lontar manuscripts, the ngaben (cremation) ritual was held to respect the Pitra Yadnya (soul) of the dead.

Most Juukmanis villagers were still confused and doubted the validity of such a ritual in Hindu practice. However, the people cannot do anything to prevent Gading and the Tri Murti devotees from holding such a ceremony.

This might be one of the reasons why the ritual has been going on without any interruption from community members. After being exposed by the media and having created polemic among religious leaders, the villagers have taken stern actions against Mangku Duduk and Nengah Gading, both pemangku (assistants) who help organize various religious ceremonies at the village pura (Hindu temple). The two men were released from their jobs.

The implementation of ngaben idup-idup and other religious or unusual rituals have confused both religious leaders and the community.

In Bali, religious and traditional ceremonies are tightly linked together. In almost every region of the province, ritual and traditional celebrations vary in accordance with the Sima and Dresta concepts which are in line with the philosophy desa-kala- patra, which means traditions must be adjusted to place, time and situation.

Gde Tunas and other people in Juukmanis are of the opinion that Gading's ngaben ritual is on the contrary to the sima. "But if the community does not object to this activity, I personally don't mind," he said.

Ketut Wiana, an executive on the Hindu Council, argued if the cremation ceremony is intended for the living, it is against Hindu teachings.

"But if I read all the reports from the media, it appeared that ngaben idup-idup was a kind of melukat (purification ceremony)," said Wiana, the author of Ngaben, a book on the Balinese cremation ceremony.

The controversy was sparked because of misleading concepts of the Hindu ceremonial term. Ngaben is usually referred to the ceremony for the dead.

Wiana also hoped that religious and community leaders would not punish people as sternly as the case of Nengah Gading and Mangku Duduk.

"We have to provide them with guidance and hold a dialog on how to practice religion in an appropriate way in line with Hindu teachings," Wiana said.

He acknowledged that the Hindu Council's research and development agency had not anticipated the escalating problems faced by Hindu followers.

"Financial and bureaucratic procedures have prevented the council from studying the ongoing issues in the lives of Hindu followers," Wiana explained.

It is reasonable to assume that the Hindu Council was never able to solve most of the controversial problems because it has never studied or evaluated them.

Aside from the case of ngaben idup-idup, there are many more disputed issues which occur among the Hindu community in Bali.

When asked whether the agency had documented all the issues, Wiana said lightly, "It might have been reported and recorded by the local Hindu Council."