For Balinese, the gift really is in the giving

By Garret Kam

BALI (JP): Offerings are perhaps Bali's most important form of art, even more so than the paintings and sculptures for which the island is famous.

The reason is simple. Offerings, banten in Balinese, lie at the heart of the Hindu religion. Made of perishable materials, the fragrant flowers and carefully trimmed palm leaves wilt within hours under the tropical sun.

Artistically arranged edible parts are wolfed down after a ceremony by hungry worshipers. Stale cookies, moldy rice and decaying meat are devoured by dogs. Remaining bits and pieces are unceremoniously tossed onto a trash heap to be burned or to rot.

Ephemeral beauty is the esthetic essence of offerings. At the peak of their freshness, the colors, shapes, ingredients and fragrances appeal to all the senses.

In most cases, offerings are public art for everyone to enjoy, as in the penjor, graceful arches of palm leaf ornaments hanging from bamboo poles, which line roadsides on special holy days.

At the same time they are intensely personal, as in the jolan or saiban, a few grains of salt and cooked rice on small squares of banana leaves, which are made daily in households.

What is the reasoning behind an offering? First, an offering is a gift. But why give something? The most obvious answer is to get something in return. This can include anything from health, wealth and success.

An appeal is made to the deities with prayers and presents of food. If the request is granted, then gifts of thanks are necessary, and a mutual relationship is established which must be maintained. To forget or neglect brings danger that can be removed only by more complicated offerings and rituals.

Offerings are also given as a kind of payment so that an offending spirit will be satisfied and leave, thus not causing any trouble. This offering, called caru, exorcises evil and removes ritual pollution. They usually include the sacrifice of chickens on the smallest scale, and large-scale ritual slaughter of many kinds of animals held on rare occasions.

Cockfighting also falls into this category, for negative forces favor fresh blood and hard liquor, among things suitable for their rough character.

With such a myriad range of forms and functions, some basic elements are common to nearly all offerings. Ingredients for chewing betel -- areca nut, betel leaf, limestone paste -- are essential in the small flower-filled canang, a refined Balinese word for the betel quid itself. This is often represented by a bit of betel leaf, smeared with lime, put in a piece of palm leaf.

Guests, whether human, divine, or demonic, are presented this chew as a sign of welcome and respect. If a guest is particularly esteemed or even feared, a more substantial treat is necessary.

In Balinese terms, this means fruits and snacks along with rice and accompanying side dishes.

Food, especially rice, is thus another key component in larger offerings. The natural colors of some varieties of rice are associated with different Hindu deities and compass directions -- white for Iswara, god of the east; red for Brahma in the south; and black for Vishnu, who dwells in the north.

Turmeric is used to dye rice yellow, commonly used for nasi kuning in Java, for Mahadewa in the west. A combination of grains of each of the four colors, mixed in the middle, is for Shiva.

Cosmic

Rice must be molded into different shapes, but it is usually conical to symbolize the cosmic mountain Meru or Mandaragiri, or Bali's highest volcano, Gunung Agung.

It is also cooked in ketupat, small packets plaited from palm leaves and ideal for taking to ceremonies far away. These come in dozens of different geometric shapes, birds, animals and even gamelan musical instruments.

When pounded into flour for dough, rice takes on the forms of hundreds or even thousands of individually crafted figures representing the cosmos, as in one of the largest offerings of all, the sarad, literally "all the world".

Rice, especially glutinous or sticky rice mixed with sugar and grated coconut, is the basis for many types of delectable snacks.

Like people, demons and deities are fond of sweets called jaja; whether fried, steamed, or baked, they have important symbolic functions in offerings. In a similar manner, fruits of all sorts are often included in large offerings.

Complementary to rice is meat because together they represent plant and animal life. Pork is most commonly used. The meat is pounded into a paste with spices and molded into a variety of symbolic shapes for satay.

Thick layers of white fat are cut and trimmed into delicate flower-like forms with bright red chilis. Flora and fauna thus take on the character of the other: rice becomes all kinds of creatures, while flesh is transformed into a floral arrangement.

All the ingredients must be properly presented in containers such as decorative bowls, pedestals, baskets and trays.

Young coconut palm leaves are trimmed and pinned together into fanciful shapes and placed on the bottom as a base. After the food is arranged, other palm leaf ornaments containing betel chew and flowers are placed on top. It is here that the Balinese excel in the art of jajaitan, from the word jait meaning "stitch", because the process does indeed resemble sewing with bamboo pins. Beautiful patterns are cut from leaves which are assembled into circular, hourglass, fan or fringed shapes.

Money

A small amount of money is included in most offerings, divided between the priest who conducts the ceremony and for the upkeep of the temple where the ritual takes place.

Holy water and fragrant incense accompany the priest's incantations while he or she rings a special ceremonial bell. The invisible deities and demons consume the spiritual essence of the ingredients offered to them, while the physical "leftovers" are consumed by people and animals.

As can be expected, tremendous variations occur in offerings across the island, between districts and even within a village. No doubt this is due to the oral tradition of learning offerings.

Each person shapes leaves from memory and practice rather than from pre-cut or printed patterns. Ingredients depend on different fruits and flowers in season, or what grows in the yard.

Of course, socioeconomic status plays an important role as in everything else. The Balinese take all this in stride, calling it desa-kala-patra, meaning place, time and development.

Despite the many guidelines, they are flexible enough to allow some room for individual creative expression. Making an offering is part of the devotional process, and the best skills are relied upon to make it as beautiful as possible.

With more Balinese holding full-time jobs, it is sometimes impossible for them to find time to make their own offerings.

As a result, common offerings can be purchased at the market, or more complex ones ordered in advance from a tukang banten.

While purists may disapprove of this commercialization, it is much better for the art to go in this direction than to resort to plastic and other artificial materials.

Even worse would be for it to die out, but that seems unlikely as education, publications and museum displays document the making and meaning of offerings.

There have been attempts in the past to simplify them, but increased elaboration seems the trend as religious ceremonies get even bigger and happen more frequently.

Some offerings, especially penjor, are used for government functions, and canang are centerpieces on restaurant tables. Contests for most beautiful offerings are not unheard of these days.

Integral as they are to the Balinese, the temporary nature of offerings reflects developments and changes which always have been facets of their culture.