Galungan: A Balinese holy day with mithology and history
Galungan: A Balinese holy day with mithology and history
By Garrett Kam
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): The Balinese celebrate the festival of
Galungan every 210 days, and it next falls this Wednesday.
The event is based on an ancient agricultural feast of giving
thanks to nature for providing bountiful crops. The word galungan
actually means "something done collectively", as in a harvest.
The Balinese busy themselves in the days immediately leading
up to this important celebration. On Sunday, they made fermented
glutinous rice for the offerings. Yesterday was used to prepare
the various fried rice cakes and biscuits which were given a
light sugar coating.
Pigs will be slaughtered this morning, and the meat and blood
used for offerings and food for a family feast. The most visual
aspect of Galungan begins this afternoon when long bamboo poles
decorated with palm leaf ornaments and agricultural products
begin to line the lanes and streets of Bali.
Forming graceful arches, these penjor are signs of a bountiful
harvest, with rice, fruits and sweets hanging from them. Their
height and curved tip symbolize the high mountain peak of Gunung
Agung where Balinese ancestral spirits reside. From the mountain
descends rivers that snake throughout the land, irrigating the
fields and providing the water of life.
The penjor is also symbolic of the Hindu-Buddhist naga water
serpent, with its tail high up in the air from which hangs a
beautiful wishing jewel made from flowers and palm leaves. A
coconut or two and a spray of palm leaves tied a couple of meters
from the base represent the reproductive organs of the serpent.
The serpent plunges into the ground -- like water fertilizing
the earth -- and sprouts like a tree with its head emerging as a
nearby shrine filled with rice, fruits and sweets. From the
shrine hangs a banner, usually made of trimmed palm leaves or
colorful cloth, decorated with cosmic fertility symbols and
geometric designs. This lamak is the tongue of the serpent as it
spews forth the riches of the earth.
If there has been a wedding in the household since the last
Galungan, the penjor and lamak take on enormous proportions, for
the best fruits of the universe are descendants, the child (or
the one to be born) of the newly married couple. It is easy to
recognize the sexual symbolism in the towering penjor, mostly
assembled by men, and the opening of the shrine with lamak and
offerings made by women.
On Galungan day, the divine ancestors visit their earthly
descendants. The celebrations focus on the family, with household
temples cleaned and decorated for the divine relatives. Daily
offerings of food are presented to them for the next five days,
after which they depart. The universe then is stable and "nobly
nailed down" on Pemacekan Agung, Monday, Sept. 22.
There is more to Galungan than meets the eye. Through the
layering of mythology and history, the Balinese have developed
the celebration into a highly symbolic event with multiple
meanings. The most popular, and perhaps recent, interpretation
tells that Bali was once ruled by a powerful king, Mayadanawa,
who lived high up near mount Gunung Batur at Balingkang. His
realm extended all the way down to the village of Bata Anyar.
Also known as Bedahulu, this place with "a different head or
leader" lived up to its king's name. Mayadanawa was a demon of
illusion, capable of changing himself into anything. With this
tremendous power, he became so proud that he forbade the Balinese
to worship anyone else but Mayadanawa himself. The people
suffered greatly, crops failed and epidemics spread throughout
the land.
The Balinese appealed for help from their high priest Empu
Kulputih, who meditated at Pura Besakih temple on the slopes of
Gunung Agung. Finally Indra, Hindu god of elements, responded to
the plea and descended to Bali with his divine forces to fight
Mayadanawa and his forces led by minister Kala Wong, the "human
demon".
A fierce battle began, and towards sunset one day the divine
troops ended up in the mountains of central Bali where Indra had
pursued Mayadanawa. As they slept that night, the lord of
illusion crept up on them and created a poisoned spring nearby.
He walked on the outer ridges of his feet so as not be heard,
tampak siring, and so this place to this very day bears this
name.
When the troops woke the next morning, they drank the poisoned
water and died. Indra created another spring to bring them back
to life by plunging a thunderbolt into the ground. From deep
within the earth, clear water bubbled up, tirta empul, a spring
that still bears this name today. The divine warriors were
revived, and continued their pursuit of Mayadanawa and Kala Wong.
The demon of illusion changed himself into a large manuk raya
bird, but Indra saw through the disguise. The place where it took
place is called Manukaya today.
Indra continued to chase Mayadanawa, who then transformed
himself into a timbul or kind of breadfruit, a village that still
has this name. Again Indra was not fooled, so Mayadanawa fled and
changed into busing, young coconut fronds. Today this place is
named Blusung. The chase continued with one disguise after
another failing.
Mayadanawa changed into a freshwater snail, susuh, at a place
now named Penyusuhan. He became a beautiful nymph at a village
today called Kedewatan, meaning "heaven." He transformed himself
into blades of lalang or jungle grass, currently remembered in
the place named Tegallalang, the grassy field.
Finally Mayadanawa and Kala Wong changed themselves into paras
river stones. Indra immediately shot his thunderbolt arrows at
the rocks and finally killed both of them. Their blood gushed out
and became the Petanu river, literally the "cursed". For a
thousand years it was forbidden to use its water for irrigation.
Rice plants grown from it would bleed and smell of corpses when
cut.
The curse ran its course, and back in the 1960s a purification
ceremony allowed the river's water to flow into the ricefields.
With the demon of illusion and his followers gone. the people of
Bali were free to pray to the deities once more. The various
transformations of Mayadanawa trace some of the important plants,
objects and divine beings important in Balinese rituals to this
day.
The myth of Mayadanawa is also a further stage in the history
of religious developments in Bali. Indian religions gradually
replaced but never completely wiped out the ancient animistic
beliefs practiced on the island for centuries. The victory of
Indra over the lord of illusion is symbolic of Hinduism replacing
Buddhism, for Bali's royalty followed Buddhism as a state
religion until Javanese Hindu influence began changing it in the
11th century.
The Balinese refer to this as the victory of dharma --
religious duty and responsibility -- over adharma, the neglect of
it. Indra's victory was never complete and the Balinese religion
is a unique blend of animism, ancestral worship, Buddhism and
Hinduism.