'Pemarisudha karipubhaya' ceremony to erase memory of bombings

The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali

With the upcoming pemarisudha karipubhaya (cleansing ceremony) just eight days away, local Kuta people will try to brush aside the haunting memory of the Oct. 12 bombing that has shattered their lives, and immerse themselves in the elaborate multi-stage preparations for the ceremony.

On Monday, leading figures from the local community of Desa Adat Kuta gathered around the bombsite on Jl. Legian to carry out the nyukat genah ritual, during which they measured the site and decided the designated spots for all the sacred structures of the ceremony. All measurements were based upon the ancient Balinese architectural text, Asta Kosala Kosali.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, local people set up a fence of woven bamboo encircling the designated places, and erected tall bamboo sanggar tawang shrines, where all the sacred offerings and objects of the ceremony would be placed. A small, elevated, open bale pawedan (gazebo) was also constructed. A pedanda (Hindu high priest) will preside over the ceremony from this structure.

Next Monday, all the structures will be draped and decorated with lavish traditional Balinese garments and ornaments made of coconut leaves. And, on the next day, numerous groups of bhakta (devoted followers) will be sent to at least 30 important temples and sacred places in Bali, Java, and Lombok to fetch tirta (holy water) from those temples.

The upcoming pemarisudha karipubhaya will surely be one of the largest ceremonies ever held in Bali. It will involve thousands of people and cost something between Rp 500 million and Rp 1 billion.

At least 10 pedanda will preside over the ceremony, including the charismatic Ida Pedanda Gede Ngurah Bajing, who will be the Yajamana (supreme guide of the ceremony). Reportedly, he is one of only a handful of pedanda who have extensive knowledge of the sacred Lebur Gangsa text, the principal script for the ceremony.

More than 79 animals will be sacrificed, either by being slaughtered or drowned off Kuta beach during the pakelem ceremony. The sacrificial animals will include rare beasts, such as deer, small antelope and the civet cat.

The upcoming ceremony is also believed to be the first of its kind ever carried out in Bali.

"The pemarisudha karipubhaya is only carried out when there is a mass, violent death caused by enemy attack," Brahmana scholar Ida Bagus Wijaya Kusuma said.

The deadly terrorist bombings on Oct. 12 claimed more than 190 lives, mostly foreigners. This is the first enemy-inflicted, violent mass-death in living memory in Bali.

"When such a death occurs, the natural balance in both the sekala (physical realm) and niskala (spiritual realm) is severely disrupted. In order to restore the balance, a purification ceremony must be held," Wijaya said.

Wijaya stated that Indonesia currently was in a state of roga sanghara pati, characterized by the repeated occurrence of violent communal conflict and natural disaster, the people ceasing to respect authority, and vice versa.

"Within a spiritual context, this state means that the Gods have fled and the evil spirits of Bhuta Kala roam freely in the country," he said.

The pemarisudha karipubhaya has four main objectives: to offer appeasement to the Bhuta Kala, to transform the evil spirits into a state of somya (calm), to restore the natural harmonious balance between bhuwana agung (the world) and bhuwana alit (man) and most importantly, to erase the psychological trauma and pain of the bombings from local people's consciousness.

On Nov. 15 the main ceremony, tawur agung, will be held at the blast site, while simultaneously the tawur gentuh and pakelem ceremonies will be conducted some two kilometers away at Segara Temple, next to Kuta beach.

The whole island will participate in the ceremony. Every household in Bali will present its offerings and sacrifices at its respective family shrines, and penjor (elaborately decorated bamboo poles) will be erected in front of their houses as a sign of their solidarity with their fellow Balinese in Kuta.

The Bali administration, along with the country's flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia and numerous hotels in Kuta, has provided free flight tickets and accommodation for those of the victims' families that wish to attend the pemarisudha karipubhaya.