Priests call for a halt to sea turtle slaughter

Priests call for a halt to sea turtle slaughter

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post/Denpasar

It clearly was not an ordinary day. The morning sun radiated a
warm glow that softly embraced the spacious patch of plush green
grass in front of the office of the local education agency in
Renon. At the same time, a light drizzle wet the ground while a
strong breeze set the nearly pine trees swaying gently.

"That's what usually happens when a large number of high
priests gather in one place," said the secretary of Bali's Hindu
Dharma Parisadha, Made Mayor Sudharsana. .

"It is a sign that Mother Nature has bestowed her blessing
upon this meeting," he said.

Interestingly, the meeting he was referring to had a lot to do
with nature. Co-organized by the local branch of the Hindu Dharma
Parisadha (the Hindu religion's governing body in Bali) and the
WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature), a global conservation non-
governmental organization, the meeting on Jan. 15 was focused on
the conservation and protection of sea turtles.

It was a unique meeting due to the presence of at least 29
influential Hindu high priests from East Java, Bali and Lombok.

"This pesamuhan (gathering) is the first of its kind.
Never before has such a large gathering of respected high priests
been called to discuss the issue of turtle conservation," the
chairman of the Bali Parisadha, I Made Artha, noted.

It was not an easy task to secure the participation of all the
high priests. There were "political" obstacles; the fact that
Artha's Parisadha is not the only Parisadha on the island and the
existence of slight feelings of mutual antipathy between the
Pedanda (high priest of the Brahmin caste) and the Sri Empu (high
priest of the Pasek caste). There were also more practical
problems, mainly due to the tight schedules of the high priests.

"Fortunately, despite all those obstacles, all the high
priests eventually agreed to attend the meeting, even those who
supported the other Parisadha," said WWF's turtle campaign leader
Ida Bagus Windia Adnyana.

Windia was the person responsible for contacting all the high
priests. The fact that he was born into a respected Brahmin
family and is thus a candidate for the high priesthood himself,
and is well-versed in religious scriptures obviously played a
critical role in his ability to win over all the high priests.

"The Pesamuhan went so well that all of those problems
mean nothing now," he added.

The meeting did indeed go surprisingly well. WWF Indonesia's
executive director Mubariq Ahmad gave a chilling presentation on
how the island's turtle trade and consumption, which by the late
1990s resulted in over 20,000 sea turtles being slaughtered per
year, was not only robbing the island of its turtle population
but was also creating ecological strains in numerous sea turtle
habitats around the country, such as in Sulawesi and Kalimantan.

The presentation apparently brought about a sudden realization
of the crisis facing sea turtles on the part of the dozens of
Hindu intellectuals and community leaders attending the meeting.

"I never knew that our tradition (of consuming turtle meat)
could have such grave ecological impacts in other places,"
admitted Sri Wahyuni, one of the participants.

For decades, Bali has been the center of the country's illegal
turtle trade. Despite all the regulations and law enforcement
efforts, between 500 and 1,000 turtles are still illegally
imported into the island each month.

Various elements of Balinese society, particularly turtle
poachers and traders in the island's main turtle ports of
Serangan and Tanjung Benoa, have justified, and thus perpetuated,
the trade by claiming that turtle meat is an essential part of
Balinese Hindu sacrificial rituals.

According to those involved in the turtle trade, those who
sought to protect and conserve turtles were, in fact, trying to
destroy the island's cultural and religious heritage. Such
arguments have placed local conservation NGOs and law enforcement
agencies on a perpetually frustrating defensive footing for
years.

The meeting changed all this.

"Only the biggest sacrificial rituals require turtle meat. By
the biggest, I mean rituals aimed at cleansing the island or the
world, certainly not rituals or offerings at the family level. In
this context, Hindu rituals only need between 100 and 200 turtles
per year," stressed the chairman of the Sabha Pandita (Council of
High Priests) of the Indonesia Parisadha, Ida Pedanda Sebali
Tianyar Arimbawa.

Meanwhile, another high priest, Ida Pedanda Gde Bang Buruan
Manuaba, a passionate conservationist, boldly stated that turtle
meat could be substituted for by turtle rice cakes or pictures of
turtles. Another alternative was to use a live turtle for the
ritual and then release it back into the ocean once the ceremony
was over.

"These alternatives are not new as they are mentioned in
various ancient scriptures. I have put it into practice. I have
conducted a Caru Satya Ahimsa sacrificial ritual, in which no
animal was killed, and I have also officiated at a ceremony in
Yangapi village, Tabanan that involved live sea turtles. At the
end of the ceremony, I released these sacred turtles back
into the ocean," he said.

Buruan Manuaba stressed that Hinduism was a religion that not
only respected life but also cherished and celebrated it.

"The international NGOs have dubbed the turtle trade in Bali
as "Slaughter in Paradise". We must work to show them that life
starts in paradise, not death," he told.

"It is simply a matter of educating the Hindu faithful to stop
using religious pretexts for non-religious purposes. If they use
turtle meat for meals during traditional parties, then they
should be honest and admit that they need the turtles for
personal consumption rather than for religious offerings," the
influential Ida Pedanda Gde Sebali Kenatan of Lombok stated.

At the end of the meeting, the high priests issued a seven-
point recommendation, which, among other things, asked Balinese
Hindus to stop using turtle meat during in religious ceremonies
until such time as the turtle population was deemed stable by the
government.

"We will present the recommendation at the next Mahasabha
(grand convention) of all the country's Parisadha in March in
Lampung. There is a good possibility that the Mahasabha will
agree to adopt the recommendation as a Bhisama (religious
decree)," Ida Pedanda Sebali Tianyar Arimbawa stated.

Securing the high priests' support was clearly a major victory
for the conservation NGOs, turtle activists and law enforcement
agencies. Not only that, it was also a major triumph for Balinese
Hinduism.

"Today, we see that our high priests have courageously
taken the first step in revitalizing our religion so that it
contains a body of teachings and, most importantly, practices
that place the life and well-being of all living things above
selfish, petty rituals. To a large extent, it will be a journey
back into what Hinduism once was, a religion of compassion and
enlightenment," said young Hindu activist Cokorda Yudhistira.