Our Villa in Bali Gets a “Spiritual Cleansing”
Bali is an island of ceremonies. It’s one of the first things you notice when you arrive and it’s part of what makes the place so special. Spiritual offerings and prayer are a daily ritual. Traffic often comes to a standstill to make way for a colorful procession of men and women dressed in traditional clothes walking slowly down the street performing a ceremony or dance. There’s no honking or angry faces. It’s just a part of life in Bali.
Bali’s Unique Religion:
The majority of Indonesians are Muslim but in Bali, the predominant religion is a unique blend of Hinduism, animism and ancestry worship. Every day, the Balinese make “canang saris” or offerings consisting of flowers, candies, incense, cigarettes and more placed into a box made of coconut leaves. The offerings are left outside homes, businesses, temples and more. On the full moon, the offerings are more elaborate. There are also cremations, weddings, tooth filings and baby ceremonies along with the many annual ceremonies on the island.
Balinese Offerings are a Costly Affair. Women Do Most of the Work:
The Balinese spend vast amounts of money, time and effort preparing offerings for the large number of ceremonies. According to a study done in Ubud in 1996, roughly 35 percent of the income generated by an average Balinese family is spent on ritual expenses. Cremations can cost thousands of dollars. Some have gone into debt just to pay for all of the ceremonies.
Women, who bear the brunt of the work preparing for the ceremonies, reportedly spend 1800 hours a year (40 percent of their available time) on preparing for the rituals. For men, its 575 hours or 10% of their time. For more on this, check this out this article:
https://crcs.ugm.ac.id/balis-ritual-economy/
Home Purification Ceremony:
Beyond the daily offerings and annual religious ceremonies and rituals related to life events, every home needs to be purified once a year. That cleansing ceremony is meant to create harmony in the home by making offerings to both the bad and good spirits. The cost to keep the peace: 100 dollars. That’s a hefty price when you consider those living on the minimum wage in Bali, and there are many of them, make less than 200 dollars a month.
We recently got to experience a cleansing ritual and it was magical. The villa we rented is leased by an expat living in the U.K. who has rights to the property for a set amount of years. But the villa is owned by a Balinese. He recently asked if he could perform a cleansing ceremony. Of course, I said yes! Who needs bad juju? I was extra thrilled when he said we could witness the ceremony.
It happened on a Sunday on the eve of a full moon. It’s the preferred time to perform such a ceremony. About thirty members of his family arrived carrying vast amounts of fruits, flowers, incense and a few sacrificed chickens, which he was proud to reveal. I shuddered at the sight but nodded with a smile pasted on my face to hide my true emotions. A fire was started and a “penjor”, a long sloped bamboo stick adorned with decorations was placed into the ground.
Throughout the purification ceremony, a man who was seated cross-legged rang a bell. Holy water was flicked in the air. Prayers were said. The family later walked through the bedrooms and blessed those rooms. They offered us coffee, fruits and sweets. The whole thing lasted a couple of hours.
The Outsourcing of Balinese Offerings:
Some families prepare their own offerings with the materials found on their own land. But things are rapidly changing in Bali. Women are working more and thus have less time to prepare all the offerings themselves. As a result, many Balinese families now buy their canang saris from Javanese Muslim women working in local markets who have discovered this relatively new business opportunity.
Whether or not you agree with spending large amounts of money to maintain ancient traditions, it’s remarkable to me that despite more than a century of colonialism, the arrival of missionaries, the spread of Islam in the rest of Indonesia and mass tourism, the Balinese connection to their faith remains as unwavering as ever.
