7. walking hand-in-hand with Bali - Bali #3 (by Amy, 11/30/06)

On Galungan, I walked hand in hand with a Balinese nun. That was fantastic.

Galungan was yesterday, and we got to spend much of the day with our Balinese friend Ketut's family, in the village of Singakerta, just past the Monkey Forest, near Ubud. Thanks to Ketut's family's welcome, we learned how to pray, and received many blessings, and got to take part in the pilgrimage/procession when one of the most valuable Balinese symbolic representation of the good powers in life, the Barong, is brought out from the temple and taken to all the important boundaries of their small town.

We woke up and bathed in the early light, and after a light cup of Nescafe in our room, asked our Balinese hotel workers to help us get dressed in Balinese clothes. I had a dark pink kebaya, which is the Chinese-style blouse used all over Indonesia, and a richly patterned white, brown and orange sarong, with an inner sash and an outer pink sash. Craig had an orange/golden inner sarong, which for men is tied with a cluster of folds and a longer point in front, and a cream upper sarong with a golden border, and a loose white linen type shirt, with an inner sash. His head covering was white and gold, coming to a peak in the front. We felt very appropriate and correct in our clothing, and enjoyed walking down the street and through the Monkey Forest, and through the village of Nyuh Kuning, over to Singakerta. When we got to Nyuh Kuning, which is a small woodcarving town that specializes in dolphins and turtles, we got some approval and a lot of curiousity from the few Balinese on the street. Then when we thought we were close to the alley leading to Ketut's mom's house, we asked a shopkeeper for Ketut Nanti - her mom - and got lots of astonishment, even though most folks know our Ketut's husband Jerry -- or "Jarrriie" as it seems to sound. Not a lot of foreigners come there on festival days! Thank goodness! The shopkeeper turned out to be Ketut's auntie so we were in luck.

We enjoyed meeting Ketut's very extended family. Her mom, Ibu ketut, "Ketut's mom", and aunties, were all a little smaller than the current generation. Her mom is very lovely, she is probably my age since our Ketut is about 26. She wore the richest color of purple kebaya which helped me a lot since I could usually find her!

We especially liked meeting the newest nephew, a little baby named "Made Jerry", who quickly came into our arms, since all Balinese newborns are considered quite holy and not of this world until they are 105 days old and they are never, never allowed to touch foot to the ground until that day. So babies are almost always held, or on a bed -- Ketut brought a kind of infant seat which is a new item not common here. For this reason, absolutely everyone seems comfortable holding babies and children, and we saw many many young fathers and uncles quite happily cradling and treasuring their smaller kids.

A balinese house compound has many buildings, with a spiritual plan to the layout. Many are open sided buildings with central platforms surrounded by steps, some of these have beds in the open, some have closed rooms. To eat or socialize you join the group on the platform, no chairs or tables are needed. On the side towards the mountains is a corner with the family temple; on the lower side are the places for messy things like pigs. Many parts of the extended family live together.

After a little socializing, we all went together to get blessings at three of the temples. The whole town was out doing the same so there was a pleasant flow of ladies and men dressed up and lots of nicely behaved kids in the streets. Most women were effortlessly carrying offering baskets on their heads. Ketut told us when she was in gradeschool the girls would have competitions for who could run the farthest carrying a coke bottle on their heads! As adults, it's a no brainer. They almost never need to steady their load with a hand.

We got a welcome lesson on how to receive the priests or priestesses blessings. For the women, everything is done kneeling, on your shoes if you need the cushioning (we did!), with your toes on the ground and your sole vertical- quite hard for me! The men and the stiffer women get to sit crosslegged. The first steps involve incense, which you light in front of you, and "wash" towards you, and cup your hands to bring some of the sacred fragrance up above you as you pray. In next steps you lift small flower blossoms between the tips of your fingers up, and when you are done with each small prayer you tuck the blossom into your hair or your headdress, not letting it come down low near the ground. Then the priest will come to you with sacred water, and in the ritual you are blessed with some, and you drink some, and you pour some over your head. It's not that complicated and it's quite lovely. With the occasion and the repetition and the setting and the repeats in the different temples I felt wonderfully cleaned. Later on we did the same at the family temples, and I learned that family members can do the priest's role for themselves or for others. Later in the day, I saw many women do this for their family. I liked that a lot - that the priests/priestesses are important, but that in the right occasion and spirit, anyone can administer the sacred water. The water comes from springs, and some of the springs are high up in temples on the holy mountains.

We had a lovely relaxed morning with the family, and then went home in the heat of the day to rest and swim. At about four, when it started to cool a little (it's 85 degrees here most days and quite humid and bright), we went back over, to see the Barong. This turned out to be an even more wonderful part of the day. Each temple has a barong, a kind of lion/dog that was once kind of evil and turned into a force for good. It has long black hair. We learned that to help refurbish one of the barongs (not the one we saw), most of the women in the family had cut off their long hair! The current barong was brought from the next village and many people were already in procession when it arrived. There was a walking gamelon orchestra, which is fabulous, since each person has a single note to strike or gong to pound or drum tone to play, and the music seems to endlessly be changing but is actually deliciously structured. We walked for miles with the barong, and along the route, many families had set up small offerings in front of their houses with flowers and fruits and food, and often a burning coconut husk for purification by fire, and as the barong passed, they would kneel humbly and do their prayers. Those of us walking were glowing. Many balinese women hold other women's hands and many men hug each other. Ketut's mom and I, walking side by side, took each others hands and walked along for a long way. And later, as the procession went way out in the rice fields, as the sun dipped and things began to glow, and I was walking next to a very tiny older lady all dressed in white, suddenly we were holding hands, too. When we looked at each other we smiled and laughed, mostly we were just peaceful. Near us, many women were doing a wonderful eerie toned chanting song, which would weave in and out with the gamelon tones. Later Ketut told me the older lady was one of the priests. It felt very perfect to be sharing the evening with her.

As dark fell, our family left the main parade and walked on a parallel path, out through the rice fields. Beautiful! Magical! To our right, the barong and gamelon and singing ladies were walking along. To our left, the mountains and the palm trees and the glow of sunset on the rice field water. It was a beautiful day.