This little piggy went to the ceremony

Early this morning as I drink my tea and watch the new day unfold, I hear strange sounds coming from the temple next door. Lots of rustling around, and men with raised voices, which is a very unusual occurrence. The multiple dogs in the compound begin to bark and whine. And then I hear a high picked squeal that can only come from a pig. More yelling from the men. One more squeal from the pig and I finally realize what's happening.

Soon 4 men come out of the compound with a 300 pound pig tied to a bamboo pole, carrying it on their shoulders. They look happy as they heave the large (rather dead) animal into the back of the truck and drive away.

They will use the pig in one of many large temple ceremonies that happen here on a daily basis. They will use every part of the pig to celebrate a wedding or a blessing of some kind.

The blood of the pig is used to make a special Balinese dish called "lawar". It is mixed with vegetables and spices after the vegetables are cooked and happily eaten by all the people at the ceremony.

If you want to make lawar and don't happen to have a pig to kill for this purpose, you can easily purchase pig blood at the local market.

This culture continues to fascinate and enchant me every day....

Some Funny/Interesting Things About Bali

1) In Bali, a cell phone is a way of life. It is called a "hand phone" or "hp". People use it to text or "sms" as a way to communicate. Few people make actual calls. Phones run on a pay-as-you-go system. The credit is called "pulsa". When you run out of pulsa you must go to a small kiosk and get more added to your account. I got an sms from a friend one day that said "I have no pulse". A very funny mistake.

2) a bicycle is called a "push bike"

3) when you buy veggies or fruit in the supermarket, you must first take them to the veggie guy to weigh, bag, and put a price tag on before going to the check out.

4) if the cashier does not have "small money" to make change, they give you a little candy mint instead. But when I try to use this same mint to pay for my groceries the next time, they won't take it. :)

5) a bottle of water costs me around 6,000 rupiah. My rent is 4 million rupiah per month. My motorbike costs me 700,000 a month. All those zeros take some getting used to.

6) There are temple ceremonies happening each day for things like blessing of anything mechanical, blessing of the rice fields, blessing of the animals, blessing of the time a baby first touches the ground at 6 months old, or blessing of a girls first menstruation, blessing of a new house or business, full moon ceremonies along with hundreds of others. When ceremonies take place, people cannot come to work so a shop or office just closes.

7) Everyone in Bali celebrates 2 birthdays a year, six months apart.

8) A person cannot move into a new house until the geckos, spiders and ants do. Nature gets the utmost respect.

9) The concept of time does not really exist in Bali. People say that time in Bali is measured by a "rubber watch" meaning that time is flexible and expandable and people are not confined by it.

10) when a baby is born, it is believed that the soul of a relative who has passed away is reborn into the baby.

11) I have never seen a Balinese person get angry or say a cross word.

12) I have never seen a Balinese with a cast or a bandage on. This is particularly surprising given the number of motorbikes that are ridden around each day.

13) If a Balinese person gets sick, they usually go to a healer instead of a doctor.

Purification

So many things have been happening here in my little house in Bali. I almost don’t know where to begin.

April 23 is the day of Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge and Learning. A huge day of festival and celebration here. My dear friend Ketut brings special flower offerings she made for the day. She tells me to gather all of my most important books and place the beautiful offerings on the books, light incense sticks and do my prayers of thanks. 

Later in the day, I accompany her to first her family temple, her village temple and her village priest’s home to bring offerings and pray. We are dressed in our finest sarong and kebaya, her driving the motorbike from place to place, me on the back, riding side-saddle with the basket of offerings delicately balanced on my head. Of course I hang on to it with both hands, very afraid that it would fall the ground spoiling all the precious contents. The women of Bali balance their whole lives on their heads, it seems with never a mishap.

The next morning my three friends and I meet Ketut at 4:30 so we can go to the beach for purification, along with hundreds of other Balinese people. Interestingly, this coincides with the Christian Easter Sunday and is a day of new beginnings.

We get to the beach before sunrise and join the many other people there. It feels like a fourth of July celebration. Everyone is happy and cheerful and the mood is light. We decide to do some yogic sun salutations and get many stares of delight. People are curious and happy about what we are doing and it feels very right. The glorious volcano, Mt. Agung is silhouetted against the sky as the sun rises behind it. The ocean waves reach toward us on the beach.

When the sun is up, we go to the car and collect our sarong and our flower offering baskets. We sit on the beach and pray while holding flowers at our forehead as the Balinese do. We pray for peace on the planet and for the continued sources of knowledge to come to us. Afterwards we go into the sacred ocean around the island of Bali and splash ourselves and feel clean and new.

We are back home by 8:30 am, stop for a delicious breakfast then head to Sunday morning dance class. After a shower and a rest, we meet up again and Ketut drives us to see a 25 year old woman priest, Ida Resi Alit. She is the only woman priest in Bali and she has an amazing story of how this journey has unfolded for her.

We sit on the porch of her remote village home and when she appears, it nearly takes my breath away. She is so beautiful. So delicate. Like a china doll. Her English is quite good and we have a wonderful conversation about her life and about her work. I could write a long story just about her, and plan to do so in the future.

There are about 20 people in attendance at her home and after a while she takes her place on a raised alter/platform in her family temple. She begins to pray and chant in the most beautiful voice. The voice she uses to pray is completely different than her speaking voice.

Families come forward to stand in front of her and as she prays and chants over them, she pours holy water on them from many vessels that are handed to her.  The water contains flowers and smells like I imagine heaven would smell.

When it is our turn, we approach the alter; Ketut, Putu, Simone and me. Risi begins to pray and chant as the water is poured. And I begin to cry. Softly at first and then I begin to sob. The more I cry, the more water she pours on me, and she tells me to just let it all go.

By the time she is finished, I am completely soaked and feel intensely clean and sparkly and very emotional. My friend Simone from San Francisco, standing next to me has a rather different experience. As the water was being poured onto her, she begins to laugh. Then the male priest with the big belly begins to laugh. As the water is poured, the laughter gets louder and louder. Like it was coming from way down in their toes. Soon everyone in the small temple is laughing along with us. 

It is a very special, very beautiful day of blessings in Bali.