Bloggtoppen

Blogg listad på Bloggtoppen.se

söndag 20 juni 2010

Putu & Ayu`s Wedding

Couple of days ago there were Putu and Ayu´s wedding. The whole Wana Giri came together to prepare all diffrent offerings for the wedding cermony.
The ladies kept on explaining to me the diffrent offerings,names & what they were for. It is so complicated & so much to learn. There experienced fingers quickly twisted and turned the palm leaves into beautiful ornaments that later became grand standing offerings. Then diffrents cake and colorful rice were put into the small cups.
When the Balinese women prepare offerings there seems to be always one of the elderly that in charge. It is fascinating to watch how she kind knows everything and teach the younger women how they should do it. That way the knowledge through generations are passed on.

Just like in the West there are two ways to get married. You can do it the expensive way, Mamadik or the cheap way, Nyogoting or Mamaling.
The cheap way means that you will kidnap your future wife from her parents.
In the old days the kidnapping was a way for the young madly in love couple to get married without their parents permission. In the old days it was also more common that your parents decided who you would get married to. So, the rebellion and the dared once ran away from the parents decision and got married to their true lover. Once they came back the parents had to accept the groome even though the village would be gossiping for a while about the outrages way to get married.
Today the cheap way is more accepted in the Banjar as many couples has no finance to get married the expensive way. So today the young couple will go away for a couple of days.
The father and mother will put on their acting skills and pretend to be very worried about the young girl. Once the couple gets back it will not take long before the grrom is accepted in the family.

The expensive and more respected way is the Mamadik. To start with, the boy`s family send a delegation with greetings from the Banajar (community) to the girls home. The elderly talk together and finally it get decided that a wedding will happen.
The date of wedding is set by the so called Pedanda, who is the priest from the highest cast.
The actual cermony is though held by a so called Pemangku, which can be a priest from any cast.




At the TOP



Slowly and Grudually the day to put on the Bedeg came.
Bedeg is a bamboo matt that you use to protect your roof.
A part from being stunning it also gives a surten life to the house.
For Wayan & me the Bedeg meant to scrub alot of Bamboo mats.
The time was really practical as we used the time to practice english and Bahasa Indonesia.
Couple of days later we found out that one of the men from Wana Giri has felt down from the roof and hit his head and injured his jaw.
Next day we picked up Putu and drove him, his younger sister & brother to hot Singaraja.
The Siblings proudly wore their university jackets with the huge emblee that proved that they were some of the few people in Wana Giri that had received a schoolorship to attend university.
As we drove down the slopes of Munduk the change in temperature was remarkable. Once we arrived to the hospital it felt like we were in a sauna.
Putu finally came out from the hospital. We all got relieved as we found at that it was "just" a light head concusion and nothing serious. Putu proudly showed us his massive scan that showed all diffrent angels of his skull.

The last thing Putu said with a smile before fallling a sleep in the car was-Pasti panas Singaraja, Pasti dingin Wana Giri, which is like saying- This place is for sure hot, Lets go to Wana giri where it is cooler.

When someone get sick or an accident happens you will normally in Bali found the answer in that the Gods are unhappy, Your own Karma, un paid karma from the Anchestors or Black magic.
The men from Wana Giri came to the conclusion that the reason why Putu fell of the house as because the Gods been unhappy. The reason was that he been peeing from the roof.

To say sorry to the Gods a small cermony had to be arranged. The priest came and the men from Wana Giri promised that no more peeing from the roof would happen...


go

söndag 6 juni 2010

Mother tempel Besakih














On saturday we took one of our guest to the mother tempel of Bali- Besakih.
Before going to the tempel Anna was dressed in a Kebaya, so she would feel as close as possible as a Balinese women.
The Kebayas are beautiful long sleeved shirts in colorful laces.Around her waist she got a sarong (generally in printed Batik) that falls to the ankles. To finish up, we tied a belt around her waist.
The belt is to seperate the pure (head) and unpure (unpure).The whole outfit is very colorful and always matches nicely.
When the balinese women for exampel get married or having their tooth filling they dress and groom diffrently.
One of the importancies is the hair. The hairstyle is usually the so called chignon, which reminds the balinese of the lovely princess Drupadi´s hair (the wife of one Pandawa brothers in the Mahabarata story). Women with short hair usually add fake locks in order to have Chignon hairstyle. After that they pin multitude of golden metal flowers in the hair. Around their bust they wear the so called Sabuk.Today you can see for exampel the women in traditional clothes when you attend a balinese dance performance.

We climbed all the stairs up to the main tempel. Anna knelt down next to us.
A small offering and a insence were put infront of her.
After that the small cermony started. Anna raised her hands. This time she did not have anything between her palms. Bruce explained to Anna that this is the first stage where you worship the god.
The following steps you put diffrent colors of flowers between your fingers. This is to worship to the Trinoty, Anchestors and Ida Sangyang Widi Wasa, who is the unseen spiritual entity that have a supernatural power.
Last the priest assistant poured holy water in Anna´s right hand that she ziped 3 times. This is to always have pure words to say the people around you.The forth time she placed the water on her head. This is to always have pure thoughts.
We ended the visit at Besakih at tempel for the Mengwi tempel. This is the tempel for the Kshatriyas cast.
As the sun slowly lowered behind the earth horizon we drove down the slopes of Mountain Gunung Agung to Amed where Anna would enjoy the colorful reefs and tropical fish.