The Balinese are artists. They paint, carve, sculpt, mold, sew, build, weave. They make shadow puppets, batik sarongs, silver charms, hand-carved masks, ceramic bowls. They sell their creations everywhere you go. Art galleries--big modern ones that you'd expect to find in SoHo and small, funky ones run out of people's homes--line the two-lane roads that wind around the tiny island.
But while the Balinese are known for making and selling beautiful artwork, their most artful creations are the offerings they craft for the Hindi gods. A gift to a higher being must be attractive, so they're pieces of art. Offerings come in all different forms, but they're typically no larger than a salad plate and consist of a palm leaf woven into a bowl shape and filled with flowers, incense, a few rupee, rice, maybe an M&M or a Ritz cracker. An even simpler version is a banana leaf envelope filled with rice. An offering can only be presented to a god once, so people make new ones, again and again, throughout the day. They bless them with holy water and say their prayers holding them.
Offerings are often placed on an altar, though they don't require a special home. The Balinese believe that any place that receives regular offerings accumulates sacred energy, eventually becoming sacred itself. And so the Balinese scatter their offerings everywhere about the island--on roads and beaches, in shops and restaurants, on the dashboards of cars and buses, beneath the spreading banyan trees, and at crossroads where troublesome spirits gather. Walk down a street in Bali and you'll see hundreds of offerings, lovingly and thoughtfully crafted pieces of art.
For Balinese festivals, rites of passage, and other ceremonies, offerings can be a huge undertaking, requiring extended families, neighborhoods, or even whole villages to work together for weeks on end. Each element is a symbol and each color carries meaning. You might see exotic fruits built into a pyramid on a golden tray, to be carried to the temple atop a woman's head. Or maybe a roasted pig adorned in flowers.
But while the Balinese are known for making and selling beautiful artwork, their most artful creations are the offerings they craft for the Hindi gods. A gift to a higher being must be attractive, so they're pieces of art. Offerings come in all different forms, but they're typically no larger than a salad plate and consist of a palm leaf woven into a bowl shape and filled with flowers, incense, a few rupee, rice, maybe an M&M or a Ritz cracker. An even simpler version is a banana leaf envelope filled with rice. An offering can only be presented to a god once, so people make new ones, again and again, throughout the day. They bless them with holy water and say their prayers holding them.
Offerings are often placed on an altar, though they don't require a special home. The Balinese believe that any place that receives regular offerings accumulates sacred energy, eventually becoming sacred itself. And so the Balinese scatter their offerings everywhere about the island--on roads and beaches, in shops and restaurants, on the dashboards of cars and buses, beneath the spreading banyan trees, and at crossroads where troublesome spirits gather. Walk down a street in Bali and you'll see hundreds of offerings, lovingly and thoughtfully crafted pieces of art.
For Balinese festivals, rites of passage, and other ceremonies, offerings can be a huge undertaking, requiring extended families, neighborhoods, or even whole villages to work together for weeks on end. Each element is a symbol and each color carries meaning. You might see exotic fruits built into a pyramid on a golden tray, to be carried to the temple atop a woman's head. Or maybe a roasted pig adorned in flowers.
4 comments:
Bali is a magnificent place to travel and now, thru your blog, I learned that Bali is not only a beautiful place but also provide gorgeous crafts. This is such a great way to attract more tourist.
Thanks for writing this article on Balinese offerings. I visited Bali last year and admired very much the patience of the people in making these offerings to their deities. I had started a travel photo blog and am currently doing a series on Bali. With your permission, I would like to link one of my future articles to this page.
What a lovely post. I think its great that you brought your kids to experience a different culture.
I love to investigate the traditions of any culture in this world, but I feel specially attracted by the Middle East and Asian cultures, thanks for giving me another piece of the puzzle.
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