| Story
of Bali, Indonesia
Every
6 to 12 months according to the Balinese calendar, the
women members of each temple participate in these unique
Balinese ceremonies. Any one Nyoman belongs to at least
four or five temples that have six-month ceremonies
of this sort. So, a woman goes
through
this activity
at least
10 times
in any one
year, if not more often. The activity
is widely
recognized
since colorful
pictures
of it appear
in travel
books and magazines. On the appointed
day, one woman from
each household
(the women
may rotate
the responsibility)
buys the
best fruit
and flowers
they can afford,
bakes rice
cakes. and
then arranges
them in a colorful,
cylindrical,
and aesthetically
pleasing design
stacked up to
one meter high,
sometimes topped
with a roast
chicken and
palm leaf crown ornament. With skill and practice, this
can be completed in an hour or two. She then carries
the offering on her head to the local banjar, returns
home to bathe, dresses in her finest traditional Balinese
costume and returns to the banjar. 'Mere she joins a
group of village women who proceed to walk single file
to the temple with stacks of food (offering to the gods
on their heads. She places the offering on the table
of the pavilion (bale) in the temple and then joins
her friends or family near by, talking and joking, with
clear emotional expressions of happiness.
The
women wait near the temple to watch the priest bless
the offerings with holy water. 'Men they pray in a group,
and experience a 'serious' feeling (hening). The priest
then blesses the women by sprinkling
them with
holy water, which
evokes in
them an
inner feeling
of peace, described
as a calm,
happy, good feeling. This is not shown
in visible
outward expressions.
'Me women then
rise, take
their offerings,
and walk
home; on
the way they
talk cheerfully
and joke
with their friends.
At home,
the family
happily consumes
the food. 'Me women's feelings of peace and ful filment
may last hours or throughout the rest of the day.
The Western
observer
would not
be likely
to see the climax of this ceremony
because the
women show little
observable emotional
expression at
its completion.
However for
the Balinese
woman participant,
the point of climax is the blessing when she experiences
a consequent inner unmistakable feeling of calm and
peace for which there is no outward or obvious expression.
This ceremony illustrates, as does a cock-fight, direct
expression before and after, but concealed emotional
manifestation during, the climax.
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