NUSA DUA, INDONESIA, December 5, 2007: Hindu priests on the island of Bali, where the world’s nations are gathered to come up with an answer for global warming, think they have one solution — a day of silence. The proposal harks back to a traditional Balinese festival when everything is switched off and shut down for 24 hours, to try to persuade demons that the island is uninhabited and thus without fresh souls for them to steal.
“We learn from our ancestors to respect the wishes of nature,” said Bhagawandwija, a 63-year-old priest. In the island’s rich Hindu heritage, the Nyepi festival is the time when evil spirits return to Earth. To persuade them there are no souls left to haunt, Bali shuts down almost entirely. All restaurants and discos close, to the great annoyance of tourists who do not realize they are being protected from malignant forces. Airliners are grounded and the roads are deserted. It is forbidden to turn on lights, make a fire – or even make a noise.
If that seems too drastic a measure to take, local newspapers have been stressing to conference delegates the concept of “Tri Hita Karana,” or the need for harmony with the environment. According to another Balinese custom, anyone who cuts down one tree is obliged to replant ten, said Ida Pedanda Gede Ketut Sebali Tianyar Arimbawa, president of Indonesia’s highest Hindu authority. He, too, is convinced that ancestral traditions can provide solutions to the woes of global warming. And even after our lives have ended, we can still make a difference. Cremation, he says, is simply “the best way of returning to nature.”