BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, May 12 2012 (asiacalling.org): On May 6, Belgium hosted the largest Balinese festival held outside of Indonesia. The Ogoh-Ogoh festival features giant Balinese puppets and traditionally marks Nyepi, or Balinese New Year – a day marked by silence on the island of the gods. The event was held in Pairi Daizi Park, a former monastery turned international cultural park.
This is the second time the Ogoh-Ogoh Festival has been held in Pairi Daiza Park. Arif Havas Oegreseno, the Indonesian Ambassador to Belgium is the man behind the festival. He says the event has bought new life to the park’s Agung Shanti Bhuwana Temple, which was officially opened in 2009. “Pairi Daiza wants to liven up this place and the life of the temple is religious ceremonies. So that’s why last year I had an idea to have religious ceremonies here,” says Ambassador Arif. “So we had at the Sarawasati ceremony and Ogoh-Ogoh festival. These events brought along the spirit and life into this Balinese temple. So the people who come here really feel like they are in Indonesia.”
The event started with the sounding of gongs in the temple, followed by a traditional Balinese Sarawasti Hindu ceremony. More than 400 people turned up for the event and 350 were Balinese who traveled from all over Europe. 60 students from the Indonesian Hindu University in Denpasar who are studying in Europe also attended the event. After the ceremony, the students performed several dances like the traditional Balinese kecak, which blew European tourists away.
Belgium’s Agung Shanti Bhuwana Temple is the largest Hindu Balinese Temple outside of Indonesia. It is made out of rocks from Bali’s Mt. Agung that were imported to the site in 350 containers and constructed by Balinese builders. The Shanti Bhuwa Temple, the brainchild of Eric Domb, is iconic. “It is a symbol of my gratitude to Indonesia. When I was 17 years old, I made the first visit to Indonesia and fell in love,” explains Eric. “I came back thirty years later, 2006, with a project to build a real pura -Balinese temple, with the stone from Gunung Agung, with the best people to craft the temple”.
HPI Note: You can listen to sound file at source.