BALI, INDONESIA, October 6, 2005: The Hindu Balanese turned the resort island into a gigantic shrine of devotion on Wednesday, with colorful offerings and solemn rituals performed simultaneously at thousands of temples in a festival to mark the victory of good over evil. The Galungan religious celebration came just four days after terrorists bombed Bali for a second time in a tragedy that gave this year’s annual event a tone of somberness. “This year’s Galungan is quieter than the last one we had,” a canang (offering) seller Ni Wayan Suci said. Suci, a 38-year old mother of three, sold canang, a simple offering comprising flowers and shredded leaves arranged on a palm-size rectangular structure made of young coconut leaves, a few meters from the main gate of Denpasar’s main temple, Jagatnatha. “Last year I could sell 150 canang on Galungan day. Today, I brought only 100 canang and, as you can see, there are still many left unsold,” she said.
Hindu devotees began pouring into the temple early in the morning. Dressed in traditional costumes, they gathered at the temple’s main yard before praying together toward a towering Padmasana shrine that bore the golden Acintya, the mysterious, incomprehensible aspect of the Almighty. A similar ritual and joint prayers took place throughout the island. Balanese congregated and prayed at family temples before carrying the fruit and cake offerings to the major temples of their villages. Balanese also made offerings at numerous shrines at the roadside, riverside and beachside to honor the deities and other supernatural beings there. Denpasar looked like a deserted city, with most of the Hindu population spending the religious holiday in their native villages. “Let’s hope that the chance to share intimate moments with relatives and close friends that Galungan has provided would enable the Balanese Hindus to view and treat the recent tragedy in a much calmer and more peaceful way,” cultural observer Sugi Lanus Kaleran said.
HPI note: More than a dozen Balinese Hindus came to our Kadavul Siva temple here in Kauai for this festival. They brought the canang offering mentioned above. Some were workers assembling a Balinese house here on Kauai, others staff from the cruise ships which visit Kauai.