Fourth Assignment

In Bali, Balancing the Universe

Balinese Hindus believe that prayer is needed to create the power to balance the world as it traverses the Kali Yuga. It is conducted by thousands people in the village of Juga outside Ubud who came there to recharge their temple's batteries to bring harmony to a world in chaos. Over five months, men and women have been preparing for the Upacara Karya Perdudusan Agung ceremony, which costs the community around US$150,000 to stage. This ceremony is repeated every 30 or 40 years in order to seek safety, peace, wealth, health and balance the village in Bali or even the world.

Wayan Padra, the head of Juga village, says that the lead-up to the main ceremony on January 6 involves 226 families from the village and help from 8 surrounding villages. At the center of the ritual are Rangda and Barong, the incarnations of the wedded gods Durga and Shiva, who are masters of life and death. Ragda and Barong have been decorated with 23 different types of seeds and 6 different strains of rice. Ten people have been working for a month to glue seeds as tiny as sesame seed to the bodies to create a mosaic from thousands of individual seeds. All of that are the symbols of a married couple, good as in Barong and evil as in Rangda. The ceremony itself is as a media to balance between the positive and negative. Furthermore, why they use seed to make effigies is because seed is as a symbol of thankfulness to the gods for foods. After the ceremony, Rangda and Barong will be placed in the temple so that people can pray and ask for the seeds so those return to the earth. They believe that the seeds meet the gods in thanks then return to the natural world.