Bali Experience

Although the nation of Indonesia as a whole is predominantly Muslim, Bali is, according to official censuses, over 90% Hindu. Yet the Hinduism practiced in Bali has its own local color, shaded by the circuitous route the religion took on its path from India, and by the ancient traditions of the Balinese themselves. Over a thousand years ago, the inhabitants of Bali followed religious practices that involved the worship of ancestors believed to be divine, respect for the natural environment and the invisible spirits that inhabited it, and devotion to the goddess of rice who blessed the island with the bounty of the harvest. But beginning some time around the eight century, traders from other parts of Asia and migrants from the Indianized kingdoms of Java began introducing the Balinese to the philosophical traditions and religious practices of Buddhism and Hinduism. Today’s Balinese religion reflects this variety of influences, forming a complex system of belief and devotion found nowhere else on earth.

Classical Hinduism as it is practiced by the educated classes is based upon the five principles, or Panca Crada. The first is the existence of God, the supreme being who is responsible for ordering the universe and balancing the forces of good and evil. In Bali, this God is called Sanghyang Widi Wasa. Although this God is one, he exists in the world in many manifestations, as Dewi Sri, the goddess of rice, as Dewa Baruna, the god of the sea, as Dewi Ratih, the goddess of beauty, or as the Hindu trinity of divine forces: Brahman the Creator, Wishnu the Preserver and Siwa the Destroyer. The second principle is the existence of the atman, or the eternal spirit which occupies each human body. It is this spirit, not the temporary flesh, that is considered the true marker of humanity, and it is to purifying and strengthening this spirit that Balinese Hinduism’s many rituals are directed. The third principle is samsara, or the wheel of rebirth, which holds that the earth’s creatures, upon death, will be reincarnated again and again until they succeed in achieving the ultimate enlightenment or moksa, and escaping from the sufferings of the world. The fourth principle is karma pala, or the belief that one’s actions, good or bad, have substance in the world and will have results in this life or the next. Thus suffering or special fortune may be explained by reference to actions someone performed in a previous life, although they may have no memory of such events. And the final principle is moksa, the possibility of reaching enlightenment and complete union with God for those who can free themselves of desires and attachment to the world. These five principles are the philosophical bases of Hinduism. Many Balinese are familiar with them, although the majority of Balinese are more interested in the practical side of their faith: which ceremonies must be held for which occasions, what offerings must be prepared to please the gods and ancestors, and how to keep the demons of the unseen world from bringing illness and misfortune to one’s family. While they believe in these five principles, the religious orientation of most Balinese is fundamentally a practical one, rather than a philosophical one.

Although today a few Balinese have journeyed to India, bringing back a “purer” form of Hinduism to their island home, for the most part, Balinese Hinduism is rather different from that practiced in India. In India, the caste system, while formally illegal, still functions to determine hereditary occupations and to order social relations. In India, “untouchables” are still shunned, and a complex division of status prescribes who may accept food or holy water from whom. In Bali, caste is much simpler. There are no untouchables, and ninety percent of the population belongs to the Sudra caste. Sudras are identified in Bali by the prefix “I” for males or “Ni” for females before their names. The other ten percent of Bali’s people belong to the group known as the “Triwangsa” or the “three peoples” of the elite castes: Brahmana, Ksatria and Wesia. The Brahmana, known in Bali as Ida Bagus if they are male or Ida Ayu or Dayu if they are female, are the priestly caste, whose traditional function was to care for the sacred knowledge inscribed in holy palm leaf lontar books and to carry out rituals. Only Brahmana may become high priests, and they receive special treatment from society when it comes time for their cremation ceremonies. The Ksatria caste are the descendants of the traditional kings who ruled Bali. Their names differ depending on the area of Bali, but their traditional titles include Cokorda, Anak Agung, Dewa or I Gusti. The Wesya class are the traditional merchants and bureaucrats who served the former royal families, known as Gusti. Although caste is certainly less important in Bali today than it was in the past, you will still find people of the lower castes using refined forms of language to address the upper castes, and older people who still believe that their daughters should not marry someone of lesser status. And when it comes to ritual, Brahmanas and Ksatrias are still expected to hold more elaborate and expensive ceremonies than others, no matter if they can afford it or not.

Other differences between classical Hinduism and Balinese Hinduism also exist. Like Indian Hindus, the Balinese believe in the reincarnation of the soul. But in Bali, with its strong cultural emphasis on family, the deceased are usually reincarnated within their own families, and it is common for parents to visit a psychic to find out which of their departed relatives has returned to walk the earth in the body of their child. And in India, Hinduism has an ascetic character that is rarely found in Bali. In Bali, priests do not remove themselves from worldy affairs, but instead marry and raise families. In Bali, widows may remarry and wives of priests may even become priests themselves after their husband’s deaths. Worship in Bali is also much more communal than it is in India, centering not just around household rituals but taking place in public temples with large groups of people.