Festival Preparation at Taro (Bali Aga village)

just a peek of the organization

 On Saturday, Dedik, (ethnomusicologist from Bunutan who studied for 9 years in the US) was kind enough to invite me to visit the Bali Aga village of Taro. The Aga people are the original people of Bali. Their very traditional culture/beliefs are taken from  the island of Java which beginning in the 12 c.  was (Majapahit) Hindu.  It was considered to be a great empire which spanned southeast asia , and preternaturally  defined  the contemporary geography (17,000+ islands) of Indonesia; otherwise known as a " thalassocratic archipelagic empire "(naval/sea).
  They have a strict code of ethics and live collectively.  No one must break their codes and rules; and they don't intermarry or divorce. Their practice of Hinduism differs from the majority of Balinese.  Their Guru came from India and moved into the mountains to withstand influences. In the present  there are only a handful of villages in Bali that remain Aga.  Most of the are located in eastern Bali, but Taro was less than an hour north of Ubud.

a small portion of what you see entering the temple

men doing their part TOO?

The reason for going to Taro  was that the entire village (+25 other banyars-locally governed villages ) was preparing for a very very special ceremony.  This ceremony had not been performed for over 300 years, yet the High Priest decided from the Complex Balinese Calendar that the holiday would occur after Nyepi (Balinese New Year, March 5) for about 3 weeks.
We came to witness the preparations!
What organization!  Hundreds of people (mostly women) were making  all the offerings.  This had been going on for at least 2-3 weeks thus far...... everyday...... all day.
People from all over Bali will come to participate in this ceremony.

pastries/offerings by the TON

high priestess (not in her whites)

handmade colored paste flowers

rice :always central

 It's hard to describe the scale as to what we witnessed.  This is a huge temple with many courtyards and shrines.There was  an "ancient" wooden bell (1000 years old?) in a shrine that 
Roger (the other westerner gone native) and I were not allowed to enter. (i did not photograph this)

a fraction of what they made that day

ceremonial containers

all the shaped formed are symbolically representing important images and concepts

pastries by the gadzilions

Indah! how beautiful

all edible

i guess the saying goes the community that works together..............

The women wear ribbons in their hair, to remind them that their "heads/minds are in a high place"  Sacred Socialization!
 It was pretty amazing to witness all this industriousness and beauty combined.
The sheer volume was overwhelming.
The commitment even more so.
It is about living life as a community; and the identity of the Balinese is singularly as well as communally all about their spiritual devotion.  
It binds them together.

all is handmade......and ephemeral

Yes, this all gets tossed after ceremony (no putting away for next year's Christmas!)

Roger looking at shrine

social and sacred

Gunung-Gunung Nasi (mountains of rice)

Dedik and Dayu (Roger's wife)

original Guru

high priest who Dedik met:their wives are coincidentally friends

new recruits coming to help

I will be unable
to attend the festival in March, (as I will be leaving Ubud early on and traveling around to other islands in Indonesia) but as luck/karma would have it we had an opportunity to pray and be blessed...as there was a high priest who was officiating where we ended up talking to another high priest.  I of course asked what this holiday and ceremony "means".
He said it was a "re-balancing of the entire world"
Sounds about right to me.


p.s.: TAKSU  - divine (seen and unseen) inspiration for creativity
Difficult+ complex concept/Balinese word.... something i've been exploring for the past few months



travelin' woman