BALI DIARY

[Guest guest]

MY BALI DIARY

"Do you eat beef?"

 

"No. We don't. We eat all kinds of meat, but not beef."

 

"Is it only the Brahmanas who don't eat beef or everyone?"

 

"Everyone."

 

"But, in India, we think the Balinese Hindus eat beef."

 

"Wrong. We don't."

 

by B.Raman

 

"I am a Brahmana married to a Shatriya," said the girl at a foreign

exchange shop in Denpasar, the capital of Bali. "And you?"

 

'I am also a Brahmin, " I replied, "but not married".

 

"How old are you?" she asked.

 

"69".

 

"Why have you not married?"

 

"Just like that"

 

"So, you are a Brahmacharya? Are there many Brahmacharyas in India ?"

 

"Yes, there are many. And in Bali?"

 

"Not many. People get married once they have a steady job."

 

"Are there many divorces? Do men and women quarrel? Do men beat up

their wives?"

 

"Rarely. We are not like that."

 

"What is your name?"

 

"Neuman Kalawati."

 

"Kalawati is a Hindu name. But,why Neuman? It is Christian."

 

"No.No. It is not. Neuman means third. I am the third child of my

 

parents. Often, Balinese Hindu names have a number. It indicates which

 

child of their parents they are."

 

"How much you earn?"

 

"Rupiah 500,000 per month." (One US dollar equal to 9,800 Rupiahs)

 

"And your husband?"

 

"Rupiah one million."

 

"Rupiah 1.5 million per month. Is that good money in Bali?"

 

"We manage to survive, but that is not good money. One-fourth of it

 

goes for milk for our three kids. One-fourth for house rent.

 

One-fourth for the Brahmana priests and offerings to God. Only

 

one-fourth remains for other purposes."

 

"Have you ever travelled?"

 

"Never."

 

"Not even to Java?"

 

"No. Where is the money?"

 

"Are you a happy woman? A happy wife? A happy mother?"

 

"Of course, I am. Do I look unhappy?"

 

"No. You don't. Your face looks somewhat different from the face of

 

other Balinese women I have met."

 

"Oh, really! Probably because I am a Brahmana."

 

"Do you know India?"

 

"Yes, I do."

 

"You know Sonia Gandhi? Manmohan Singh? Atal Behari Vajpayee? Shah

 

Rukh Khan?Aiswarya Rai?"

 

"I know Vajpayee. He came to Bali. Also Shah Rukh Khan and Aiswarya

 

Rai, but not others. Who are they?"

 

"They are Indian political leaders. Which other Indian you know and

like best?"

 

"Satya Sai Baba."

 

"You have met him? Has he come to Bali?"

 

"No. But sometimes our TV shows him. And his prayer meetings. When he

is on TV, the whole of Bali watches.

 

"You know Shankaracharya?"

 

"No"

 

"You know the RSS, the VHP, the Hindutva people?"

 

"No"

 

"Yesterday ( October 19,2005), I saw a long procession. Nearly 50

well-dressed women walked in front of what seemed a small chariot

carrying religious offerings on their head. There appeared to be a

dead body covered with a white cloth in the chariot. Nearly a hundred

men and women walked behind, but without any offerings on their head.

Seemed like a funeral procession."

 

"Yes, it was."

 

"Appeared to be an important person. When did he die?"

 

"Three years ago."

 

"Three years ago? Why are they cremating him now?"

 

"Lot of money is required for cremation. We have to pay the priests.

Make religious offerings. Invite all relatives and friends. When a

person suddenly dies, his relatives do not have enough money. They

bury the body in a simple ceremony, save enough money and then take

out the remains and cremate them. Without cremation, they will not be

reborn or go to heaven."

 

"Do you eat beef?"

 

"No. We don't. We eat all kinds of meat, but not beef."

 

"Is it only the Brahmanas who don't eat beef or everyone?"

 

"Everyone."

 

"But, in India, we think the Balinese Hindus eat beef."

 

"Wrong. We don't."

 

"About 80 per cent of the population (2.7 million) are Hindus. The

remaining are Muslims, Buddhists and Christians. Do Hindus and

Muslims inter-marry? "

 

"No.If a Muslim wants to marry a Hindu, the Muslim should embrace

Hinduism."

 

The Balinese---whether Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists or Christians---

are a very sweet-tempered people. They rarely show signs of

irritation. Life has been hard on them ever since international

jihadi terrorism made its appearance in Indonesia---particularly

after the terrorists started targeting the tourist resorts in Bali.

After the first Bali explosions of October,2002, more than a half of

the foreign tourists ran away---mostly Australians and Americans. It

took two years for normalcy to be restored.

 

There has again been a steep fall in tourism after the recent

explosions of October 1, 2005. The Australians and the Americans have

run away and fresh arrivals from Australia and the US have dwindled.

Europeans---particularly the French, the Italians, the Germans and

the Spanish--continue to come in large numbers despite the

explosions. But their number is not sufficient to keep the economy

moving. All tourist resorts have reduced the number of working days

for their staff from six to three days a week---halving their salary.

 

Though there are no evident signs of bitterness against the Muslims

for bringing about this hardship on the local population, there is a

growing demand for carrying out the death sentence awarded to three

of those involved in the explosions of October, 2002.Most of the

Muslims involved in the explosions seemed to be from Java, Malaysia

or elsewhere. Hence, one can detect no signs of anger against the

Balinese Muslims.

 

Hinduism had flourished both in Java and Bali, but in Java the Hindus

have greatly dwindled in numbers either due to migration to Bali or

due to their conversion to Islam. The people of Bali remain

steadfastly Hindu and maintain their pride in their religion and

culture. While there are very few Hindus still left in Java, the

Hindu cultural influence still remains strong---even in Java---but it

is slowly being diluted due to the onward march of hard Islam, which

is trying to replace the soft face of Islam in Indonesia.

 

I have visited Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia---the three countries

in South-East Asia, most strongly influenced by the Hindu religion

and culture. In Myanmar, which too I have visited, the influence is

more Buddhist than Hindu.

 

The impact of the Hindu scriptures, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata

is a common feature of all the three countries, but beyond that,

there are differences.The influence of Hindu painting and dance forms

is strong in Thailand, but not in Cambodia and Bali. The style of

temple architecture in Cambodia is more Hindu than in Thailand and

Bali, where the Buddhist style seems to have had a stronger influence

than the Hindu. The Hindu temples of Angkor Vat in Cambodia are a

glorious example of ancient Hindu temple architecture. One does not

find anything even remotely comparable in Thailand and Bali.

 

The depiction of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in plays in the

three countries has characteristic differences. While in Thailand and

Cambodia, one could see unalloyed Hindu influence, one could notice

some Chinese influence in Indonesia, including Bali.

 

The uniqueness of Bali lies in the fact that it is the only place in

the whole of South-east Asia, where the impact of the Hindu religion

and culture on the daily lives of the people remains as strong as it

was 2000 years ago, when Hinduism made its first appearance there.

 

Did the Hindus of India take their religion and culture to Indonesia?

No, they didn't. It is the ancient spice traders of these islands,

who happened to visit Southern and Eastern India, and who were so

impressed by the glories of the Hindu religion and culture and the

rule of the Hindu kings, that they created amongst the Balinese

rulers and people a desire to learn from Hinduism, emulate it and

adapt to Java and Bali the styles of governance of the Hindu rulers

of India, particularly the Pallava kings of South India.

 

Hinduism came to Bali through emulation and not through migration,

invasion or conquest. In their book on the "Peoples of Bali", Angela

Hobart, Lecturer on Anthropology at the University of London's

Goldsmiths' College, Albert Leemann, Emeritus Professor of Human

Geography at the University of Zurich, and Urs Ramseyer, Curator of

the Indonesian Department at the Museum of Ethnology in Basel,

Switzerland, write as follows: " At no time in the history of

Indonesia, including Bali, was there an Indian migration or conquest

during which military or economic colonies could have been

established. Thus, the Indianised old Balinese kingdom was never an

institution imposed from outside. In Bali, it was domestic political

needs and demands that enabled religious and political ideas from

India to take hold."

 

Between the first and the ninth century AD, the flow from India to

Bali was largely of religious and cultural influences. Starting from

around AD 882, one could see the increasing influence of Hindu

political ideas and styles of governance in shaping the political

evolution of the island.One saw Balinese rulers---sons of the soil

and not migrants or invaders from India---assuming Sanskritised Hindu

names one after the other---- Sri Kesari Wamadeva, Udayana, Sang

Ratu Ugrasena and so on.

 

This practice of assuming Sanskritised Hindu names was seen in Java

too. Udayana married a Javanese Princess by name Mahendradatta, who

after her marriage to him, assumed the title Gunapriya Dharmapatni.

 

It is said that the Balinese look upon themselves as the descendants

of Markendaya. Is it possible for a religion and culture to spread so

widely, to take such deep roots in a society and to make such an

impact on the minds of the people without a certain measure of

migration, invasion or conquest? No satisfactory answer to this

question is available.

 

A visit to a local bookshop revealed over 50 books relating to Bali--

its history, culture etc. One also noticed Balinese Hindu calendars

and panchangs and commentaries on the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and

the Kamasutra written by Balinese scholars. Many of the books on

Balinese history and culture have been written by Western scholars,

including one by an officer of the US Foreign Service posted in the

US Embassy in Jakarta for eight years. Having had very little

knowledge of the Hindu religion and culture and of Sanskrit and other

Indian languages, their writings are superficial and do not answer

many questions, which would normally come to the mind of a Hindu.

 

But, one did not find a single book or monograph written by an Indian

scholar. That is the shocking state of our interest in this region.

 

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat,

Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical

Studies, Chennai, and Distinguished Fellow, International Terrorism

Watch Programme, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), and Convenor of

its Chennai Chapter. E-mail: itschen36)