Cosmic Warning from Divine Mother? Strange Marks on Bali temples ...

[Guest guest]

Divine warning? Strange marks on Bali temples

- By Sebastien Blanc

 

www.asianage.com <www.asianage.com>

 

Banjar Panti (Indonesia), March 2: The police on the Indonesian resort

island of Bali are hard-pressed to explain the sudden proliferation of white

markings at hundreds of temples across the deeply superstitious Hindu

island. Local residents view the signs as a divine warning. The white chalk

marks - crosses, dashes or two parallel diagonal bars - began to appear

simultaneously on several temples starting on February 18 and have even

spread to the neighbouring island of Lombok, press reports said.

 

One Balinese priest, Ida Pedande Gde Mas Diatmika, pointed to two small

white crosses marking a small stone altar in his family temple compound. Yet

another sacred monument bore a smaller cross in the same white chalk. "We

think that it is a divine message, a warning," said the priest of Banjar

Panti village. His long greying hair was carefully wound in a topknot and a

dash of sandalwood powder marked his forehead.

 

Villagers, who regularly visit Diatmika's familial temple to leave offerings

in return for holy water to bless their homes and keep evil at bay, said the

marking were discovered early one morning last week. There had been a sudden

power cut and the village dogs had howled in concert the previous evening.

Similar signs have since been found in hundreds of other Hindu temples

across Bali, known as "the island of the Gods.This is something hard to

accept on the logical plane," the police spokesman Gusti Gde Suryasa said.

 

"The people see the phenomenon with a religious perspective. We are looking

at it from a judicial point of view," Mr Suryasa said. He quickly added that

suspects had yet to be found. "If the one behind all this is not human, then

that would be above the range of our duties," he said. For Diatmika, 65, the

warning must be related to the rapid changes taking place in this

predominantly Hindu Indonesian island.

 

"Everything is changing, nothing remains as it was. The weather changes too

rapidly. Nature is losing its balance," the priest said, citing global

warming, a recent series of earthquakes and a deadly tsunami that have hit

the country.

 

"Nature is unhappy," ventured Ms Ida Ayu Sri, a woman busy weaving baskets

to carry offerings. A white frangipani flower adorned her simple hairdo.

"These signs are there to tell us to be careful in our lives. They remind us

to return to the right direction," the woman, in her thirties, added.

Superstition and a strong belief in black magic are deeply ingrained in

Bali, which is 90 per cent Hindu. Islam predominates throughout most of the

Indonesian archipelago.

 

The first markings were found in two temples in Denpasar, the island's

capital, on February 18, and the police immediately launched an

investigation Mr Suryasa said. "But nowadays, these signs are everywhere.

Every hour brings new ones. Sometimes they were not there in the morning but

suddenly they are there in the evening. And always on temples," he said.

 

Witnesses have even found the inscriptions on sacred structures in places

difficult to reach without the aid of tall ladders. Others have appeared on

monuments in well-locked private family temple grounds, including that of

the Bali police chief. A temple on the grounds of provincial police

headquarters, guarded round-the-clock, was not spared. "Of course the people

are worried. Some believe a catastrophe is imminent. Others think they are

positive divine signs," Mr Suryasa said. The police laboratory testing on

samples of the white substance used in the markings showed that they were

made with raw chalk. (AFP)

 

....

 

...

 

..

 

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.