Sunday Temple Tour

 We began the day with a continental breakfast: sliced watermelon, sliced papaya, sliced mango (exactly 9 pieces on the plate), tea (Judy had coffee). I had a mixed fruit drink and Judy had fresh watermelon juice. Croissants, toast, and orange marmalade completed the meal. In the early morning sun it was cool in the mountains. This is the dream vista. Far away on the other hill, is a house--and terraced fields. The deep valley is filled with large trees; palm trees also. Birds were whistling. A very slight breeze. It was very pretty. "Take a picture," Judy said. I took one.

Religion is an integral part of the life of a Balinese family. And today, Wayan gave us a series of "lectures" about religion. He showed us how each village has a Village Temple where all important feasts are held and where the villagers gather to decide on political issues or settle questions of land ownership.

Karma is the key to the religion. Wayan said, "There are three kinds of karma. What you do today, you get today. What you did yesterday, you get today. What you do today, you get tomorrow." So, they plan their lives never to have bad karma, to treat everyone with good karma, to think good thoughts, to be happy with life, to be kind and thoughtful and to live a religious life. To see this in action, we visited a farm.

Wayan showed us that the house was built around a square courtyard. It was not a single house as we know it, but a compound with four dwellings inside. At the front entrance, facing South, was a large open gate. Two large statues were on either side of the opening. One was Vishnu and the other Siva. Little baskets of flowers and herbs were at the foot of each statue at about eye level. "These are offering to the good gods, but on the ground, in the dirt, there is also a basket of offerings. Why? Because everything in life is made of two things: hot/cold; up/down; good/evil. These offerings are for the bad gods that live near the ground." You  can see Wayan inside the gate. The lower statues are sort of monkey gods with red flowers behind their ears and white/yellow flowers in their hands.

Wayan explained the physical layout of the farm. "It is a square with dwellings or sheds at North, East, South and West. There is a wall around the farm (house) to protect it from evil spirits. The gate has a statue to guard the family AND there is a wall inside the outer wall to keep the evil spirits away." In fact, the front gate is completely open, but there is a wall immediately inside, so you have to walk around this wall, and that is to keep the evil outside. The Northern structure is where the family sleeps. The Eastern structure is the kitchen, with the pigpen outside. (The Buddhists eat pork, but raise beef for the Moslims, who don't eat pork). The Southern opening is the main door. And on the West is the Temple with family statues. In the center of the compound is a raised, covered, open structure where important ceremonies are carried out.

Wayan talked about these ceremonies. Of course, birth and death were first. Babies are delivered on the central location and people are cleaned up for burial on the central structure. Hindus and Buddhists are cremated, but only if they have enough money for the ritual. So, poor people bundle their dead in common graves until they all have the funds for a burial. There is also a Tooth-Filing ceremony for all Balinese. Wayan showed us his filed "eye" teeth. It is mandatory because they believe that the eye teeth, if left long and pointed, allow the evil to enter the body.

While we were visiting the farm, we were shown the family pig being fattened for future dinners.

 At the Northern end of the compound, far from the pig stall and cooking house, was the family's temple. This was not the same place as the central location where physical ceremonies took place. This was the guardian of the family, where offerings were placed and the family gods were given their prayers.

You can see the yellow and red flower blossoms at the top center of the altar and the little basket of offerings at the base. There is no other decoration, but the ground around the altar is made of clean pebbles with a border of trees. Here, the priests would come to select the names of the babies born into the family. Wayan told us that the brides would take the names of their husbands' clans and that children were named 12 days after birth. The naming system goes as follows: a priest comes after 12 days and places cards with the letters of the alphabet down in a North, East, South, West arrangement. Then, in a prayer he chooses one compass point. (Wayan said, "We don't know how he makes his choice.") The chosen letter becomes the first letter of the child's first name. The process is repeated for the second name. There are two other names for the child. The clan name of the father is given to the baby. And, each child gets a birth order number for his name. So, you can say, "I am Number Two." The final name will be the first and second names of the child and the birth order and the clan name. Where this gets complicated is when a child is born to royalty and then the laying down of the alphabet cards is a huge ceremony that lasts all day and the final name is very, very long.

  Here is the chicken "coop" in the farm. It was placed in the far corner at the intersection of North and West, at the exact opposite corner from Mr. Piggy and to the left of the shrine. The chickens are not allowed to roam freely around the compound, but the baskets are moved to different locations as needed for feeding or collecting eggs.

This is Judy standing on the Eastern wall of the compound, with Wayan behind her and Mr. Piggy on her left in his pen. The farm tour was over and we headed back to the van. As we drove, I got the crazy idea to tell Wayan and the driver the story of Bacchus and the bacchanalian rites. I told the story and with a loud deep voice, said, "I Am The King" relating how the king refused to accept the power of the god. And when the queen kills her son and shows the king his head saying, "I have killed a bear, look at the head." I said the god spoke to the king and said, "You may be the king, but I am the god." The driver and Wayan LOVED the story and the driver said, "Baba (me, I guess, Father), now I will sleep tonight with your story." It was going to be his bedtime story. All during the rest of the day (and, in fact, the next day), the driver would say in a deep voice, "I am the King." and Wayan would answer, "But I am a god." They would both laugh.

After we left the farm, we drove to visit the first temple of the tour. As we drove through a village, a band and a parade of people stopped the van. They were carrying gifts to the village temple gods. As cars, trucks and hundreds of motorbikes went by slowly, the people marched to the tinkle of bells and the beat of drums. Wayan told us that it was very important in each village to keep a vibrant temple life, to give the village good karma. Decisions about who would be the village headman or who would buy or sell land were decided in the village temple by the people.

 

 

We saw three women carrying large golden towers about one meter tall on their heads. You can see one of them in the photo. These were gold with red flowered altar pieces. They were walking along the side of the road, not minding the dust, noise or traffic. They were balancing the large object "since they were girls" Wayan told us. Wayan also explained about the roofs of the houses: "Coconut fibers last between 50-80 years, but thatch only lasts the most to 40 years."

Next, we drove to the Tanah Lot temple, one of the holiest temples in Bali. It is built on a rock, which is isolated by high tide from the land. The entrance to the grounds has a huge gate (like the one at the farm house, but, of course, immense). Once inside the temple, you walk to the edge of the cliff to see the thunderous waves (loved by surfers) and the temple itself.

 You can see the side gateways and the four steps leading into the temple grounds. These double entrances and the high and low statues allow for the two elements of life (good and evil) to enter. Since the Balinese believe that every person and ALL life contain opposites, they provide for all possibilities. The several tiers of the gate show that it is a holy place, and once inside you must deport yourself in a respectful manner.

There, off in the waves, is the temple itself. The people are standing on the wall of the viewing platform. No one is allowed to enter the temple, even at low tide.

This is the view of the rocks on the other side of the bay. The sea has eaten a lovely tunnel and the little shrine at the end of the causeway is open for worship and meditation. Surfers paddle out and ride the big waves into the beach on the left of the shrine.

Here is Judy standing behind a bench right at the edge of the cliff. She was brave to stand there. Behind her head, you can see the people at the edge of the sea, and the Temple on the Island. And, you can see the large waves coming across the Indian Ocean. This is the area where the large tsunami hit some years ago. Clear blue sky, with clouds over the horizon, calm seas, and almost no wind: the result: HOT!

We left this lovely spot and drove to the second temple. Since the roads are definitely NOT labeled, I asked the guide what people did if they rented a car. He laughed, "They get lost." We drove to Pura Taman Ayun, a lovely sanctuary surrounded by a moat. This is a very sacred place and only priests are allowed inside the gates. You can walk all around the wall and see the many temples inside, especially the multi-tiered royal temple. But, you must be "pure" before you are allowed onto the grounds.

 But once inside, you are still outside the walled temple area. The walkway to the temple goes through a garden where the people begin to move and speak quietly. We saw a group of employees of a large insurance company on an outing designed to build team spirit. They were carrying baskets with fruit on their heads to run a relay race.

These girls are participating in the relay face. They are wearing identical "company logo" tee shirts. You can see how perfectly maintained the garden is.

 This is a photo of one of the temple shrines inside the courtyard. It is completely open and the people sit under the roof to have the ceremony. Through the pillars, you can see four smaller temples, but these have five towers, which make them part of the royalty.

You can see temples with seven towers, which is from the Kings' family. The intricate carving on the temple nearest to you with the altar behind it so this to be the temple of a rich landowner.

Here is Richard leaning against the outer wall of the temple complex, looking over his shoulder alls the way to the entrance at the other end. Also, there are two offering baskets on the wall on the inside wall of the temple grounds. the courtyard consists of black lava stones carefully swept every day to keep them simple and elegant.

You have a clear view of the long central aisle. The towers on the left have 11 "roofs" which mean they were built for very important rulers of Bali. And there is a frog on the grass, a symbol of health and well-being.

Wayan asked us if we would like to visit a coffee plantation and herb farm before we made our last visit on the temple tour. And we agreed.

 This is the grandmother and granddaugther at the Tegal Sari Agro Wisata (farm) in Tabanan. The family grows several kinds of fruit trees and herbs as well as three or four kinds of coffee. They have a sampling table and they make the coffee for you. It doesn't taste like "normal" coffee because the beans are different, and some are aromatic. We bought a package of Cocoa and several carved wooden spoons and cups. And, we spent RPH 290,000 ($29). They were selling things like Lemon Grass Tea, Rad Ginger, Vanilla, Cocoa with Cinnamon, Silver Clove, Tiger Balm and Gingseng Coffee.

 This is the view from the road of the coffee farm. I think the lake is behind the last row of trees.

 Another view of the hills around the coffee farm.

The last temple visit of the day was to Lake Bratan, to tour the temple  called Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, honoring Dewi Danau, the goddess of the lake. It was getting on in the day, a bit after noon and we had spent at least two hours in the van going from the hotel to both temples. Wayan asked us if we could wait for lunch after the visit to lake and we agreed. At least it would be cooler by the water.

 The temple on the lake has 10 levels on the tower, which means that it is a very important royal temple. The weather was cool and since the sky was so cloudy, we anticipated rain, which did not occur. The lake is surrounded by the heavily forested Bali hills so the weather is unique to each area.

 In this close up you can see the little gate on the right of the temple. And the two large beasts on the right are frogs, which are considered holy guards by the Balinese.

 These smaller temples are on the land in front of the temple on the lake. The yellow and white "aprons" are always used to dress the temples or holy figures. The large gate on the left also has the yellow and white cloths to dress them.

The "happy" frog guards the point of land closest to the bank of the lake. One of the most interesting parts of the visit was the "interviews" by university students. We were approached several times by students who began by saying, "May I ask you a question?" And then it would begin: "Where are you from?" "What do you do?" "Do you like Bali?" Judy would be nabbed as she walked along ahead of me (I was already trapped by students). Or, we both would end up in a circle of questioners. Most of them spoke good English, but had had little practice. It was fun. We would tell them: "We come from Miami, in Florida." They would ask, "In America?"

 This is one of the largest groups to interview us. The four girls were bubbly and full of giggles. They are wearing the blue and white shawls of their school. The man with the head covering is their English teacher. He was very excited to have his students talk with us. And he told us, "I want to visit America. Especially to Indian Polees." We had no idea what he was talking about. I asked Judy, "What is he saying?" She didn't know. We asked him a couple of times, "What do you mean? What place?" And he would repeat, "Indian Polees." Finally, we understood that he meant Indianapolis, Indiana. But, he had placed the EmPHAsis On The Wrong SylLAble.  When I told them that I had been a theater teacher, they asked me to sing for them.  The boy said, "You must have a noble voice." I think I sang Why Did The Kids Stick Beans In Their Ears

We got the email addresses (and I wrote to them) from the teacher herlambangL@yahoo.co.id. And from the girl with the Garfield shirt: anna.yantri@gmail.com. We spent a good hour at this location and then Wayan said that we had to leave in order to get a lunch stop.

After about 20 minutes, we stopped at another "tourist" restaurant and had a good lunch. It was now about 3 in the afternoon and we headed back to the hotel. Michael had requested a real Indonesian razor and shaving cream for his collection and the driver told us that his father had a very old one at home and he would ask if he could bring it to us the next day.

We got back to the hotel quite tired and it was almost getting dark, but we walked down the side of the road to a supermarket that was 15 minutes down the hill from the hotel. I had thought it would be a tiny local supermarket, but when we walked inside, it knocked us over. It was HUGE. There were pretty girls offering candies to eat, or things to demonstrate. Aisle after aisle of home goods, foods, clothing, watches and shoes. It had everything under the sun. All we wanted was to change money in an ATM but once we saw the market, we went inside. The ATM machines were lined up outside the door like telephone booths, four or five in a row. It was cute.

We looked for shaving cream or razors for Michael, but they only had Gillettes. On the other hand, there were many pretty gift soaps, wrapped in Indonesian paper. We chose several and brought them to one of the girls who told us, "Take them to THAT counter, please." After walking around and deciding not to buy potato chips, we went to check out. The check out lady had to walk to the soap counter and get our packages. It was just plain fun. Back to the hotel as the sun was going down. In fact, in the hotel, it got dark quite early in the mountains in Bali. We had eaten a sort of big lunch and weren't hungry.

When we got back to the room, we cleaned up and since we were going early for the cooking lesson the next morning, we sat around the room reading the program notes from Asian Trails. Somewhere, hidden in all the words, there was a note that we would be "given" a dinner at the hotel, but we didn't think about it. Anyway, we went up to the dining room balcony and the waitress came over and said, "You are from Villa 103?" We said yes and she gave us a prepared menu. What???? It must be the meal we had been offered as part of the tour.

The menu said " Indonesian Set Dinner." My god, we were going to be stuffed again and all we wanted was something small. Too bad for us. The STARTERS were LUMPIA AND UDAN GARING. These are Golden Crispy Chicken and Vegetables Spring Roll with a Sweet-Sour Sauce AND Crispy Battered Tiger Prawn Tail with Orange-Sweet Chile Dipping With Atjar. The little appetizer plate was beautiful with the food placed perfectly. It was not too much. And it was delicious.

For the MAIN COURSES were IGA KAMBING PANGGANG, SATE LILIT, BABI KECAP. By this time, our mouths were watering. I think I had Bloody Mary to drink. This food is Char-grill Australian Lamb Rack with Sambal Matah,  Char-grill Spicy Balinese Minced Fish Sate, Stir-fry Pork Loin Strips in a Fresh Ginger-Soy Sauce. Served with Steamed Turmeric Yellow Rice Cake and Stir-fry Asian Vegetables. Three kinds of meat (and shrimp). Again, a perfect portion, very colorful on the plate. Of course, by this time, we were just plain enjoying the whole experience.

DESSERT was ONDE-ONCE, COKELOT DAN ES KRIM PANILA, which is Javanese Chocolate Truffle With Vanilla Ice Cream on a Chocolate Basket. That's it: we are dead before the race begins!

There was a young couple eating at the next table. We were the only ones at dinner. Of course, we spoke with them. They came from Belgium and were on their honeymoon. "We got married last Saturday." We told them we were married 50 years and they congratulated us. They were Moslims.

At the end of the night, after the full day of touring, a lunch AND a dinner, Judy hits the sack. The day is over and it is 10 o'clock. We will never stay awake until midnight.