Dewa Putu, who helps around the villa, lives in our village of Silungan, just around the corner from our villa. His father is the pemanku, or priest's assistant, at the local temple.
Every three years, a large, four-day ceremony is held in the Dalem temple in Silungan. Each village has three temples: a temple for the founders of the village, a temple for the spirits that protect the village, and the Dalem temple, the temple of the dead, next to the cemetery. Siwa, the destroyer, and Durga, the witch queen, the dark and terrible side of Siwa's wife, Pavarti, are worshipped in the Dalem temple.
There are two kinds of priests in Bali. Some are priests of Wisnu, the protector, and some are priests of Siwa, the destroyer. Dewa Putu's father is a priest of Siwa.
From a Judeo-Christian perspective, if one were to choose a god to worship, one would choose Wisnu. But in Bali the vast majority of priests worship Siwa. To a Westerner this sounds like devil-worshipping. But that is not how it is practiced in Bali.
My sense is that in Balinese Hinduism you don't try to emulate the gods, you try to placate them. And what god needs placating more than Siwa, the god of death and destruction? So if you want to be happy and avoid tragedy, you need to make sure that you make all the offerings and honors to Siwa that he is due.
I gave Dewa Putu our camera and asked him to take pictures from the first day of the ceremony. The entire village brought offerings to the temple. The village formed a procession down to the river to make offerings before returning to the temple. In the evening there were more prayers, a shadow puppet play and traditional dances.
Here are his pictures:
Freshly decorated in white and yellow, the colors of holiness
elaborate offerings brought by the village women
a well-dressed pig
Dewa Putu's father, the pemanku, in the middle
outside the temple
the procession begins
heading to the river
heading down to the river
returning from the river
a couple of Barong, dragon costumes
the shadow puppeteer
short video from inside the temple during the ceremony
Dewa Putu and his son
his hungry son back home after the ceremony
with their offering. after the offering is made and its 'essence' tasted by the gods, it can be brought back and eaten
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