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Balinese Religion
Balinese Hinduism:
A Unique Blend of Tradition, Philosophy and Ritual
Although the nation
of Indonesia as a whole is predominantly Muslim, Bali is,
according to official censuses, over 90% Hindu. Yet the
Hinduism practiced in Bali has its own local color, shaded
by the circuitous route the religion took on its path from
India, and by the ancient traditions of the Balinese
themselves. Over a thousand years ago, the inhabitants of
Bali followed religious practices that involved the worship
of ancestors believed to be divine, respect for the natural
environment and the invisible spirits that inhabited it, and
devotion to the goddess of rice who blessed the island with
the bounty of the harvest. But beginning some time around
the eight century, traders from other parts of Asia and
migrants from the Indianized kingdoms of Java began
introducing the Balinese to the philosophical traditions and
religious practices of Buddhism and Hinduism. Today’s
Balinese religion reflects this variety of influences,
forming a complex system of belief and devotion found
nowhere else on earth.
Classical Hinduism as it is
practiced by the educated classes is based upon the five
principles, or Panca Crada. The first is the existence of
God, the supreme being who is responsible for ordering the
universe and balancing the forces of good and evil. In Bali,
this God is called Sanghyang Widi Wasa. Although this God is
one, he exists in the world in many manifestations, as Dewi
Sri, the goddess of rice, as Dewa Baruna, the god of the
sea, as Dewi Ratih, the goddess of beauty, or as the Hindu
trinity of divine forces: Brahman the Creator, Wishnu the
Preserver and Siwa the Destroyer. The second principle is
the existence of the atman, or the eternal spirit
which occupies each human body. It is this spirit, not the
temporary flesh, that is considered the true marker of
humanity, and it is to purifying and strengthening this
spirit that Balinese Hinduism’s many rituals are directed.
The third principle is samsara, or the wheel of
rebirth, which holds that the earth’s creatures, upon
death, will be reincarnated again and again until they
succeed in achieving the ultimate enlightenment or moksa,
and escaping from the sufferings of the world. The fourth
principle is karma pala, or the belief that one’s
actions, good or bad, have substance in the world and will
have results in this life or the next. Thus suffering or
special fortune may be explained by reference to actions
someone performed in a previous life, although they may have
no memory of such events. And the final principle is moksa,
the possibility of reaching enlightenment and complete union
with God for those who can free themselves of desires and
attachment to the world. These five principles are the
philosophical bases of Hinduism. Many Balinese are familiar
with them, although the majority of Balinese are more
interested in the practical side of their faith: which
ceremonies must be held for which occasions, what offerings
must be prepared to please the gods and ancestors, and how
to keep the demons of the unseen world from bringing illness
and misfortune to one’s family. While they believe in
these five principles, the religious orientation of most
Balinese is fundamentally a practical one, rather than a
philosophical one.
Although today a few Balinese
have journeyed to India, bringing back a “purer” form of
Hinduism to their island home, for the most part, Balinese
Hinduism is rather different from that practiced in India.
In India, the caste system, while formally illegal, still
functions to determine hereditary occupations and to order
social relations. In India, “untouchables” are still
shunned, and a complex division of status prescribes who may
accept food or holy water from whom. In Bali, caste is much
simpler. There are no untouchables, and ninety percent of
the population belongs to the Sudra caste. Sudras are
identified in Bali by the prefix “I” for males or “Ni”
for females before their names. The other ten percent of
Bali’s people belong to the group known as the “Triwangsa”
or the “three peoples” of the elite castes: Brahmana,
Ksatria and Wesia. The Brahmana, known in Bali as Ida Bagus
if they are male or Ida Ayu or Dayu if they are female, are
the priestly caste, whose traditional function was to care
for the sacred knowledge inscribed in holy palm leaf lontar
books and to carry out rituals. Only Brahmana may become
high priests, and they receive special treatment from
society when it comes time for their cremation ceremonies.
The Ksatria caste are the descendants of the traditional
kings who ruled Bali. Their names differ depending on the
area of Bali, but their traditional titles include Cokorda,
Anak Agung, Dewa or I Gusti. The Wesya class are the
traditional merchants and bureaucrats who served the former
royal families, known as Gusti. Although caste is certainly
less important in Bali today than it was in the past, you
will still find people of the lower castes using refined
forms of language to address the upper castes, and older
people who still believe that their daughters should not
marry someone of lesser status. And when it comes to ritual,
Brahmanas and Ksatrias are still expected to hold more
elaborate and expensive ceremonies than others, no matter if
they can afford it or not.
Other differences between
classical Hinduism and Balinese Hinduism also exist. Like
Indian Hindus, the Balinese believe in the reincarnation of
the soul. But in Bali, with its strong cultural emphasis on
family, the deceased are usually reincarnated within their
own families, and it is common for parents to visit a
psychic to find out which of their departed relatives has
returned to walk the earth in the body of their child. And
in India, Hinduism has an ascetic character that is rarely
found in Bali. In Bali, priests do not remove themselves
from worldy affairs, but instead marry and raise families.
In Bali, widows may remarry and wives of priests may even
become priests themselves after their husband’s deaths.
Worship in Bali is also much more communal than it is in
India, centering not just around household rituals but
taking place in public temples with large groups of people.
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