It's about karma, spirituality and monkeys – lots of monkeys

BALI’S SIREN CALL

By Alain Lajoie

Alain Lajoie is a Montrealer who taught for Cree School Board in Nothern Quebec before retiring in 2020.

Strangely enough, especially for this agnostic/atheist, the spirituality of the Balinese is one of the things that makes me love Bali. Coming from a society that compartmentalizes so many things, it is refreshing to visit a world where spirituality is part of the ecosystem, derived from it and where it reinforces the protection of natural elements.

A volcanic island in the Java Sea, Bali is eight degrees south of the equator. It is a breezy island, more comfortable than many other locations in southeast Asia. It’s volcano, Mount Agung, is an active one that erupts regularly. The island is also on the Ring of Fire and often gets stirred by earthquakes. On a personal note, few things put as much bounce in your step as being woken up by your room shaking.

Any conversation about Bali has to acknowledge that it is very dependent on tourism and the commercialism that accompanies it. However, once off the main streets, the natural Bali surfaces quickly with all its beauty. Driving around the narrow roads, you are struck by the sheer lushness of the natural vegetation.

In Ubud, every home has a shrine, where offerings are made daily.

A STOLEN HEART

Bali is one of the thousands of islands that form Indonesia. Well known for its beaches and surfbreaks, Bali also has a rich artistic and religious core. It is that core, centred by Ubud, that has stolen my heart.

Part of the Gianyar regency, Ubud is the spiritual and artistic centre of Bali. Its royal palace, locate don Jalan Raya, is the focus of Ubud. You can visitits grounds and the palace temple, as well as the other temples in Ubud, although some of them are off the beaten path. You will also find museums with Balinese art, some quite ancient and some more recent, often influenced by Dutch artists that immigrated to Bali in the 1930s. Ubud is also theepicentre of Balinese dancing and the gamelan orchestra that accompanies the dancers. Balinese dances are based on Hindu sacred texts and stories,and the many different dance troops of Ubud perform in temples in the evening. The gamelan orchestras, which are mainly made up of drums and xylophones, are heard often as they performat many ceremonies – both secular and religious. Interestingly, all instruments for the orchestras are purchased and tuned together in order to maintain a cohesive look and sound.

OVER 1,000 MACAQUES

Apart from going to visit the royal temples, thousands of tourists going for a day trip to Ubud always go visit the Sacred Monkey Forest. Occupying 12.5 hectares and populated by over 1,000 longtailed macaques, it is the perfect place to watch tourists perform stupid people tricks to amuse the monkeys. The macaques have been living with people for hundreds of years and have acclimated to the large furless apes, while staying (mainly) wild.

Karma, the performing of good deeds to facilitate your soul’s speedy reincarnation, is one of the tenets of Balinese Hinduism.

Most bad tourist-macaque interaction involves food, wrestling over a bag filled with bananas or photos –stepping backwards to take a picture of a cute baby macaque and on to its grandfather’s tail. The local keepers, armed with slingshots and acorns, are well respected by the smaller monkeys, but the tourists seem to know better.

The vast majority (83 per cent) of Balinese follow Hindu worship. Balinese Hinduism, while it follows holy texts of Hinduism, has elements of earlier animist beliefs, some ancestor worship, integrates Buddhist saints and has an iconography that is very much Balinese.

You will often see groups of Balinese working at a temple, preparing food and offerings as a community for celebrations to come, whether weddings, cremations or the celebration of religious holidays, celebrated according to one of the Balinese calendars.

A SHRINE IN EVERY HOME

In Ubud, every home has a shrine, where offeringsare made daily. The offerings – often flowers andtheir tendrils, some rice, all served in a little basketof woven reeds – are not only left at shrines andtemples, but also next to rooms in homesteads, infront of stores and on sidewalks. They are gestures ofthanks for past blessings, and for future good luck. Itis expected that they will be stepped on, or that dogsor birds may eat the rice, with no feelings hurt, asthe ephemerality of the offerings reflects that of ourlives, and the next day will bring new offerings andnew hopes.

Karma, the performing of good deeds to facilitateyour soul’s speedy reincarnation, is one of the tenetsof Balinese Hinduism. We aren’t talking about “I wasMarie Antoinette in an earlier life” reincarnation butthe reincarnation of your soul from a limbo (pleaseexcuse the cross-religious explanation) to a newbornbaby in your family – babies are considered to bereincarnated souls and are holy for the first sixweeks of life.

Be particularly kind and generous, and the firstchild born after you are cremated and your spirit isreleased may be your reincarnation; be a miserable scrooge, and your soul may be cast adrift for generations. I often wonder if it isn’t karma, and thewhole of the faith, that makes Balinese some of the kindest and most polite people I’ve ever met.

A COMPLEX FAITH

It is a very complex faith and every visit brings agreater understanding of it. As opposed to being the responsibility of ashrams in India, Balinese Hindus’ religious education is done within the family and the community and all are expected to participate in the preparation of community religious rites.

One of the last rites, after your death, is the cremation that liberates your soul. It is an expensive ceremony; priests are hired, the body (which may have been buried while waiting for the ceremony) is placed in a sarcophagus, often in the shape of an animal, paraded through the community, being borne by a team of men, from the temple to the location of the open-air cremation. The sarcophagus bearers turn around a few times as they proceed, because it is well known that demons can only follow straight paths.

Given the complexities, only the richest or royal families can afford the rites surrounding a cremation. For average people, the community will come together and share resources by holding many cremations at the same time.

Faith is central to Balinese life, from the offerings on the doorstep to the massive parades of the cremation ceremony. A prompt reincarnation is based on your good deeds, especially those done for strangers, and some of those deeds must involve protecting nature and the living things within it. Bali is a land where the spackle of civilization cannot hide the natural beauty, generosity and grace of its people.

So why Bali? It’s the spirituality for sure. Also, I really like monkeys.