Ubud is an area of many rivers which run from north to south. The steep and deep ravines they have cut over centuries divide the otherwise gentle slopes of the country-side. The rivers rise from the springs along the sides of the central volcanic mountains including Mount Agung - the home of the Gods -, Mount Batur, Mount Mangu and Mount Batukaru where that Rice Field Retreat is.
The junctions of several of these rivers were an auspicious sign for the early Buddhist missionaries coming from India, via Java, before the rise of Hinduism. The junction of two particularly, the river of the sacred Kris - the Pakerisan river - and the cursed river Petanu, at what was then known as Camphuan, resulted in the construction of the temple Pura Gunung Lebah and several others. Eventually Ubud became the location where the priests and their disciples lived and it developed into an historical royal seat and it still has a ‘live-in' palace today, the house of the Sukawati dynasty.
I like Ubud because I am interested in the art and the history of Bali. With not too much searching you can avoid the tourist diversions and find both in Ubud.
On this trip I wanted to introduce the girls
- to the Neka Gallery (including the works of Abdul Aziz, Rudolf Bonnet and Willem Hofker and the good quality but Oh-so-cheap prints of these early painters in Bali);
- to the rock carvings at Yeh Pelu (I think I am beyond the steps and stairways of Gunung Kawai although I know the unimaginable size of things there and the impossibility of the rock carvings would have got into the souls of the girls);
- to the mystical Moon of Pejeng and the erotic statue in the Pura Kebo Edan (the ‘Mad Buffalo' temple);
- to the Archaeological Museum;
- to the very old Buddhist temple ruins even further down the steep ravine below those of the more recent Goa Gajah (which are from the Hindu Indian influenced Majapahit era)
- and sundry other places, including Antonio Blanco's erotic Museum and Gallery.
Much of this, however, will have to wait for another time. It was becoming a holiday of waiting!
We did have dinner at Lamak one night (although I would have preferred lunch) and they were suitably surprised when they looked up at the ceilings in the toilets there and when they were served the pre-dinner cocktails also.
There are photos here on the web site.
They did get to Sukawati but the main building was closed for Galungan and they had to be content with the shopping down the little side street (which still took about 2 hours anyway);
- we did get to the Monkey Forest (I confess I detest the place but everyone should see it once, especially the shrines way down in the valley along the water course);
- and they had another hour of shopping on the way down Monkey Forest Road and another hour coming back up the other side.
There are photos here on the web site.
Mother and baby monkey sit atop one side of the ‘candi bentar' at the Pura Dalem in the Monkey Forest in Ubud.
A candi bentar is a divided gateway commonly used at temples and villages to present a threat to demons who fear that the two halves will slam shut on them if they try to enter.
A Pura Dalem is one of three temples found in every village and is the temple of the dead. Being unclean, it is always located at the point of the village furthest from holy Mount Agung.
We also strolled in and around the Palace (‘though the markets here were also closed for Galungan) and the grandies worked their magic with a group of tourists from some other Asian country or maybe only from Java -
There are photos here on the web site.
- although Made Maeve absolutely refused to face the camera;
- and we did get to go up the ‘Kintamani Highway' to a market that sells quilts and kites and carvings and all the other things that art markets handle. This one has enormous space in which they hang the quilts and the kites and spread out all the other stuff on long rows of tables so you can really see it all, (Dewa Made Astina, ‘Astina Art Market', Jl Kintamani, Tampaksiring - Ph [0361] 901 795);
There are photos here on the web site.
We also took them to the coffee and spice plantation where you can watch the coffee beans being manually processed and you can taste all of the teas and coffees they make for sale, (Buana Amertha Sari Agrowisata, Br Seribatu (Jurasan Tampaksiring - Kintamani) Bangli - Ph[0361] 784 2242). If you go there try the Canoderma and Ginseng Coffee or the Ginger and Lemongrass Tea.
Magic!
Enough of this shopping.
There are photos here on the web site.
Beans roasting and water boiling. You can't get coffee fresher than this.
It was Galungan, the ‘Christmas and New Year' of the 210 day Balinese calendar, while we were in Ubud and I don't think I would holiday at this time again. It is a time when Balinese traditionally go back to their family homes and villages, depleting the tourist industry of many workers, because of which there are many closures such as we had experienced at Sukawati.
On the positive side, however, it is a time when the Balinese like to ‘show off' a bit - although they would never admit to such an ego-centric emotion because to do so would offend the Gods. The validity of this denial is easily questioned when seeing the richness of the decorations used on the shrines and in the temples where mountains of decorated and highly coloured food are presented to please those Gods who draw off the essences of the food; the people taking home what remains to feast on with family and friends who come to visit.
The whole period of Galungan is one during which the Balinese strive to achieve balance between the opposing forces of their cosmos. The important Hindu principles of balance are between; Man and Nature, Man and his God(s) and between Man and his fellow Man,
There are photos here on the web site.
Tables laden with the best decorated food a household can produce are presented to the Gods during Galungan.
Part of the bright and beautiful appeal of Galungan to the visitor is the new dressing seen on shrines and temples everywhere. Perhaps as befits an artistic centre some of those we saw in Ubud were amongst the best we have seen anywhere and some of those more intricate decorations for sale on the roadside stalls have ended up hanging under the carport at home.
There are photos here on the web site.
There are photos here on the web site.
Roadside shrine (and mirrored detail) in Ubud.
There are photos here on the web site.
Woven bamboo and palm leaf on a shrine decorated for Galungan.
Even more publicly on display are the very decorative penjors that line the village roads, each family compound appearing to be in competition with all the others to put on the best show. A Penjor is a very tall bamboo stem, and in Bali this means VERY tall, which is tied to bend over on the thinner tip whilst green, thereby ensuring that the bend remains as the stem dries. The stem is decorated in a variety of ways, sometimes it seems that there is a village style and at other times a household style. This year they seemed to be bigger and brighter and more colourful and more intricate than I remember seeing before. All over Bali these works of art were on display but none, I think, better than those through the small village of Pejeng. Despite the similarities in the words there is no connection between the name of the village and the name of the decoration.
There are photos here on the web site.
Penjors line the street through the village of Pejeng.
The Penjor is both a religious symbol during Galungan and a decorative one at other ceremonial times. There are many stories about it but the one I like is that it is supposed to remind the Balinese of their humanity and humility at this time of the year. The straight stem represents a man (or woman) with their feet firmly planted in the earth but, no matter how rich and beautiful their lives (represented by the decorated stem) their heads humbly bow as they reach up towards their Gods.
A more common but more mundane story is that the arch of the top represents holy Mount Agung, home of the gods when they are on earth, and the straight stem represents the life-giving rivers that run down from the mountains.
During Galungan the base of the Penjor will be decorated with the essential foods of life; coconut, sweet potato, fruits and vegetables and grains. A woven bamboo ‘cage', usually in the shape of a triangle, is fixed somewhere up the stem. It is for fresh offerings and a place on which the Gods may rest if they visit, to be entertained by the ceremonies.
The hole in which the Penjor is placed always contains some ‘lucky' Chinese coins, those bronze coins that are round and have a square hole cut through the centre, somewhat like the old Australian ‘Holey Dollar' of convict times. The shape of these coins is the Chinese symbol for the earth and original ones are still occasionally found on Bali's beaches after storms. It is a symbol that the Balinese adopted centuries ago when trade with Chinese mariners was an established feature of their life.
(There are still working Chinese temples in Bali. Two that I know of are at the end of Tanjung Benoa and at the old port in Singaraja, both early ports used in the Chinese trade.) Today there are many decorative and functional items available to tourists in Bali which feature modern re-creations of this ancient coin and symbol.
I was a bit surprised when we drove through Pejeng on our day trip up the Kintamani Highway to get quilts, kites, wood carvings and any other odd things that might appear before frenetic shoppers. Pejeng was not on the route that I was expecting we would follow.
Our driver was Donald, a local who plies his trade outside the Adi Cottages where we stayed, Made not being available due to his involvement with the ceremonies at his home in Tuban. Donald introduced himself as ‘Donald Bebek', Bebek being Balinese for duck. He had a sense of humour at least, I thought. Each morning as I went for a stroll Donald was there offering his services and eventually we struck a deal for this trip up towards Kintamani.
He was a careful driver, obviously with a good knowledge of the back roads that gave us a short cut across country to the main Kintamani road. I was a bit surprised when I looked away from the towering Penjor (Is the plural Penjors, or Penji or Penjum I wonder?) and realised that we were in Pejeng, home of the Moon of Pejeng and the huge stone statue called the Giant of Pejeng, that might be of either Kebo Edan, a Minister of huge stature in one of the fabled royal courts who carved stone statues with his thumb nail, or Bima (or Bhima), a similarly huge character in the ancient Indian stories of the Mahabharata.
The Moon of Pejeng came up in the conversation of course (Well, I had to keep Wayan Declan entertained some how, didn't I?) and I related the story surrounding the origins of this remarkable bronze casting. As the story goes (and I love a good story as well as any Balinese) there was a moon that one night fell to earth and landed in the strong branches of a tall tree in the village of Pejeng. The villagers were delighted by their luck as they could now work and play all night under the dim but adequate glow of their special moon without the need to burn lamps. So they began to worship their moon, this being the time of animist religions before Buddhism or Hinduism.
A group of thieves in the locality were not so happy, however, as the light from the moon seriously curtailed their nocturnal activities all through the district. One quiet night they hatched a plan to put out the light of the Moon of Pejeng and, after drinking great quantities of rice wine, one of them climbed up into the tree above where the Moon rested. From this height he pi**ed on the moon, and pi**ed and pi**ed and pi**ed - until the light of the moon went out and it slipped from its resting place and fell to the ground. When the light went out the Moon changed into an enormous bronze kettle drum and its crash onto the rocky ground broke a large piece off the edge of the rim.
In the morning when the disaster was discovered the villagers put ropes through the handles of the drum and tried to haul it back into the tree, hoping that its light would shine again. This was not to be, however, and the Moon rests today, high once more on top of its special shrine in the temple to intrigue visitors, but alas, alight no more.
At the end of the story I turned to Donald and said, ‘Now that's the true story, isn't it Donald?'
Donald looked back at me and said, ‘I don't know. I've never heard that story before', and then added hastily, ‘But I'm not from around here'.
I don't know what Wayan Declan thinks of my story after that.
There are photos here on the web site.
Donald ‘Bebek', our driver in Ubud.
If you don't believe me you can phone him in Ubud on 081 337 250 909.
There are photos here on the web site.
A meeting in the Palace bale. Perhaps a banjar, or ‘local government' meeting?
There are photos here on the web site.
Galungan in Ubud is a time for the kids to practise their Barong moves - and collect money for something.
I'm not sure if Made Maeve is defiant or getting ready to run.