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As
with any Batinese ceremony, preparations begin days
in advance. Hundreds of offerings are prepared
and an auspicious date is selected according to
several calendars which govern life in Bati, as
well as spiritual advice.
April
1 is the date that is chosen, coinciding with purnama
or the full moon. The village already has been
a flurry of activity since Batinese New Year,'Nyepi,
some days earlier. The anniversary of a neighboring
temple, a day honoring the goddess Saraswati and
Pagar Wesi, all have kept the vittagers busy in
the past few days. But energy remains high.
The
special ceremony begins about 5 p.m. A pawang
has conducted pre-event prayers to ensure there
is no rainfatt during the ceremony despite the heavy
and extended wet season. Local villagers and those
from afar arrive in their ceremonial finery and
seat themselves in the temple courtyard. A steady
stream of priests arrives. By the end of the evening
there are more than a dozen.
The
priests busy themselves with distribution of offerings,
incense and prayers. The gathering joins in prayer
and patiently awaits anointment with holy water
by priests who wander through the throng inside
the temple watts which now numbers well over200.
The
priests have been dressing the Barong and the Rangda
in offerings. Fresh ftowers are tied into the Barong's
beard and tucked behind Rangda's and Rarung's ears.
Village women on the sidelines softly spill out
prayerful songs while the sacred artifacts are splashed
with holy water.
The
crowd sits facing the shrine dedicated to god Wisnu,
awaiting the Cokorda of Mengwi Temple, Anak Agung
Gede Agung. He will be a key player in this evening's
events. He arrives with the skilled tukang Barong,
the craftsman who will oversee the costume's refurbishment.
The priests gather around the Barong and Rangda
to remove their souls or spirits.
This
is an important and somewhat risky task. The spirits
of these artifactswhich have resided there for centuriesmust
be informed of what the next 55 day will bring.
Then they each must be encouraged to move into a
separate basket of offerings and flowers, where
they will reside until the reconstruction is complete.
These
three offerings, daksina pelinggih, will
be temporarily housed in a shrine, the ineru
turnpa_q rainbut siwi. There, they will be given
special daily offerings with rice and fruit by the
priests. If this process is not properly conducted,
the spirits may leave the artifacts and instead
enter a human being. So these are precarious moments.
One
by one the offering bundles are moved to their temporary
quarters. Hoisting a basket to his head, the priest
follows a procession to the meru, holding
on to a thick string rope and following a tall bamboo
pipe. These both serve as "roadsigns"
for the spirits, showing them the path to their
new accommodation.
One
by one the three spirits are moved. They are
welcomed to their new abode with more prayer, offerings,
incense and holy water.
After
prayers with the priests between the Barong and
the Wisnu, the Cokorda draws the temple's sacred
keris sword. The wavy-bladed keris is
cleansed in sandalwood smoke. Gentle song erupts
from the chorus section. The Cokorda approaches
the Barong and using the keris, carefully
cuts away the strings attaching the Barong's mask-face
to the rest of its body.
One
priest seated at the Barong's foot weeps and
cries out "aduh". The mask is gingerly
removed and carefully wrapped in white fabric. It
is moved to another meru where it will be
housed for the coming weeks. The priest continues
to weep as Rangda and Rarung are detached from their
bodies, one by one. Carefully wrapped in cloth,
they are placed alongside the Barong mask, followed
by the sacred keris.
By
now the weeping priest is in a full trance, stretched
supine on a bamboo mat, supported by his neighbor.
Meanwhile, another priest has crossed to another
dimension, and joins his fellow spiritual leader
in clenching vibrations which are almost simultaneously
synchronized. Two more village men fall back and
are cradled by their neighbors.
The
spirits are among the crowd. The energy in the temple
is tangible-hair raising. Silence is punctuated
only by the weeping of the first priest and the
occasional chanting of the second. The ceremony
seems over and all remains quite, but then it steps
into a higher gear.
The
four entranced men are moved to the spot between
the decapitated Barong and the Wisnu meru. It
has grown dark by now yet the rain remains at bay.
The priests encircle the entranced and bathe the
palms of the men's hands with holy water, dispensed
with a large, bright orange marigold. No one seems
concerned with the situation.
More
incense is lit and more sandalwood put on to burn.
Offerings are prepared and prayers are mumbled.
As the first entranced priest is touched with the
marigold, his hands fly into the air and remain
there, as if he were a somnambulist, but he remains
lying on the ground. He sits up and begins to sway
while his fellow entranced priest begins chanting
and laughing loudly. The other priests begin questioning
the entranced about what has gone wrong with the
ceremonial decapitation. The first entranced priest
responds with guttural, sputtering sounds like a
monkey.
The
questioning priests discern that there were no faults
with the process. The entranced one falls back on
the ground with hissing breaths, then leaps to his
feet, hissing, pointing, jumping and stomping, reaching
out to those around him. He navigates through the
seated crowd without stumbling and grabs a young
boy by the head.
Alarmed
yet trying to appear calm, the youngster remains
fixed to the floor until his neighbors encourage
him to stand. The priest shoves him toward the Barong
and then begins wandering again, similarly selecting
a dozen youths about 10 to 15 years old and pushing
them forward. These youngsters are thus designated
as the new generation of dancers, to be trained
to manipulate the Barong body during ceremony and
attend as dancers and followers.
Once
the youths are huddled in a group on the ground
and a few older, current dancers are tapped to join
the circle, the priest stops, shouts, hisses and
weeps once again. He is sweating profusely and collapses
into the waiting arms of a villager. The second
priest now becomes animated, shouting and laughing.
More offerings and incense are passed among the
gallery of priests.
One
of the two entranced villagers, who has been laughing
and muttering, is splashed on the head and face
with holy water. He seems to emerge from his strange
state. The first entranced priest asks for drinking
water but pushes it aside and grabs a clay urn of
holy water. Gulping it deeply, water spills down
his clothes and onto the ground. His minder grabs
him around the waist, lifting him off the ground
and pounding his feet on the stone floor to expel
the spirit. He seems to rejoin the conscious world.
The second villager is similarly revived with holy
water while the second entranced priest continues
to rant and chatter.
Someone
bangs on the wooden village kul kul alarm
bell. The last entranced priest rises and begins
assigning dancing positions to the young men still
seated at his feet. Still entranced and laughing,
he grabs the clay urn of holy water and gulps greedily.
Shaking, he is grabbed around the mid-section and
bounced on the ground to release the spirit. He
finally is revived.
The
evening's ceremony is concluded after 2 112 hours.
The Barong s body is shuffled away to its stable
and the villagers collect their offerings and scurry
homeward. It remains dry in Seseh, but it has rained
in nearby Canggu. The pawang did a effective
job. On the succeeding evenings, the newly selected
youths will begin their training as dancers. Prayers
and offerings will be spent. In four days, the Barong
craftsman will return to begin the task of dismembering
the Barong, Rangda and Rarung, deciding which parts
will be replaced and refurbished. Meanwhile, the
Barong rests in its stable, awaiting its new incarnation.
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