10-25-2005, 06:19 AM
MY BALI DIARY
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Â Â Â Â MY BALI DIARY
    by B.Raman
    âI am a Brahmana married to a Shatriya," said the girl at a foreign exchange shop in Denpasar, the capital of Bali. "And you?"
    'I am also a Brahmin, " I replied, "but not married".
    "How old are you?" she asked.
    "69".
    "Why have you not married?â
    "Just like that"
    "So, you are a Brahmacharya? Are there many Brahmacharyas in India ?"
    "Yes, there are many. And in Bali?"
    "Not many. People get married once they have a steady job."
    âAre there many divorces? Do men and women quarrel? Do men beat up their wives?"
    "Rarely. We are not like that."
    "What is your name?"
    "Neuman Kalawati."
    "Kalawati is a Hindu name. But,why Neuman? It is Christian."
    "No.No. It is not. Neuman means third. I am the third child of my
    parents. Often, Balinese Hindu names have a number. It indicates which
    child of their parents they are."
    "How much you earn?"
    "Rupiah 500,000 per month." (One US dollar equal to 9,800 Rupiahs)
    "And your husband?"
    "Rupiah one million."
    "Rupiah 1.5 million per month. Is that good money in Bali?"
    "We manage to survive, but that is not good money. One-fourth of it
    goes for milk for our three kids. One-fourth for house rent.
    One-fourth for the Brahmana priests and offerings to God. Only
    one-fourth remains for other purposes."
    âHave you ever travelled?"
    "Never."
    "Not even to Java?"
    "No. Where is the money?"
    "Are you a happy woman? A happy wife? A happy mother?"
    "Of course, I am. Do I look unhappy?"
    "No. You don't. Your face looks somewhat different from the face of
    other Balinese women I have met."
    "Oh, really! Probably because I am a Brahmana."
    "Do you know India?"
    "Yes, I do."
   "You know Sonia Gandhi? Manmohan Singh? Atal Behari Vajpayee? Shah
    Rukh Khan?Aiswarya Rai?"
    "I know Vajpayee. He came to Bali. Also Shah Rukh Khan and Aiswarya
    Rai, but not others. Who are they?"
    "They are Indian political leaders. Which other Indian you know and like best?"
    "Satya Sai Baba."
    "You have met him? Has he come to Bali?"
    "No. But sometimes our TV shows him. And his prayer meetings. When he is on TV, the whole of Bali watches.
    "You know Shankaracharya?"
    "No"
    "You know the RSS, the VHP, the Hindutva people?"
    "No"
    "Yesterday ( October 19,2005), I saw a long procession. Nearly 50 well-dressed women walked in front of what seemed a small chariot carrying religious offerings on their head. There appeared to be a dead body covered with a white cloth in the chariot. Nearly a hundred men and women walked behind, but without any offerings on their head. Seemed like a funeral procession."
    "Yes, it was."
    "Appeared to be an important person. When did he die?"
    "Three years ago."
    "Three years ago? Why are they cremating him now?"
    "Lot of money is required for cremation. We have to pay the priests. Make religious offerings. Invite all relatives and friends. When a person suddenly dies, his relatives do not have enough money. They bury the body in a simple ceremony, save enough money and then take out the remains and cremate them. Without cremation, they will not be reborn or go to heaven."
    "Do you eat beef?"
    "No. We don't. We eat all kinds of meat, but not beef."
    "Is it only the Brahmanas who don't eat beef or everyone?"
    "Everyone."
    "But, in India, we think the Balinese Hindus eat beef."
    "Wrong. We don't."
    âAbout 80 per cent of the population (2.7 million) are Hindus. The remaining are Muslims, Buddhists and Christians. Do Hindus and Muslims inter-marry? "
    "No.If a Muslim wants to marry a Hindu, the Muslim should embrace Hinduism."
    The Balinese---whether Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists or Christians--- are a very sweet-tempered people. They rarely show signs of irritation. Life has been hard on them ever since international jihadi terrorism made its appearance in Indonesia---particularly after the terrorists started targeting the tourist resorts in Bali. After the first Bali explosions of October,2002, more than a half of the foreign tourists ran away---mostly Australians and Americans. It took two years for normalcy to be restored.
    There has again been a steep fall in tourism after the recent explosions of October 1, 2005. The Australians and the Americans have run away and fresh arrivals from Australia and the US have dwindled. Europeans---particularly the French, the Italians, the Germans and the Spanish--continue to come in large numbers despite the explosions. But their number is not sufficient to keep the economy moving. All tourist resorts have reduced the number of working days for their staff from six to three days a week---halving their salary.
    Though there are no evident signs of bitterness against the Muslims for bringing about this hardship on the local population, there is a growing demand for carrying out the death sentence awarded to three of those involved in the explosions of October, 2002.Most of the Muslims involved in the explosions seemed to be from Java, Malaysia or elsewhere. Hence, one can detect no signs of anger against the  Balinese Muslims.
    Hinduism had flourished both in Java and Bali, but in Java the Hindus have greatly dwindled in numbers either due to migration to Bali or due to their conversion to Islam. The people of Bali remain steadfastly Hindu and maintain their pride in their religion and culture. While there are very few Hindus still left in Java, the Hindu cultural influence still remains strong---even in Java---but it is slowly being diluted due to the onward march of hard Islam, which is trying to replace the soft face of Islam in Indonesia.
    I have visited Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia---the three countries in South-East Asia, most strongly influenced by the Hindu religion and culture. In Myanmar, which too I have visited, the influence is more Buddhist than Hindu.
    The impact of the Hindu scriptures, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata is a common feature of all the three countries, but beyond that, there are differences.The influence of Hindu painting and dance forms is strong in Thailand, but not in Cambodia and Bali. The style of temple architecture in Cambodia is more Hindu than in Thailand and Bali, where the Buddhist style seems to have had a stronger influence than the Hindu. The Hindu temples of Angkor Vat in Cambodia are a glorious example of ancient Hindu temple architecture. One does not find anything even remotely comparable in Thailand and Bali.
    The depiction of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in plays in the three countries has characteristic differences. While in Thailand and Cambodia, one could see unalloyed Hindu influence, one could notice some Chinese influence in Indonesia, including Bali.
    The uniqueness of Bali lies in the fact that it is the only place in the whole of South-east Asia, where the impact of the Hindu religion and culture on the daily lives of the people remains as strong as it was 2000 years ago, when Hinduism made its first appearance there.
    Did the Hindus of India take their religion and culture to Indonesia? No, they didn't. It is the ancient spice traders of these islands, who happened to visit Southern and Eastern India, and who were so impressed by the glories of the Hindu religion and culture and the rule of the Hindu kings, that they created amongst the Balinese rulers and people a desire to learn from Hinduism, emulate it and adapt to Java and Bali the styles of governance of the Hindu rulers of India, particularly the Pallava kings of South India.
    Hinduism came to Bali through emulation and not through migration, invasion or conquest. In their book on the "Peoples of Bali", Angela Hobart, Lecturer on Anthropology at the University of London's Goldsmiths' College, Albert Leemann, Emeritus Professor of Human Geography at the University of Zurich, and Urs Ramseyer, Curator of the Indonesian Department at the Museum of Ethnology in Basel, Switzerland, write as follows: " At no time in the history of Indonesia, including Bali, was there an Indian migration or conquest during which military or economic colonies could have been established. Thus, the Indianised old Balinese kingdom was never an institution imposed from outside. In Bali, it was domestic political needs and demands that enabled religious and political ideas from India to take hold."
    Between the first and the ninth century AD, the flow from India to Bali was largely of religious and cultural influences. Starting from around AD 882, one could see the increasing influence of Hindu political ideas and styles of governance in shaping the political evolution of the island.One saw Balinese rulers---sons of the soil and not migrants or invaders from India---assuming Sanskritised Hindu names one after the other---- Sri Kesari Wamadeva, Udayana, Sang Ratu Ugrasena and so on.
    This practice of assuming Sanskritised Hindu names was seen in Java too. Udayana married a Javanese Princess by name Mahendradatta, who after her marriage to him, assumed the title Gunapriya Dharmapatni.
    It is said that the Balinese look upon themselves as the descendants of Markendaya. Is it possible for a religion and culture to spread so widely, to take such deep roots in a society and to make such an impact on the minds of the people without a certain measure of migration, invasion or conquest? No satisfactory answer to this question is available.
    A visit to a local bookshop revealed over 50 books relating to Bali--its history, culture etc. One also noticed Balinese Hindu calendars and panchangs and commentaries on the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Kamasutra written by Balinese scholars. Many of the books on Balinese history and culture have been written by Western scholars, including one by an officer of the US Foreign Service posted in the US Embassy in Jakarta for eight years. Having had very little knowledge of the Hindu religion and culture and of Sanskrit and other Indian languages, their writings are superficial and do not answer many questions, which would normally come to the mind of a Hindu.
    But, one did not find a single book or monograph written by an Indian scholar. That is the shocking state of our interest in this region.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Â Â Â Â MY BALI DIARY
    by B.Raman
    âI am a Brahmana married to a Shatriya," said the girl at a foreign exchange shop in Denpasar, the capital of Bali. "And you?"
    'I am also a Brahmin, " I replied, "but not married".
    "How old are you?" she asked.
    "69".
    "Why have you not married?â
    "Just like that"
    "So, you are a Brahmacharya? Are there many Brahmacharyas in India ?"
    "Yes, there are many. And in Bali?"
    "Not many. People get married once they have a steady job."
    âAre there many divorces? Do men and women quarrel? Do men beat up their wives?"
    "Rarely. We are not like that."
    "What is your name?"
    "Neuman Kalawati."
    "Kalawati is a Hindu name. But,why Neuman? It is Christian."
    "No.No. It is not. Neuman means third. I am the third child of my
    parents. Often, Balinese Hindu names have a number. It indicates which
    child of their parents they are."
    "How much you earn?"
    "Rupiah 500,000 per month." (One US dollar equal to 9,800 Rupiahs)
    "And your husband?"
    "Rupiah one million."
    "Rupiah 1.5 million per month. Is that good money in Bali?"
    "We manage to survive, but that is not good money. One-fourth of it
    goes for milk for our three kids. One-fourth for house rent.
    One-fourth for the Brahmana priests and offerings to God. Only
    one-fourth remains for other purposes."
    âHave you ever travelled?"
    "Never."
    "Not even to Java?"
    "No. Where is the money?"
    "Are you a happy woman? A happy wife? A happy mother?"
    "Of course, I am. Do I look unhappy?"
    "No. You don't. Your face looks somewhat different from the face of
    other Balinese women I have met."
    "Oh, really! Probably because I am a Brahmana."
    "Do you know India?"
    "Yes, I do."
   "You know Sonia Gandhi? Manmohan Singh? Atal Behari Vajpayee? Shah
    Rukh Khan?Aiswarya Rai?"
    "I know Vajpayee. He came to Bali. Also Shah Rukh Khan and Aiswarya
    Rai, but not others. Who are they?"
    "They are Indian political leaders. Which other Indian you know and like best?"
    "Satya Sai Baba."
    "You have met him? Has he come to Bali?"
    "No. But sometimes our TV shows him. And his prayer meetings. When he is on TV, the whole of Bali watches.
    "You know Shankaracharya?"
    "No"
    "You know the RSS, the VHP, the Hindutva people?"
    "No"
    "Yesterday ( October 19,2005), I saw a long procession. Nearly 50 well-dressed women walked in front of what seemed a small chariot carrying religious offerings on their head. There appeared to be a dead body covered with a white cloth in the chariot. Nearly a hundred men and women walked behind, but without any offerings on their head. Seemed like a funeral procession."
    "Yes, it was."
    "Appeared to be an important person. When did he die?"
    "Three years ago."
    "Three years ago? Why are they cremating him now?"
    "Lot of money is required for cremation. We have to pay the priests. Make religious offerings. Invite all relatives and friends. When a person suddenly dies, his relatives do not have enough money. They bury the body in a simple ceremony, save enough money and then take out the remains and cremate them. Without cremation, they will not be reborn or go to heaven."
    "Do you eat beef?"
    "No. We don't. We eat all kinds of meat, but not beef."
    "Is it only the Brahmanas who don't eat beef or everyone?"
    "Everyone."
    "But, in India, we think the Balinese Hindus eat beef."
    "Wrong. We don't."
    âAbout 80 per cent of the population (2.7 million) are Hindus. The remaining are Muslims, Buddhists and Christians. Do Hindus and Muslims inter-marry? "
    "No.If a Muslim wants to marry a Hindu, the Muslim should embrace Hinduism."
    The Balinese---whether Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists or Christians--- are a very sweet-tempered people. They rarely show signs of irritation. Life has been hard on them ever since international jihadi terrorism made its appearance in Indonesia---particularly after the terrorists started targeting the tourist resorts in Bali. After the first Bali explosions of October,2002, more than a half of the foreign tourists ran away---mostly Australians and Americans. It took two years for normalcy to be restored.
    There has again been a steep fall in tourism after the recent explosions of October 1, 2005. The Australians and the Americans have run away and fresh arrivals from Australia and the US have dwindled. Europeans---particularly the French, the Italians, the Germans and the Spanish--continue to come in large numbers despite the explosions. But their number is not sufficient to keep the economy moving. All tourist resorts have reduced the number of working days for their staff from six to three days a week---halving their salary.
    Though there are no evident signs of bitterness against the Muslims for bringing about this hardship on the local population, there is a growing demand for carrying out the death sentence awarded to three of those involved in the explosions of October, 2002.Most of the Muslims involved in the explosions seemed to be from Java, Malaysia or elsewhere. Hence, one can detect no signs of anger against the  Balinese Muslims.
    Hinduism had flourished both in Java and Bali, but in Java the Hindus have greatly dwindled in numbers either due to migration to Bali or due to their conversion to Islam. The people of Bali remain steadfastly Hindu and maintain their pride in their religion and culture. While there are very few Hindus still left in Java, the Hindu cultural influence still remains strong---even in Java---but it is slowly being diluted due to the onward march of hard Islam, which is trying to replace the soft face of Islam in Indonesia.
    I have visited Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia---the three countries in South-East Asia, most strongly influenced by the Hindu religion and culture. In Myanmar, which too I have visited, the influence is more Buddhist than Hindu.
    The impact of the Hindu scriptures, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata is a common feature of all the three countries, but beyond that, there are differences.The influence of Hindu painting and dance forms is strong in Thailand, but not in Cambodia and Bali. The style of temple architecture in Cambodia is more Hindu than in Thailand and Bali, where the Buddhist style seems to have had a stronger influence than the Hindu. The Hindu temples of Angkor Vat in Cambodia are a glorious example of ancient Hindu temple architecture. One does not find anything even remotely comparable in Thailand and Bali.
    The depiction of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in plays in the three countries has characteristic differences. While in Thailand and Cambodia, one could see unalloyed Hindu influence, one could notice some Chinese influence in Indonesia, including Bali.
    The uniqueness of Bali lies in the fact that it is the only place in the whole of South-east Asia, where the impact of the Hindu religion and culture on the daily lives of the people remains as strong as it was 2000 years ago, when Hinduism made its first appearance there.
    Did the Hindus of India take their religion and culture to Indonesia? No, they didn't. It is the ancient spice traders of these islands, who happened to visit Southern and Eastern India, and who were so impressed by the glories of the Hindu religion and culture and the rule of the Hindu kings, that they created amongst the Balinese rulers and people a desire to learn from Hinduism, emulate it and adapt to Java and Bali the styles of governance of the Hindu rulers of India, particularly the Pallava kings of South India.
    Hinduism came to Bali through emulation and not through migration, invasion or conquest. In their book on the "Peoples of Bali", Angela Hobart, Lecturer on Anthropology at the University of London's Goldsmiths' College, Albert Leemann, Emeritus Professor of Human Geography at the University of Zurich, and Urs Ramseyer, Curator of the Indonesian Department at the Museum of Ethnology in Basel, Switzerland, write as follows: " At no time in the history of Indonesia, including Bali, was there an Indian migration or conquest during which military or economic colonies could have been established. Thus, the Indianised old Balinese kingdom was never an institution imposed from outside. In Bali, it was domestic political needs and demands that enabled religious and political ideas from India to take hold."
    Between the first and the ninth century AD, the flow from India to Bali was largely of religious and cultural influences. Starting from around AD 882, one could see the increasing influence of Hindu political ideas and styles of governance in shaping the political evolution of the island.One saw Balinese rulers---sons of the soil and not migrants or invaders from India---assuming Sanskritised Hindu names one after the other---- Sri Kesari Wamadeva, Udayana, Sang Ratu Ugrasena and so on.
    This practice of assuming Sanskritised Hindu names was seen in Java too. Udayana married a Javanese Princess by name Mahendradatta, who after her marriage to him, assumed the title Gunapriya Dharmapatni.
    It is said that the Balinese look upon themselves as the descendants of Markendaya. Is it possible for a religion and culture to spread so widely, to take such deep roots in a society and to make such an impact on the minds of the people without a certain measure of migration, invasion or conquest? No satisfactory answer to this question is available.
    A visit to a local bookshop revealed over 50 books relating to Bali--its history, culture etc. One also noticed Balinese Hindu calendars and panchangs and commentaries on the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Kamasutra written by Balinese scholars. Many of the books on Balinese history and culture have been written by Western scholars, including one by an officer of the US Foreign Service posted in the US Embassy in Jakarta for eight years. Having had very little knowledge of the Hindu religion and culture and of Sanskrit and other Indian languages, their writings are superficial and do not answer many questions, which would normally come to the mind of a Hindu.
    But, one did not find a single book or monograph written by an Indian scholar. That is the shocking state of our interest in this region.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->