zaterdag 6 november 2010


Ceremony in the family temple of Seta in Kutampi.

Click for the film under "links" youtube 2010#18 Ceremony in familytemple Kutampi Nusa Penida.

And for more information about the island: www.nusapenida.nl


`The ceremony starts at six´, tells Seta us when I ask him.

We are sitting on the veranda of his family house and specially his wife Madé keeps herself busy with bringing us coffee, Balinese crackers and bananas. Consuming we enjoy again the Balinese household. With our eyes we follow the going around of the chicken mothers with their babies.


Before going to the family temple, we are asked to go first to a very small temple within a house compound next door. Madé is leading Fifi carefully with an arm around her.


Maybe a 30 people, men, women, young and old are sitting almost on each others laps on the floor. In front the priest. Many laughter and giggling. Fifi becomes friends with the old lady with no teeth next to her .









At seven we get the sign to go to the temple. It is the temple on the corner of the street, when you enter the village. I was there yesterday to film the actions of the priests, busy with the preparation: the knotting of long leaves together. A performance in almost complete darkness with the necessary meditative concentration.



The sun is busy with his action to go down. Soon it gets dark.





And darkness has is it become now completely as just the light of the only one lamp falls out. The gamelan just started to play and stops. Fifi is happy she just before the falling out of the electricity found a place on one of the steps of the gate to the temple. The temple in which the many offerings are piled up in the many shrines. And where also already women found a place to sit and do their chatting. At the same time mysterious by the lack of light. And where the priest already started to do his job of reciting holy texts.





Very soon Fifi is surrounded by many women and children. Fifi does not speak Bahasa Indonesian and the people do almost no English. So the contact goes with hand and feet, as the expression goes in our country Holland. One woman makes it clear that she is asking whether Fifi has children. Fifi says yes and then they are thinking of small children. Babies. ´No, they are already big, like you and one daughter is pregnant herself.´ Some of them understand Fifi´s reaction and translate it for the others, then the sound of a big laughter goes around.



Like everywhere on Bali in temples young boys nicely dressed in their with gold hemmed sarongs are acting like small `machos`. Running around and asking for attention. Some of them offer themselves to me for taking pictures. Which offering I gratefully accept. And the girls they are just pretty ..



When after a half hour the light goes on again, the gamelan under the balé right of the gate continue their interrupted playing.

A bambu mat is being rolled out on the floor in front of the gate of the temple. Soon the priest is coming out and sists down ahead of it.

In front of him many attributes needed for the ritual are spreaded out on the mat by the mangkus. A female mangku is making fire in a corner.


A procession mainly consisting of young people with holy statues on their heads is coming down the steps of the gate. They stop in front of the priest. The the ritual starts of the blessing of the statues. A fascinating scene in the half darkness. It feels great to be here. Once again I am very touched.
















The ceremony ends in the temple itself with the ritual of praying and blessing. The temple is almost to small to accomodate a place to everyone. But with a big joy they make it possible.


One mangku is really in top form, as he blesses us and my cameras with more holy water as necessary. With a big smile he returns to his place.

When Seta brings us back to our homestay, after having soup in his house, we realise we had really a great day. First in the morning the ceremony to the sea at the Pura Penataran Ped, in the afternoon the visit of the temples in the mountains and in the evening the ceremony in the family temple.

What do simple people like us want more …?

Thank you Nusa Penida.

Hans and Fifi.