To Nyepi or....

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Not to Nyepi? this was our question as we were considering exactly when to leave Bali. We had a general plan to stay for 5-6 weeks ~ till the end of February but we didn't realize then that there were more interesting holi-days coming up in Bali that were beconing us to stay longer. Of course if you've been to Bali you know that there is some religious festivity going on somewhere almost everyday. Nyepi is an island wide yearly event of great import.

According to an Ubud tourist guide booklet Nyepi "is the first day of the Caka Year, one of the Balinese Calendar systems. Literally, Nyepi means silence. On this day, Balinese people are doing Catur Brata Penyepian or four kinds of fasting: no fire, live without fire, light, electricity etc.; no work, doing nothing; no traveling, going nowhere; and no amusement, watching television, listening to radio etc. It begins before the sun rise until the next day" on this first day of the year and is a time for self introspection. We also heard from Balinese that the silence and "fasting" from the above things fools the spirit world, or gives the impression that there is nothing going on in the human world, it is not interesting or exciting so there is no reason to hang around, so after this day they will return to the spirit world and leave the humans alone for the coming year.

The date for Nyepi changes each year according to the Caka lunar calendar and falls sometime in March or early April. It occurs around the end of the harvest season so marks the end of a harvest year and the beginning of the new one. It is not unlike our New Years Eve with much celebration and certain rituals and a quiet New Years Day with family at home. We discovered that the date for Nyepi was printed inaccurately in our Lonely Planet book as being in April 2008. In fact, the first day of the new year in Bali, the day of silence was March 7th and the exciting festivities that usher it in happen the night before.
We debated whether to stay for it. One of the things that influenced our decision was that we were also waiting for a package to arrive from the U.S. that should have made it by March 5th according to the company who sent it. They turned out not to be too experienced in international shipping as they sent the small but expensive package by their usual method which was mail. Well, it never arrived. One guy we met said he has never successfully received items in Indonesia by regular mail.

Nevertheless, we were waiting for this package, and hoping to receive it everyday (something I needed to support my wellness as we continued our journey, and had run out of). So, it became clear that we might as well stay an extra week and experience what Nyepi was all about! We had some friends who had arrived in the beginning of March in Ubud so it also enabled us to spend a little time with them in a fun, different way. We decided that it would be most fun to stay in the town of Ubud,
the cultural center of Bali for the festivity, rather than go away to an unfamiliar area like one of the southern beaches. This turned out to be a good choice. We knew we would be comfortable where we were staying at Sanias house for that day of silence which would mean for us foreigners a day of staying in and not going anywhere, not even out to eat. At Sania'a house we were given our regular breakfast and some rice and eggs later in the afternoon. We had also gathered as most people do items of our own food the day before so we could relax and celebrate in the delicious silence with all our favorite knoshings.

What's funny is that since the end of 2007 we have experienced celebrating the New Year three times now! The first at home, the second in Bali, and the third was just recently in Cambodia. Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia also celebrate the new year near the spring equinox time.

Back to Nyepi: For about a month we had been seeing first on our trips to Denpasar for the dentist and then around Ubud the construction of these giant people-like figures made of bamboo or wire and paper mache. They appeared in neighborhoods, near the streets but somewhat covered when not being worked on so they seemed very mysterious to us. I guess we hadn't read or heard anything about it. In fact, in our guide book I don't remember anything about these "Ogoh Ogoh" monsters being mentioned. At first they were just looking like giant people. As time went on we learned that Ogoh Ogoh are created as a representation of the spirit world - particularly evil spirits - which are invited down to earth at the end of the year to celebrate with the people of Bali. We also saw as time went by what an elaborate and creative endeavor this was for the groups of men and boys who made them. By the week before Nyepi these monsters were coming to life in such fantastic ways! Painted with bright colors and detailed faces and wearing special clothing. Many of them were very scary looking, very terrible! Inspiration for the creatures come from characters in traditional myths and legends but sometimes also take the form of modern characters including even people in the media, government, etc. that represent something bad or evil. One of the groups had made a Tom and Jerry set that was very impressive. Another group had made a huge, fierce and sexy looking Cat woman.

On the day before the "New Years Eve" celebration all the Ogoh Ogoh were out on display in the streets in all their glory on their bamboo frames that they would be carried on by the groups of men
the next night. All the tourists who were around were having fun taking pictures of them. We have many impressive pictures of them in daylight and also on the night of the celebration/parade when they were all displayed together on the soccer field in the center of downtown Ubud.
Unfortunatley, all of our photos are now on a disk which is apparently no good so we have none of ours to publish here (and we had some good ones too, darn). We will see if we can get some from somewhere to show you. For now you will have to use your imagination.

It was a very exciting evening thursday March 6th, the night before the new moon. Hundreds of people (at least) were gathered at dusk on the field and fireworks were being set off so it was very noisy. Foreigners, expats, and Balinese alike were all gathered and milling around the field or sitting at the edges. There is a fun picture with William sitting amidst a line of cute Balinese women.

When it was dark the Ogoh Ogoh were paraded one by one down one of the main streets of town to where there was a large junction with
another main road near the palace. People paraded along with the monsters to this central area where they were one by one displayed and moved about in a rather comical fashion by the many men or boys on every side of the bamboo frames all walking fast in unison. It was very impressive how the makers of these representations of evil swayed and turned them about! Some of the monsters were small and made by a group of young boys who carried them by themselves with their dad's orchestrating the cadre's movements in impressive coordinated effort. Some groups also had members playing instruments ~ gongs, symbols and drums, even gamelan ~ the heighten the drama.
It was like watching a strange fashion show, microphone introductions and all of each character. Tom and Jerry had a little duel.
Overall it was a great spectacle of the amazing way that Balinese are in community and how they create and work together. We could all learn from them! We have some video footage of the event also showing the crowds. (Hopefully one day soon we'll have time to figure out how to put up some of our videos)....


We had such fun that night! I personally really enjoyed being able to participate and feel like I was a part of their community. After we had enough of walking in the parade, taking movies and hearing the commentary in the plaza-street area we went with our friends for a light meal in a swanky, upscale, gourmet restaurant ~ Terrazo (I think) which had expensive but great food and a great atmosphere for sitting and schmoozing in, like in your own living room except with servants.

We went back to our room in the tower overlooking the trees and rooftops of Ubud before midnight well prepared for the next day of silence where the rule is that NO ONE gets to leave their home, compound or hotel for the entire 24 hours of March 7th. In the family compounds where tourists stayed the rules weren't quite so strict and they were able to do a bit of cooking with fire and our family quietly watched T.V. later that night.

The day of Nyepi was indeed very quiet, with no one out on the streets walking, talking or driving. And it was actually the first day that we just stayed in our compound and did hardly anything since we had been in Bali. It was blissfull to sleep in and the quiet was really something to feel and experience. Even the airport in Bali was shut down for this whole day. We were so glad that we stayed and did this and we barely spoke to a soul except each other. To top it off (these people are powerful in their group intentions!) ~ the night of the Ogoh Ogoh celebration was perfectly clear and we could see so many stars,
and the next day, the day of silence was almost a whole day of rain and lightening storms that were wonderful to just sit and watch. It couldn't have been a more perfect day to stay in or a more perfect way to start the new year.... once again!

I must say that though many of the beliefs and religious practices of the Balinese remain mostly a mystery to me I feel very comfortable with many of their ideas about spirit and the fact that they acknowledge the existence of spirits other than themselves as humans in the body. It fits with many things I have come to understand about humans, spirit, the earth planes and beyond. Bali is a fascinating place that I think we will find ourselves returning to in the future. The Balinese are very easy to get along with and very welcoming to outsiders to participate in their activities and religious/spiritual ceremonies and festivities as long as you are willing to go by their few rules (wearing a sarong, sash, and headdress for men when going to a temple function).

In this part of the world as with all the other places we have gone in the last 3 months the islands are beautiful and there are interesting places to see and explore but the real gem, the true kernal of light in the experience is always the people more than the physical place. Bali is a special island with a unique people and I would recommend anyone go there just to experience their culture and interact with them.

In our 7 weeks there we enjoyed traveling about on the motorbike we rented and we took 2 longer excursions and numerous one day excursions to other areas. But mainly we based ourselves in Ubud which worked very well for us as it felt like a home away from home and had the most high quality healthy restaurants anywhere on the island. We could have organic vegetables, salad, juices and gourmet entrees anytime and also clean simple and inexpensive fare at the many "warungs" around town (which means food shop). We went to the north and north west for almost a week and visited a less populace part of the island, and a cooler area where it is mountainous and one of the 3 volcanos are. In this area there was an incredibly beautiful double waterfall called Gitgit. Another time we went to a western beach area and chilled out for several days at the Good Karma bungalows ($10.00/night) facing the beach in the lounging couches and hammock right on our own porch.
Many times we walked to the north and west of Ubud town into the hilly rice paddies where artists lived and had their studios and we could talk to many of them as they usually spoke some english.
Overall, I would say that it is not that easy to leave Bali but we finally did!

Where we went next ~
the Philippines was quite different! For one thing mostly Catholic or fundamental Christians are in the Philippines as opposed to the Hinduism the Balinese practice. As you can imagine a very different feeling and quite a contrast in these two cultures. But that will be another blog entry or two.

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