“The island of Bali indeed presents a modern paradox—an ancient, traditional society that is still incredibly alive and vital. While the basic conservatism of the Balinese has enabled them to preserve many of their past achievements, it has never hindered the acceptance of new and innovative elements whether home-grown or foreign.” Eric Oey (ed.)
The description above is what I have been wanting to explain about Bali, but often my words don’t come together very well and so I took a quote out of a really descriptive historical travel book that I found in our stay at the Amertha Bali Villas. Staying here has been a treat. Up to this point, it’s felt more like an extended camping trip. Thank you Ryan for this special timeJ I just finished a very unique conversation with a Balinese hotel attendant named Widhi, who had come to our room to help fix our television. Turned out our television was just fine. It was satellite dish complications. He began conversation with me, at first about what was on TV “Locked up abroad.” The program was about an American woman who made a deal with drug dealers in Bangladesh trying to smuggle pounds of heroin to America for $20,000 to pay off her student loans. Not a very bright idea. “We have growing problem here in Indonesia,” my new friend explained. Surprised and a little beside myself I exclaimed, “Isn’t there the death penalty for smuggling illegal substances here?” He said “yes,” but it is a growing problem because those from other countries come here and “do their thing,” and it has created more of a problem. He asked about Hawaii, if Hawaii had a huge drug problem (we had established that I was from there after commenting that I could pass for a Balinese girl), and I said “well, a while ago Hawaii did have a problem with ice, and had an ice epidemic,” which I continued to say “destroyed and destroys families.” I mentioned families as another way to sort of “connect” in an understanding of our thought processes at this moment because the value and unity of families here in Indonesia are very important. We both kind of fell in a bit of silence and I said, “I do pray though, I always pray,” and he smiled and said “Yes, I do too.” And we both bowed in agreement.
“Is Hawaii a beautiful place?” he continued. “Yes it is, very beautiful, we are very blessed there, you should come to Hawaii and visit my home.” “I could never get there…I would not be able to save enough money, here in Bali is not the same like you back home, we make 10 times less than you.” I proceeded to say that I was actually quite broke myself in Hawaii, having worked two to three jobs just to survive and growing my own food to try to limit the cost of produce, and that life in Hawaii was also very expensive…but I began to realize as I continued to listen to him that my term “broke” in Hawaii was uncomparable to what “broke” meant here in Bali to a Balinese individual. “How long it took for you to save to come here?” “Around 4 ½ years,” I answered thinking of how long it took to pay off my student loans. “See, it would take me 15-20 years to save up what you did to go to Hawaii.” I paused and felt really bad at this point. But he continued to say with a smile, “You see, it’s because of our religion, we are Hindu here in Bali and so you know what that means…” and I shook my head and actually didn’t know what that meant, “It means that we have lots of ceremonies! And so, we spend lots of money, let’s say um…$2600 USD on the ceremonies at the temples, which is a trip to Hawaii right?” I nodded my head and said, “Oh, so you spend a lot of money you save on ceremonies?” He said “yes” and that if they had less ceremonies he would be able to save. I have had many future conversations with many other Balinese individuals who did mention that ceremonies do cost a lot of money. Money goes to support their religion, which is their culture, which unifies a family, then communities. Everyone works for the continual survival of their culture, legacy, traditions even with the growing developments and influences of modernization. Somehow the past is molded into the present. I saw that today when offerings were being prepped and laden around the building at a Mcdonald’s. That was surely a sight.
My new friend continued to describe destinations that he would want to travel to. The first place he would want to visit would be Singapore or surrounding islands like Java. He said this with quite excitement, continuing to explain that he had done research on places to stay and how much it would cost. The excitement in his expression reminded me of my first visit here to Bali…kind of the unknown of what the experience would bring and the rewarding feeling as relaxation would settle in, in such an exotic place. We both agreed that the Philippines would not be a good destination to “visit.” I won’t go into any more detail than that concerning the Philippines…
We continued in conversation of the Hindu religion here in Bali. “You see, in Bali, Hindu is the main religion, we are very connected to the land and everything in it, there needs to always be a balance…we believe if no balance, then destruction will come…we pray…pray for the earth and all that is in it…we honor the sea, the mountains, our ancestors…if we don’t…there is no balance.” He proceeded to say that “we pray for the world,” and talked of Japan, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria and asked if I had felt the earth quake at 12:30 a.m. in Bali the previous night. I didn’t know there was an earthquake. He mentioned how “we believe there are many more to come…if we don’t take care of our world.” He was pointing to the understanding of the world, especially Bali as being the “land of the gods,” that if we don’t please or appease them, then everything is out of order, chaos really.
“Your understanding of this connection to the land is very similar to Hawaiian thought and religion,” I continued to explain to my new friend. “Hawaiians also have a very strong connection to the land, namely taro, which is our ancestor. We also may give offerings of food, wrapped in ti-leaf in special ceremonies that represent our honoring of the land for Hawaiian protocol and ancient chants or oli’s are performed by various practioners of the art .” In amazement, he nodded his head, smiled, and realized how similar we were. “We have to please the gods yes, but there is only one God, all other gods are just manifistations of God” he explained to me. “What is the name for God for the Balinese?” I asked. “Sangh yang widhi in Hindu, Iesus for Christians, Allah for Muslims…” he answered. “And ‘Io for Hawaiians,” I proudly explained. “Yes, you see, in the end, we’re all the same…we all believe in one Supreme being.” At this moment, so much made sense to me.
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