Bali and Hinduism

Unlike the rest of Indonesia where the predominant religion is Islam, over 90% of Balinese are Hindus, although very particular practice a form of Hinduism called "Hindu Balinese" which blends a belief in gods and Hindu doctrines next animistic beliefs and worship of Buddhist saints.

Bali is a giant of Hindu mythology who, having been defeated by Vishnu, acknowledged him as supreme god.Bali threatened to destroy the gods and tried to proclaim himself ruler of the world.
Given this threat, Vishnu took the form of a Brahmin dwarf named Vamana-avatar, and asked the giant all land that could cover with his three steps, at which agreed Bali.

Thus, Vishnu suddenly becoming a colossal size, covered the earth with only one of its steps, in another step covered the distance between earth and sky. With the third and last of his steps would arrive at twenty hell and was at the time when Bali was recognized as the supreme God and worshiped him.Vishnu let him be ruler of the subterranean regions of hell or "kingdom of potatoes."In Hindu mythology, Bali represents the evil spirit cast into the abyss by Vishnu comes to earth once a year to exercise their evil power over men.

Until the fifteenth century, the Hindu kingdom of Majapahit ruled the territories of Southeast Asia, even to Madagascar. They maintained trade relations with Cambodia. The Hindu Kingdom was, in economic terms, very prosperous. The great known Gajahmada was then Prime Minister of the Kingdom.Hinduism quickly spread to the lands of the Kingdom, including Bali.

The Balinese Hinduism practiced thus continuing their traditions and culture. It is for this reason that Balinese Hinduism is not exactly the same as Hinduism in India despite the religion comes from this country. In Bali is called The Agama Hindu Dharma (meaning literally, Hinduism Dharma, universal law governing the order of beings and things) which means in fact a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism. Mahayanna rudiments of Buddhism came to Japan, China and Korea.

Traditional Balinese Children Song

Back in a childhood days, my friends and I used to play traditional Balinese children game called “meong-meongan” or “the cat” game. It is a simple game, derived from the well known theme of a cat chasing a mouse. But this time I will not talk about the game but the song that accompanied this game. The game is accompanied by a simple a joyful traditional Balinese children song entitled “meong-meong” (free translation into English: “cat, oh cat”)

The song runs as follow:

Meong-meong alih je bikule (cat, oh cat, please catch the mice)
Bikul gede-gede buin mokoh-mokoh (the mice are big and fat)
Kereng pesan ngerusuhin (always making troubles)
Juk meng, juk kul, juk meng, juk kul (catch the cat, catch the mice, catch the cat, catch the mice)
Dije nengeng ditu nengkul (where the eyes open widely, there crouching)

Nglawang at Bali Art Festival

Art Center bali was filled with visitors. Men-women, young-old, and native-foreigners seemed never want to blink their eyes as if they did not want to miss a thing from this show. They were hypnotized. Wherever the show went then those people would follow it as if they were the part of this show.

Bali Art Festival does not just present Balinese handmade goods or Balinese culinary heritage but also performances that begin to be neglected. One of them is Nglawang. This show had been presented twice to re-popularize it to the people, especially to the Balinese children.

Nglawang actually is a Balinese tradition aiming to ward a village from disasters. This tradition is similar to Pangrebongan which is held in Kesiman village (see the article). Nglawang is usually held after Kuningan day in several villages in Bali but it becomes rare ritual to be held in the town nowadays.

Nglawang derives from word ‘lawang’ meaning door. Nglawang means showing sanctified tapakan (similar to statue made from metal or wood which is usually glorify and kept in one village) barong, from one door to another, from one house to another and from one village to another.

Nglawang nowadays develops to another function. This tradition changes to be a part of art show. Groups of people exhibit their unsacred barong, rangda, etc and demonstrate a procession of Nglawang to entertain the visitors.

This kind of performance was also conducted at Bali Art Festival XXX on June 28th by representatives from 5 regions in Bali. Every representative brought its barong, rangda, monkey costume and gamelan. Moreover their performances were accompanied by Pemangku (Balinese priest who officiate the traditional ceremonies).

Late in the afternoon, Representative from Jembrana, Karangasem, and Badung has ended their performance. Then representative from Bangli’s turn to conduct the core of this show in front yard of Ardha Candra. In the meantime, column of people from Tabanan began to walk around the Art Center. On the very back column, people who played gamelan followed. And that gamelan player was preceded by people who wore very scary barong, Rangda, and monkey costume who dance while walking as part of parade. In front of them there were six little girls who wore mask waving a very big ‘handkerchief’. The two men with red ceremonial umbrella walked after them And Pemangku guided them all in front.

Many children got close to Rangda or Barong and then took a photo together. Children were not afraid with Barong and Rangda because they caressed the children instead of frightened them. But, do not try this if you are in the real nglawang.

Next, they started entering the front yard of Ardha Candra where the core of nglawang took place. Many people happened to be there, waiting the last performance from Tabanan, although they had watched nglawang performance from other regions.

People who played gamelan and two men brought the umbrella parted from the column. The little girls started to dance. After that Rangda also began to dance and the musical accompaniment was beaten more andmore energetic. Barong entered the arena to fight Rangda. It made many more people came to stand around Barong and Rangda.

When Barong was fighting with rangda, a group of men entered the arena and stabbed their self with Keris while screaming as if they all were in trance. The actors were very good because that performance looked like reality. Some children became emotional moreover. “Oh no, that man near the tree is still in trance,” and another child screamed cheering Barong. “Come on Barong!! Those Rangda must be defeated,” A boy run to his parent and tell them what he already watched. Well, all people there were entertained and children got something new from those performance. Wishing that they can share their experience to their friends and this tradition will be known widely once again.

Barong succeeds to defeat Rangda. And the musical accompaniment stopped then, signing that performance ended. People gave their loud applause, thank to outstanding performance which had given.

Bali Supermarket Favorite

Bintang Supermarket is one favorite places for tourist, expats, and locals to buy their daily stuff.

Address
Bintang Supermarket
Raya Seminyak St.
Seminyak Village, Kuta
Badung District 80361
Tel +62-361-730552

Around the supermarket is as busy as inside the store, Raja Restaurant and Seminyak Cafe is on the same area. A small post office, Phone Shop, CD’s store for PC’s program and games are in the same building.

Other favorite is Bali Deli where many expats buy food, drinks, and bakery with an inside bakery coffee shop. They sell wine, sauces, and beers.

Bali Deli located near to The Villas and Prana Spa.

Address
Jl. Kunti 117X
Seminyak
(0361) 733 555

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Bali Sourching

SOURCING BALI is the Trading Name of PT Sourcing Bali - established in 2000 - supporting the needs of overseas buyers of Indonesian products. We cater to private buyers, hotels, resorts, interior decorators, professional meeting planners, wholesalers and retailers of home wares, furnishings, clothing etc.

Sourcing Bali is based on the beautiful island of Bali. We provide the professional buyer with complete product sourcing service for a diverse range of Indonesian products. Whether from your design or from our catalogue, for quality, reliability and service, contact SOURCING BALI.

Sourcing Bali is committed to promoting high quality products at the best prices. We aim to provide a platform for thousands of skillful people, many of who live in remote villages and who do not have direct access to the market to sell their goods.

Indonesian handicrafts

Indonesian handicrafts have continued to gain in popularity over the years. They have earned a dominant place in the highly competitive international giftware and furnishings market place. Millions of dollars of handicrafts are now being exported all over the globe annually to gift shops, supermarkets, department stores, wholesalers, importers and distributors. ArtsBali.com supplies quality Bali handicrafts to such entities and currently exports to at least forty countries all over the globe.

Human resources and empowerment
Bali handicraft industry has thrived and it now provides employment and business opportunities for quite literally thousands of people. In addition to providing a livelihood for those in the handicraft industry, it has given a big boost to the economy. To appreciate how the handicraft industry functions and provides a living for so many people, you have to go off into the hills, far off the beaten track. You will find Balinese communities who are working hard turning bits of wood, bamboo, metal, leaves, and clay into truly amazing and marketable products.

The supply of Bali handicraft
We use the Internet and direct promotion campaigns to keep the handicraft industry alive in Indonesia and provides many of the home industry manufacturers with a channel to sell their arts and craft wares. Many handicraft products that we supply are the creations of the highly skilled artisans. To this end, we look forward to continuing our drive to keep supporting the communities of Indonesia by helping them to bring their unique skills and crafts to the world market place.

Come on in and see for yourself all the handicrafts that Indonesia has to offer. You'll be truly amazed!
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Arts Bali Updated News
Bali handicraft exports
Bali's export of various handicraft products in the first ten months of 2007 rose 8.6 percent to US$202.8 million from US186.7 million in the same period last year. Wooden handicraft goods and furniture still dominated the export with a value of U..
Bangli’s crafts product exported to European markets'.
Bangli’s as part of the regencies in Bali, which has a lot of unique handicraft products such handicraft made of glass. During the time, local craftsmen exported the product to European markets.

Stone Handicraft

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Buying agent for quality handicrafts products direct from qualified Bali handicraft supplier. We have many collection of handicraft products such as, wooden craft, wooden statue, wooden animal, bali masks, bali statue, bali music tools, bali box, natural album photo, bags, sandals, and many others with wholesale pri

Bali Stone
Buying agent for quality Balinese stone carving direct from Balinese sculptor. Bali known as paradise on earth with thousands of holy temple or "Pura". You can find stone carving in every house in Bali. In balihand you can find all stone carving art with traditional and modern style of statue, wall relief, garden lamp, candle holder, animal stone statue, and many others. The artworks direct from our Balinese sculptor.