Ritual uses
For almost any ritual, the enormous number and variety of offerings
required is quite a astounding. There are literally hundreds of
different kinds - the names, forms, size, ingredients of which
differ greatly. Further more, there is considerable variation
fro region to region, and even from village to village. The basic
form of most offerings is quite similar, however. Rice, fruits,
cookies, meat and vegetables are arranged on a palm leaf base
and crowned with a palm leaf decoration, called a sampian, which
serves also as a container for betel nut and flowers.
Certain offerings are used in many rituals, whereas others are
specific to a particular ceremony. Basic offerings form groups
(soroh) around a core offering, and since most rituals can be
performed with varying degrees of elaboration depending upon the
occasion and the means and social status of the participants,
the size and content of these offering groups vary also according
to the elaborateness of the ritual.
The size of an offering may be scaled up or down to match the
occasion. For example, an ordinary pula gembal contains, among
other things, dozens of different rice dough figurines in a palm
leaf basket. In more elaborate rituals, this becomes a spectacular
construction of brightly-colored cookies, measuring several meters
from top to bottom.
Besides the major communal offerings associated with a particular
ritual, each family brings its own large and colorful offering
to a temple festival. It is a spectacular sight when women of
a neighborhood together carry offerings in procession to a temple.
At the temple offerings are placed according to their destination
and function. Offerings to gods and ancestors are placed on high
altars, whereas demons receive theirs on the ground. An important
difference is that offerings to demons may contain raw meat, while
those for the gods and ancestors may not. Specific offerings required
for a ritual are placed in a pavilion or temporary platform.
During the ceremony, a priest purifies the offerings by sprinkling
them with holy water and intoning prayers or mantras. The smoke
of incense then wafts the essence of the offerings to their intended
destination. The daily Presentation of offerings at home takes
place in a similar way, through the use of holy water and fire.
After the ritual is over and their "essence" has been
consumed, the offerings may be taken home and eaten by the worshippers.
Symbolism
The elements that make life on earth possible are transformed
into offerings and thus returned as gifts to their original Creator.
But an offering not only consists of the fruits of the earth,
but also mirrors its essential structure - decorative motifs often
symbolize the various constituents of the Balinese universe.
The colors and numbers of flowers and other ingredients, for example,
refer to deities who guard the cardinal directions. The requisite
betel on top of every offering symbolizes the Hindu Trinity, as
do the three basic colors used - red for Brahma, black or green
for Wisnu, and white for Siwa.
Conical shapes, whether of offerings as a whole or of the rice
used in it, are models of the cosmic mountain whose central axis
links the underworld, the middle world and the upper world - symbolic
of cosmic totality and the source of life on earth. Cookies of
rice dough represent the contents of the world plants, animals,
people, buildings or even little market scenes and gardens. Pairs
of such cookies, like the sun and moon, the mountain and sea,
the earth and sky, symbolize the dual ordering of the cosmos in
which complementary elements cannot exist without one another.
The unity of male and female, necessary for the production of
new life, is in many ways represented in the composition of offerings.
By recreating the universe through the art and medium of offerings,
it is hoped that the continuity of life on earth will be assured.
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