Story
of Bali, Indonesia
semiconsciousness. In 1971 lie arose from his sickbed displaying
untutored spiritual knowledge and a proclivity to enter trance;
lie determined to become a ritual. specialist in acknowledgment
of his cure. Legends credited his division's ancestors with once
winning a competition, commissioned by the raja, among Brahmanas,
Sengguhus (exorcist priests), and themselves to explore for new
irrigation sources. After meditating in the forests, they discovered
a spring and built a new temple there. Today this temple's festivals
bring together leaders of all irrigation societies that receive
water from its spring. To emphasize his group's traditional involvement
the trance-prone official promoted vigorous participation in the
temple's harvest rites.
This renewed interest in a remote headwater temple cannot be explained
by a single factor. Motivations range from doubtlessly genuine mystical
convictions to the opportunism of astute politicians, for the ancestor
group's success in the 1971 elections can be partly attributed to
the strong support its candidates enjoyed throughout the area whose
headwater temple they help support.
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