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.