07 April 2007

Spirits Everywhere

IMG_1181.JPGNo calls to prayer in Bali; instead the air is filled with spirits. Unique in mostly-Muslim Indonesia, the population here is virtually all Bali-Hindu, heavily influenced by its animist history.

To be simplest about animism: spirits are everywhere, some of them rooted in beings (people, animals, certain trees), some of them roaming. If you build them a good house—say, a mask, a statue, a temple, an object of beauty—an appropriate spirit will inhabit it.
Sort of a ‘build it & they will come’ philosophy.

Arguably, this is only giving a face & place to elements that are always, already there. In that sense, statues & idols are very civilizing; better than having spirits roving about like mischievous parrots.
Maybe it’s a little like giving the djinn a bottle.

Signs of animism are everywhere in Bali, most prominent in the statuary, most chaotic in the tourist areas. I say chaotic for two reasons: First, because a demon statue that would normally be, say, a Vishnu temple guardian is posing as a hotel decoration in tourist areas. Second, because tourists really dig these statues, there are simply zillions of them. Which follows that there are simply zillions of corresponding spirits in Ubud. Is it a good statue? Definitely. Do I actually want a Vishnu demon guardian in my hotel?
I most emphatically do not.

The exquisite Tjampuhan spa-resort, where we stayed in Ubud, is teeming with alarming statuary (if you look at it closely), all of it decorated daily with red hibiscus flowers. Take a look at the Bali photo set [click on More Photos from the Citradel, right] for examples. Walls of sly frogs line pathways. Dragons guard temple stairs. Enormous fish-like demons inhabit the spa, some of them larger than the main desk. A frieze of lascivious stone monkeys—who, on closer inspection (which I suspect few people make), are engaged in a rambunctious sexual orgy—overlooks over the family pool.

To the uninitiated, entertaining the notion that each one of these vessels is in fact inhabited by an appropriate spirit can quickly inspire a kind of delirium. I’m on the fence as to whether it’s better or worse that I can look them in the eye. To be fair, all this probably disquiets no one but me.

Living in Muslim Jakarta, visiting Hindu-animist Bali on Christian Good Friday lands me in a strange estuary of cosmologies. Atheism seems a practical defense, if one could design Belief to order. Then I recall the Christian retort: “God believes in YOU.” Sobering: what would that mean before this large pantheon & enormously diverse spiritual ecosystem? If THEY believe in ME...well, perhaps I will be reincarnated as bamboo after all.

Maybe in order to sleep soundly all that’s important is to demonstrate that I myself am already inhabited.

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