I Tuwung Kuning

Once upon a time there were a married couple who had many problems. Her husband often gambled, it was a very bad habit of his. He enjoyed cockfighting, infact he loved this more than his wife. However he usually lost his money and they were really in despair.

Until one day, he said these impolite words to his wife. “My darling, if you get pregnant and give me a son, he is going to be the heir of my whole cockfighting business. But if you give me a daughter, I will kill her and feed the meat to all my lovely cocks.”
Finally, his wife became pregnant. During her pregnancy she worried every single day whether she would bear a son or a daughter. At the end of her pregnancy she had a daughter. But thank God, her husband was not at home when she gave birth so she gave her daughter to her grandmother to look after. She named her daughter I Tuwung Kuning.
To make her husband content, she pretended to give the abdomen of her daughter to his cocks.
In the evening of that terrible day, her husband asked about the child.
“My darling, did you give me a son or a daughter?”
“A daughter and I already fed your cock with her abdomen” she lied
Listening to his wife explanation, he became very happy.
But in the middle of the night, a strange thing happened. The cock was calling, “Sir, sir sir…. Your wife gave you a daughter and now she lives with her grand mother, kukuruyuk…..kukuruyuk”
Hearing the sound of that cock, he becoming very angry and told his wife to bring I Tuwung Kuning back home.
Suddenly, his wife went to pick up I Tuwung Kuning. When she arrived at her grand mother’s home, she was surprised to see her daughter so beautiful and also that she was weaving.
The daughter said, “Mom, you have to wait for me for two days and then I will return home. I have to finish this …for my dead body cover.” So she returned home without the daughter.
When she arrived home, she was welcomed by the anger of her husband. He wanted to kill I Tuwung Kuning with the sword in his hand.
Later I Tuwung Kuning welcomed her father with a nice smile. She said, “You are allowed to kill me, but first you have to take me to the jungle and find the biggest tree there. You can kill me under that tree.”
Her father agreed. After they found the tree I Tuwung Kuning sat under it. Her father then tried to kill her with the sharp sword but this sword could not touch the body of I Tuwung Kuning because her body had already disappeared.
From that moment, he regretted all of his bad habits and promised not to be a gambler anymore. He killed all of his cocks. After a couple of months, this couple became a cheerful family although they never had another daughter or even a son.
Retold by I Putu Agus Sutrarama

Balineselife

Nyepi Holy Day

Nyepi Holy Day, according to a seminar decision on the unification of interpretation of Hindu religious aspects, is a transition of an old to a new Çaka Year. There is a series of events happening during the New Year celebration termed as tawur, melasti, nyepi and ngembak geni. Tawur is a ritual of appeasing bhuta (representing a physically invisible evil power), aiming at harmonizing nature, accomplished at a crossroad, believed to be a gathering site of bhutas.

he leading executor of the Tawur ritual requests the bhutas and their followers to go away from the site in peace as far as possible after being appeased by means of food being offered, without disturbing the people living in the surrounding area. A Tawur ritual takes place in the house compound and is called ngrupuk. A ngrupuk ritual has a similar goal as that of tawur which is held on a crossroad, bhutas which live in the house-yard are to leave this site northwestward to return to their homes after appeasing themselves with food offered by the home owners.
During the ngrupuk event, the banjars’ youngsters prepare ogoh-ogoh idols symbolizing the bhutas, which are then taken around the banjar area carried by the youth on their shoulders. After arriving at the destination in a northwest area, the ogoh-ogoh idol’s existence will end because this site is the idol’s home of origin. By finishing tawur and ngrupuk rituals, people believe that their region restores it’s harmony, followed by tranquility and peace. The restoration of communal harmony comes also hand in hand with self-introspection done by community members. This self-introspection up to now has been termed as ‘Nyepi’.
Brata Penyepian is the law on prohibited and allowed actions observed by people during Nyepi Holy Day. These include amongst others the following:
(1) Amati geni which does not allow people to light fires, denoting a symbol of a crave or wish which exists in our mind, which is ever changing. The prohibition reflects a need to control our lust.
(2) Amati karya is a principle of non-activity, meaning people must not be idle but however must keep to limited activity, this is done by control of times of working and resting to preserve your health.
(3) Amati lelungan meaning life free of a journey in order to be capable of saving time to spend at home for the sake of good family relations.
(4) Amati lelanguan is a principle of not abusing yourself in leisure both physically and spiritually.
If you have succeeded in perceiving the sense of Nyepi, it will be easier to apply the principles of Nyepi in practice. (Suambara)