A Secret From the Bottom of the Sea

In ancient times, a poor family existed within a kingdom in Bali. They were Mr. Tiwas and Mrs. Sugih. Because of their poorness, they didn’t even have enough money to eat, thereby suffering hunger every day.

One day, when pan Tiwas (pan = Balinese term for man/father/Mr.) could not take it any longer, he journeyed to a quiet area, where he saw a grassed cow tied to a tree by its owner. Pan Tiwas silently untied the cow and took it away to the south. Upon arriving at a safe place, he tied the cow to a coconut tree.
Pan Kobar, the cow’s owner, surprised to see that his cow was gone, searched for the cow in every single spot, but he could not find it. On purpose, Pan Tiwas walked back again around to where the cow was tied. “Hoi, pan Tiwas… Did you see my cow?” said pan Kobar to pan Tiwas.
“A Cow? where did you tie it up?” said pan Tiwas pretending . His face looked so convening, just like a surprised and concerned person. Pan Kobar pointed to a nearby tree, the spot where he tied his cow.
“Come along to my house. May be I can help you to find your cow,” said pan Tiwas who quickly returned to his own house.
When pan Tiwas was relaxing in front of his house, pan Kobar showed up with 10 kg of rice and 10 coins of money. “Pan Tiwas…please show me where is my cow?” said pan Kobar hopefully.
To hear that, with his tricky smile, pan Tiwas asks pan Kobar to go into the house. After siting down face-to-face, pan Tiwas took a keris (double-bladed dagger) outside. “I will ask for a clue to this divine keris,” pan Tiwas said murmuring a magic spell. After few seconds, suddenly pan Tiwas roaring. His eyes is goggling and staring at pan Kobar.
“Your cow is in the south. I will it now!” he said whilst pointed directly. Then, pan Kobar requested to leave, and rushed to the south. Actually, what is said by pan Tiwas is true. Pan Kobar found his cow there and still tied to the coconut tree.
Since that time, pan Tiwas became famous as a shaman. The report spread out quickly in the kingdom. The cruel king invited pan Tiwas to his palace. For such of honor, pan Tiwas felt glad but afraid as well. He was afraid if his trick was revealed that the king would cut of his head!
At the palace, the king asks pan Tiwas to guess the watermelon seeds on the table. Within his mind, that huge watermelon must be containing a lot of seeds he thought, but he did not know precisely the number. “I will wait for your answer tomorrow!” said the king with a cynical smile. “ If you have failed, your head will be cut off…”
Upon arriving at his house, pan Tiwas told to his wife what exactly was going on. Then, they both broke into tears. They realized that soon he would leave this world in peace. Finally, in the darkness of night, pan Tiwas with his wife sneaked out to cross the ocean with a small boat. He rows the boat slowly into the ocean passing a big boat belongs to a rich merchant from across country.
While crossing the merchant’s ship, pan Tiwas head a man chatting. “I’m sure tomorrow the shaman will die,” said one of the men. “Why are your so sure?” said the other man. “He will never ever to guess the watermelon seeds precisely.”
“Actually, how much seeds are there?”
“The watermelon contains of no seeds…ha..ha..ha…”
“Why are you definitely sure about that?”
“Because I gave the watermelon to the king.”
To hear that, pan Tiwas decided to cancel the escape. The next morning, the king was so surprised with pan Tiwas’ accurate answer in guessing the watermelon seeds. According to the deal, pan Tiwas awarded a good reward by the king.
On the night of that day, pan Tiwas with his wife escaped across the country. He thought that his luck was only an incidental happening that would never come twice. If the king ever asked him again for a bet , possibly his head will surely be taken off. Rather than that happen, he’d rather escape from his homeland to live in harmony and peace across the country.(Retold by Gung Man)

Balineselife
“Segara Gunung”

The life of the Balinese (Hindu) people cannot be separated from two elements namely, segara and gunung. Segara means beach/sea and gunung meaning mountain, which is similar to Akasa Pertiwi (sky and earth)/father-mother concept. Segara-Gunung is important to Balinese people (Hindu), because besides a resource of needs for human existence, segara-gunung is also an important site to execute ritual ceremony. There are three kinds of ceremonies performed on the beach/sea areas, they are melasti, nangluk merana, and nyagara gunung

he Melasti ceremony is usually performed around Nyepi Holy Day, Hindu’s newyear. Acording to Ida Peranda Gunung Blahbatuh (highest caste priest), the purpose of malasti ceremony is to plead to Hyang Baruna (the sea ruler) to bestow tirta kamandalu (holy water located in the midst of the ocean) convinced to be able to purify human mind and the environment. Around Nyepi, Hindu members will also execute this ceremony around great ceremonial activity. Here, it aimed to clean the space, and to purify the human’s mind where the ceremony takes place.
The Nyagara gunung ceremony is very much related with ngaben. Ngaben is belonging to pitra yadnya, which is one of the five yadnya performed by the Balinese. Those five are called Panca Yadnya (five holy sacrifice), consisting of; (1), Dewa yadnya, which mean holy sacrifice to the deities. (2), Resi yadnya, holy sacrifice served to a holy person, such as rsi and pendeta (priest) (3), Pitra yadnya, a holy sacrifice offered to ancestors or human spirits (4), Manusia yadnya, holy sacrifices to human beings, and (5), Butha yadnya is the holy sacrifice to the universe, and its invisible elements, in order to create a harmonious relation between humans and those five elements above.
Nangluk merana is a ceremony executed right on tilem sasih kanem (the dark moon on the sixth month) of the Balinese calendar. The word “nangluk” means to prevent, and “merana” means illness or disease. So, Nangluk Merana means a ceremony aimed at preventing many kinds of diseases. The Balinese believe that sasih kanem is an unfortunate sasih (month), therefore, the Nangluk Merana ceremony is needed to escape from disease abuse. The purpose of this ceremony is a plea to the sea ruler who resides in Pura Dalem Peed that designates with Ratu Gede Macaling, in order to bestow safeness for the entire Balinese people. Especially for the Gianyar society, this Nangluk Merana ceremony centrally sited at Lebih Beach, and regularly adhered by thousands of religious members, starts from morning until night.
Ngaben is a more important ceremony than other ceremonies. It is important, because Balinese Hindus believe that within ngaben ceremony, they can repay a debt to a deceased person. Ngaben ceremony is a good-bye ceremony between living people and the dead. Its convinced that the dead person will leave the real world heading towards an unreal realm. The word “ngaben” comes from the word abu (ash) asserted with prefix “ng”, becomes ngabu, which means to make something become ash.
After the corpse is burnt and becomes ashes, then followes a nganyut ceremony, which is executed at a river with the condition that the water channel must directly link with the ocean. The purpose of nganyut is returning the human’s element that naturally comes from water.
After 12 days from the ngaben ceremony, another ceremony is conducted. nyagara gunung. Nyagara gunung means headed to the sea and mountain. The purpose is to return the element sources that come from the sea and the mountain. The beaches are regularly used for nyagara gunung ceremonies by the Balinese Hindu people, especially in southern Bali, Kusamba Beach and the mountain Goa Lawah, both are located in the Klungkung Regency.

(BTN/Suambara)