Salvation and Togetherness Rites

A beautiful activity occurred at Barong Hotel’s temple last Tuesday (16/9). Employees and management of the hotel were involved in piodalan (ceremonial series) activities at the hotel’s temple located at Poppies II, Legian, Kuta. The rite series carried out several activities including a ngebat ritual.

Ngebat, which is the process making a Balinese dish, is done in the morning. At ngebat time, the employee performs their skill, such as rasping the coconut, vegetable making, lawar (chopped meat) making, spice making, and someone special to make a coffee for the worker. Solidarity and kinship appeared among them.
“We want to prove that we always unite and are cohesively unbreakable,” said the ceremonial head committeeman I Gusti Ngurah Sukadana seriously. Not just that, after ngebat, the employee and other staff eat together joke and laugh.
Then, with traditional costume to the temple, all Hindu employees perform pecaruan (sacrificing rite) on the fourth floor. The ritual continued with tabuh rah, a cockfight for ceremonial purposes, and watched by tourists staying at the hotel.
Even though under the sun’s heat, members performed the rite series that is executed every six months. A mangku (lower level priest) lead the ceremonial execution accompanied with the hand bell’s ring, and kidung (holy song) carried by a pesantian group of the Barong Hotel. Tranquility and peaceful nuance appeared during the ceremony.
According to I Made Widia, Public Area Supervisor of Hotel Barong, this ritual series is aimed at raising the zest of work, spiritual, togetherness, and trust of each other. “Spiritually, the important thing is that the employees, or people within the hotel, are bestowed with safety, and are able to run their activities normally,” said Made Widia. He also expected, because of this ceremony, guests of the Barong Hotel will keep returning.
Widia, Head of the Tourism Guild also said that following the Kuta bombing, activity at the hotel stopped for a while. “In three months, communication between employees and management did not run smoothly. This type of situation invites a lot of unnecessary gossiping. However, its not so bad as the problems appeared in the form of different opinions, but handled with deliberation and togetherness,” he explained.
The Barong Hotel has 99 rooms (3 superior, 3 triple, 6 quarto and the rest standard rooms). In contrast to the last couple of months, the hotels’ occupancy level now has increased to about 60%. “The room price is Rp 200.000,- per person including breakfast,” he said. (BTN/015)