Denpasar, In the City

Relin D.E.
A Lecturer and Ritual Plant Collector

As a lecturer, Dra. Relin D.E still has time to manage several rare plants. This philosophy lecturer of the Institute Hindu Dharma Negeri (IHDN) Denpasar collects various ceremonial and medicinal plants. There was no empty lot in her house at Jalan Trengguli Gang XX No.2, Tembau Tengah sub village surronded by rare plants some hanging and others stuck on the wall and arranged orderly.

She also plants other varieties of plants at her other house at Santi sub village, Selat sub district, Karangasem Regency situated on 7 ha land that mostly contains salak (snake fruit) trees, whilst the offering and medicine plants grow between the salak tree. “I have always loved rare plants since I was a child,” Relin said.
In Karangasem, she collects various plants like nyuh gede, nyuh cenik, nyuh gading, nyuh gadang and nyuh mulung (nyuh means coconut tree). There are also tiying gelepung, tiying tali, tiying tamblang, tiying ampel gading, tiying buluh gading, tiying buluh, tiying ampel and tiying semat (tiying means bamboo). As well there are also various kinds of sugar cane such as tebu malem/cemeng, tebu biasa/putih, tebu ratu. Thre are also padang lepas, padang kasna, beringin, ancak, cendana, tingkih, kepuh pule kapuk, Aa, intaran, cempaka, teja, cemara and nagasari.
Several leafs that are often used for ceremonial rites exists within, such as daun dadap, daun tulak, daun dadap wong, daun kapas, daun tebel-tebel, daun pis-pisan, daun andong, daun mas, daun kumbang, daun paku aji, daun kayu sugih, daun menuh, ambengan, daun tampak bila, daun miana cemeng, daun menori, daun basa-basa, daun sisih dan daun kedukduk (daun means leaf), whilst kind of flowers are bunga intaran, bunga rijasa, bunga ratna, bunga cepaka, bunga pucuk bang, bunga tunjung, and also buah pinang and bandil.
According to Relin, her hobby appeared because wanted to obtain ceremonial complements easier, and importantly to protect these plants from destruction and surrounding people near her gardens in Karangasem often came to ask for offering material, followed by surround villagers of Muncan and Padang Aji, and keeps spreading outside of Karangasem Regency and even outside of Bali (Sulawesi).
She has collected plants since 1997. At first, the plants grew by themselves, she only arranged the types. There are several plants that were given as gifts by friends, and moreover some are rare plant seeds which she got from outside Bali, like Java, Lampung and Sulawesi. “I got the tulasi seed from Makasar, because it’s difficult to find in Bali. Tulasi is very important for ngaben ceremonies and often used also as the replacement of cendana (sandalwood),” she said. According to this woman who was born in East Java, she maintains the plants by separating them from the wild plants, and also with fertilization once in three months according to the plant’s type. (BTN/015)