Alternative Healing, the Other Option to Cure Illness

Tourism of Bali has been jiggled again by bomb (1/10) that killed and inflicted material loss. The Balinese grieved again and
one even fell sick due to such a bomb attack.

Assuredly, it is not only bombing that makes them fall sick. Many causes can affect illness, including that of invisible called kepongor or kesisipan (spiritually environmental disorder), for instance on account of forgetting the ancestral soul, behave wrongly at sacred location or there is ‘unpaid vow’ to certain power.
To cure this invisible illness, the Balinese merely need to make ritual by presenting certain offerings and sincere apologize. At all times, few days after performing the ritual, they get relieved.
For you who are on a holiday in Bali, probably you will see the habit of Balinese when they are suffering from an illness. They are not only enough to go to physician or hospital to consult illness, but also go to balian (traditional healer) or to various centres of alternative healing that are now appearing in numbers in Bali. Alternative healers who are open a practice here in Bali come from various regions or even from abroad.
Habit of the Balinese to consult a balian and centres of traditional healing is not separate from ancestral behaviour prior to rapid development of modern medical science as that of today, in which the Balinese depend entirely their health to nature. They take advantage the sincerity of nature, herbal efficacy and other natural material that are believed to contain an element that can be used as medicine to cure dissimilar illnesses.
Miscellaneous plants and invisible articles can also be used to maintain and improve physical fitness, ranging from promoting stamina for men in order to look young longer, enlarge the penis sizecand enhance male potency on bed to tighten the women’s breast, make an attractive figure and beauty maintenance for women. Several alternative medicines to boost male potency and women passion are freely sold at drugstores and street side stalls.
Especially for alternative healing for sexual vitality fitness draws sufficient attention from the community, even its advertisement is published everyday on the media. They even distribute their brochures on the streets. However, if you are interested in alternative healing for this fitness you should be extra careful towards its side effect that caused by such medicines. Deceit frequently occurs.

Palm-manuscript on health
Many palm-manuscripts (lontar) found in Bali explain about the instruction how to maintain health and healing of a variety of illnesses. Manuscript of this category is called lontar usadha and the healer is called Jero Balian. The content of this usadhic lontar refers to Vedic scriptures and based on several illnesses widespread in Bali. Meanwhile, numerous herbal plants and method to prepare them are carried in the Taru Premana manuscript.
This manuscript obviously spells out the name of plants, its efficacy and the way to use them in curing certain illness. Contents of this manuscript have been transliterated into Bahasa Indonesia so it will make it easier for the public to put it into practice at home as per guidance of Jero Balian.
Currently, there are many Jero Balians who are ready to lend a hand to the community to heal innumerable illnesses. They open practice at their own home as freelancer and patients can come at their convenient time, either in the morning, noon or in the evening.
Different from the physician, Jero Balian never sets up signboard on the front door of his house so patients that come to ask for treatment only believe in the word to mouth information. Service charge for the treatment is not set up at fixed rate, entirely depends on the affordability of patient. Except for certain illness that obliges the patient to make certain offerings of which properties should be purchased at market.
Patient generally brings along with an offering in the form of canang sari along with its voluntary sesari fee in cash (variably between IDR 1,000 to 15,000). Or if the patient does not have money, a piece of canang sari with a perforated coin is sufficient. Canang sari is offered in the holy chamber of Jero Balian prior to diagnose the patient’s illness.
Having offered the canang sari and prayed, the Jero Balian then diagnoses and detects the illness suffered. When the diagnosis indicates that the patient suffers from light disorder or illness he’ll just be given a medicine in the form of holy water and spoken prescription on loloh or herbal extract that can be made at home of ingredients that are easily obtained from the home garden or market like semanggi, piduh and dadap leaf, lime juice, young coconut, salt, shallot, mesui, assorted spices and the like.
If the patient suffers from severe illness and is believed to have been made by one who run ‘ngiwa or aji ugig’ (black magic), so its treatment require specific medicine and care, including some means of offerings. On that account, the patient should be put under supervision of Jero Balian and if necessary, he should stay at Balian’s house. As he’s under in-house treatment there, so the patient’s family help to fulfil the daily needs there. Since the treatment system is performed in familial and sincere condition so the relationship of both families come to be intimate.
Loving relationship among the two continues to flourish even though the patient has got recovered and gone home. Patient’s family feels indebted to Jero Balian. They remain to make visit and help the activity of Jero Balian, especially when holding a religious rite or other social activities. They also assisted with the ingredients of ceremony like rice, fruits, pig, cloth, incense stick and so on including in the form of cash. Automatically, Jero Balian will not need to spend more money on the needs of the ritual or social activity. Moreover, if there is a patient’s family who makes a vow that he will offer something or ngayah (extending social services) to Jero Balian if they get recovery.

It has once occurred in Sanur, a girl who suffered from acute illness. She nearly died and made a vow that she would be ready to be the wife of Jero Balian if he could cure her illness. At the end, she got recovered and fulfilled her vow to be the wife of Jero Balian who has been aged with tens of grandchildren.
Traditional alternative healing is entirely based on belief and hard to investigate scientifically in accordance with modern medical sciences. As in some cases, patients that have been medically declared to be unable to recover finally get his entire recovery when being taken to Balian.
Many people comment that this traditional healing is just like begging the help of miraculous hands and vigour. Jero Balians also admit that the achievement of their effort is entirely extended to the omnipotence of the Supreme Being. It is caused by the fact that becoming a Jero Balian in Bali is on account of a pawisik (command) of the susuhunan (invisible power) at certain place or they tend to use the term ‘ngiring sesuhunan’ or obeying the command of the Almighty God. Jero Balian, including the patient who appeals for the treatment in accordance with the It has once occurred in Sanur, a girl who suffered from acute illness. She nearly died and made a vow that she would be ready to be the wife of Jero Balian if he could cure her illness. At the end, she got recovered and fulfilled her vow to be the wife of Jero Balian who has been aged with tens of grandchildren.
Traditional alternative healing is entirely based on belief and hard to investigate scientifically in accordance with modern medical sciences. As in some cases, patients that have been medically declared to be unable to recover finally get his entire recovery when being taken to Balian.
Many people comment that this traditional healing is just like begging the help of miraculous hands and vigour. Jero Balians also admit that the achievement of their effort is entirely extended to the omnipotence of the Supreme Being. It is caused by the fact that becoming a Jero Balian in Bali is on account of a pawisik (command) of the susuhunan (invisible power) at certain place or they tend to use the term ‘ngiring sesuhunan’ or obeying the command of the Almighty God. Jero Balian, including the patient who appeals for the treatment in accordance with the

Introduction
It is universally acknowledged that since the Rio Earth Summit (1992), sustainability has become the central issue in tourism development policies throughout the world. Governments, the private sector and international organizations have been invited to play an active role and to take appropriate actions in ensuring sustainable tourism worldwide. One of the initiatives that may be taken towards this end can be in the form of tourism awards.
The Tri Hita Karana Tourism Awards represent an award-giving concept which bases its evaluation upon the Principles of Tri Hita Karana (THK), i.e. the reflection of harmonious relations between man and his spiritual, social and natural environments. Seen from the terminological point view, “Tri” means three, “Hita” means happiness, and “Karana” means causes. Therefore, THK denotes three elements playing important roles causing gladness, eternity, and living happiness both materially and spiritually, namely: (i) culture-spiritual elements; (ii) socio-economic elements; and (iii) natural environment elements. The above principles are basically in line with the principles of sustainable development as formulated by the United Nations at the Earth Summit.
There have been several tourism certifications or awards existing, which focused mostly on environmental conservation aspects, and with less on social and cultural aspects. On the other hand, sustainability in travel and tourism industry could not be achieved when tourism industry does not concern with the social and cultural aspects of the community at the tourism destination. THK tourism awards provide holistic evaluation criteria to travel and tourism industry in order to achieve sustainable tourism development.
To achieve sustainable development, the three elements of THK should be in a balance state and in harmonious relationships. This will bring prosperity to the world, not only physical well-being but also non-physical (cultural and spiritual) well-being. Moreover, these indicators take into account not only the physical aspect but also the non-physical aspect (socio-cultural and public implications), so that the awards will have the intrinsic power to help avoid the potential conflicts between communities and between tourism entrepreneurs and the host communities.
The Tri Hita Karana Tourism Awards have been successfully applied in Bali since year 2000. PATA itself has made a commitment to elevate the profile and importance of responsible and sustainable tourism as reflected in the PATA Code for Sustainable Tourism 2001. By adopting the TRI HITA KARANA Tourism Awards concept, PATA will be better equipped in its efforts to encourage the travel and tourism industry to participate in helping to improve the environments of our planet and to inspire others to improve their sustainable performance.

Objectives
- To provide a show-case to the world that tourism is a supporting factor of sustainable development.
- To appraise examples of best practices in sustainable tourism.
- To encourage the travel and tourism industry to improve their sustainable performance.
- To serve as PATA’s formal recognition of the tourism industry’s adherence to the PATA Code for Sustainable Tourism.

Criteria of Evaluation
1. Cultural and Spiritual Elements
Existence of sanctuaries in the vicinity prior to or after the operation of a tourism enterprise.
Communications maintained regularly with the nearby sanctuaries
Participation in the preservation and embellishment of sanctuaries and local cultures.
Application of traditional architectural concepts and designs.
Contribution to and participation in the religious activities in the surroundings.

2. Social and Economic Elements
Atmosphere of internal relations within the management of an enterprise.
Existence of social organizations within a company
Composition of local staff
Initiatives taken to empower local organizations
Atmosphere of relation between a company and the local community
Initiatives taken to empower local, small enterprises
Priority given to purchase local produces
Existence of human resource development programmes
Attention paid to human affairs.

3. Natural Environment Elements
Company’s commitment to safeguarding the quality of the environment
The integration of an architectural approach to the local environment
Protection of the ecosystems
Waste management
Availability of the water-use and energy-saving scheme
Company’s participation in solving environmental problems
Availability of detailed environmental management system
Availability of the monitoring and evaluation mechanism.

Evaluation Mechanism
The evaluation mechanism falls into three phases :
Phase I : Initial screening by way of short questionnaires sent to selected, eligible tourism establishments.
This shall be executed based on a professional judgment by a team of experts or the THK Tourism Awards Team.

Phase II : Distribution of detailed questionnaires reflecting the evaluation criteria developed based upon the three elements of THK above to the tourism establishments already screened in Phase I.

Phase III : Site inspection for reliability checking by the THK Tourism Awards Team. The target audiences include not only the management side but also the employees, the visitors/guests and opinions from the outsiders. The inspection shall be conducted both ways, i.e. in an open manner with prior notice and in disguise.

Respondents and Judges
There shall be 6 components to be included in the evaluation, comprising :

• Management of the tourism establishments (hotels, recreational parks, resorts, national/ecotourism parks)
  
• Communities surrounding the establishments (village administrations, social custom leaders, religious representatives, the youth etc.)
  
• Tour guides
  
• Tourism journalists
  
• Tourists visiting/staying at the establishments under evaluation
  
• Employees.
  
• Judges shall be members of the THK Tourism Awards Team.

Announcements, Trophies and Awards
Announcements of winners shall be made in two stages. The first stage shall be the announcement of the best ten tourism enterprises derived from four evaluation activities : initial screening, questionnaire result, opinion from communities and result of site inspection I. The second stage shall be the announcements of the THK Tourism Awards Winners derived from the best ten through questionnaire result involving four components of evaluation (tour guides, tourism journalists, tourists, employees) and through result of site inspection II.
The winners of the THK Tourism Awards shall comprise three categories (gold, silver and bronze) and shall be entitled to receive a trophy respectively as well as wide publicity in both mass media and the internet.

Organizational Structure
The organizational structure and functions of the THK Tourism Awards Team who shall be responsible for the evaluation, shall be incorporated into those of the PATA Honours Committee.

Concluding Remarks
Firmly believing that PATA’s adoption of the TRI HITA KARANA Tourism Awards Concept within its awards programme will better reflect the association’s commitment to the implementation of the PATA Code for Sustainable Tourism 2001, Indonesia is pleased to propose that this document be discussed and considered for adoption by PATA during the next PATA Honours Committee Meeting. (BTN/*)

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