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"Gebogan"
Oblation and Local Fruits of Bali
At your convenience in Bali, you can probably
have a sensation how this "Island of
Thousand Temples" is significantly
secure and appropriate as a popular holiday
destination. Alluring nature and fertile
land make your island excursion to tourist
objects or every nook and cranny of village
favourable. Similarly, you can discern easily
the Balinese working in the rice field and
caring for their paddy, chilli, tomato,
beans, watermelon and so forth. While, in
the garden, they look after assorted colourful
flowers or big trees bearing fruits densely
such as coconut, mango, durian, mangosteen,
wani, orange, custard apple and so on including
banana and snakefruit of which trunk is
not so large but its fruit is immensely
dense. Other than implementing numerous
advances of modern science and agricultural
and plantation technology in looking after
their plants, the Balinese also look after
it by traditional manners, namely by performing
rituals called Tumpek Uduh or Tumpek Bubuh.
This rite is carried out six monthly (210
days) falling on Saturday Kliwon wuku Wariga.
The nearest celebration falls on 8 April
2006. If you happen to spend your holiday
on this island, do not miss this exceptional
moment and try to join the farmers in the
rural area to experience the modest and
friendly life that’s close to nature
and the environment. From here you will
know that various plants, leaves, flowers
and fruits are overly essential to the Balinese.
Such fruits are not only consumed but are
more importantly made into miscellaneous
oblations and presented sincerely to God.
Amongst the plenty kinds of oblation, gebogan
requires distinctive skill in arranging
it. The haves will make awe-inspiring gebogan
of which height may reach one meter. However,
for the fewer have-nots recurrently make
simpler gebogan of some 30 to 50 cm high.
Ingredients consisting of assorted local
fruits are as mentioned above. Then, it’s
garnished with nice typical cakes of Bali
that arranged in such a way that make it
look tempting. On the upper part of it,
is filled with canang and reringgitan (ornamental
cuts) made of artistic fresh young coconut
leaf and colourful flowers. By and large,
on a grandiose temple festival, the women,
mostly beautiful girls, will balance gebogan
oblation to temple or other sanctum accompanied
with gamelan orchestra played melodiously.
Parade of girls balancing this gebogan is
called mapeed. It’s especially wonderful
and comes to be an intriguing spectacle.
While for the girls, balancing the gebogan
can be a good opportunity to show off their
beauty in front of the public. How they
behave, swing and sway on balancing the
gebogan, that’s actually the reflection
of sincerity of Balinese women in presenting
the oblation to God and the gods. The story
goes that it’s on balancing gebogan
the women spread out the inner beauty and
the Hindu scriptures in Bali portrays the
groups as true-blue and beloved servant
to the Goddess. Gebogan represents a good
faith of the Balinese in presenting the
vintage to God. Sacred prayers and mantra
recited on the occasion of ritual execution
make up profound gratitude on the grace
of prosperity bestowed by God to human beings.
When the tourism industry reached its rapid
growth since 1970s and import tap of fruits
was opened, untold Balinese people are making
gebogan by taking advantage of imported
fruits such as New Zealand apple, Sunkist,
Mandarin orange, European grape and so on.
So do Balinese cakes in the past time were
purely made of flour of Balinese rice, but
now of imported wheat flour. Today, Balinese
people have becoming more mindful, so that
they resume to make gebogan oblation entirely
employing assorted local fruits, vintages
from their own rice field and garden. They
are taught in the Vedic scripture: "Whoever
wholeheartedly presents to Me the leaves,
fruits or water, offering under lied by
love and holy mind I will accept him gladly.
(Bhagavad-Gita;IX.26) Therefore, gebogan
presented in any Hindu ritual makes up a
symbol of heart holiness and sincere attitude
to thank the blessing of the Almighty God.
The Balinese these days take up again to
cultivate numerous plants and fruits that
usable for their oblations. Formal educational
institutions in Bali as Udayana University,
State Hindu Dharma Institute of Denpasar
and others frequently perform re-greening
programs and social work to villages to
plant trees of bebanten or oblations. All
is done merely for the sake of a sustainable
Bali and maintaining the sacredness of this
Bali Island. Bali is indeed never quiet
from activity of religious rites. Approximately,
there’s no day without ceremony in
Bali so the name Bali is sometimes slipped
into ‘wali’ meaning ‘full
of religious rites.’ Such religious
activities contain philosophical and glorious
ethical significance as guidance of life.
Numerous holy men, psychic and supranaturalist
praise the Island of Bali as an islet having
full of sacred vibration because its people
carry out rituals diligently. "I’m
amazed at various offerings presented and
Bali remains secure and convenient,"
utters Ajit Kumar who is also a yogi from
India and capable of seeing the composure
of Bali through his spiritual eyes. Well,
is there anyone amongst you who is on holiday
in Bali and capable of seeing convenient
and exotic Bali by the spiritual power?
Just make a try! Ketut Sumadi Contributor
of Bali Travel News
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