LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

did not favor outside contacts reaching farther inland. It is mainly covered by one extensive district, Buleleng. To the west, north of Jembrana, lies Pulaki, a remote stretch of country whose cosmological situation is highly unfavorable, located as it is both near the sea and to the west, where the sun sets and death rules. To the Balinese, little could be worse.

      On the other hand, a location in the mountains and in the east (where the sun rises and life dominates) is highly auspicious. That is exactly where Bali's most sacred mountain, the Gunung (Mount) Agung or Great Peak of Bali, lies. It is also the island's highest mountain (3,142 meters). The great all-Balinese sanctuary, Pura (temple) Besakih, is on its slopes.

      The mountains of Central and East Bali make up the island's solid core, which resembles a vertebral spine running from the center to the east in a curved line: Gunung Batukau (the Peak of Tabanan, 2,276 meters), Bratan (2,020 meters) north of Lake Bratan, and, most impressive, Gunung Batur (1,717 meters). From the bottom of an earlier crater—whose enormous caldera wall has axes of 10 and 15 kilometers and encloses the crescent-shaped 5-kilometer-long Lake Batur—rises its secondary volcanic cone. On the lake's eastern border lies the village of Trunyan, mentioned as early as Hindu Bali's first inscriptions. The road along the crater wall provides a most wonderful view of the crater complex. On the wall's northwestern corner rises Mount Penulisan (1,745 meters), atop which sits a highly sacred sanctuary. The two major roads connecting South Bali with the North pass either the Batur caldera (Kintamani) or Lake Bratan. Mount Batur was ascended for the first time in 1906 by the painter W. O. J. Nieuwenkamp, a pioneer of archaeological research in Bali.

      Both Batur and Gunung Agung are active volcanoes, and gave ample evidence of their destructive powers in 1926 and (after a long silence) in 1963, respectively. Yet the mountains are auspicious places, inhabited by the gods. There is no mountain without a deity (no more than there is any lake without one). In Indonesian thought, ancestors also dwell in the mountains. The direction where the mountains lie (kaja) is naturally favorable. Mountain springs provide water for Bali's terraced paddy fields. They also provide the "holy" water which purifies and assists the soul of a dead person in reaching its heavenly destination, or higher still—final liberation. Priests prepare various types of ritualistic holy water, a sacrament of such importance that the Balinese religion is called agama tirtha, "the holy-water religion."

      For North Bali, the mountains are in the south, for South Bali in the north. Kaja is thus to the south from Buleleng, and to the north from Central Bali. Kelod, "to the sea," inversely is south for Central Bali, and north for Bulèlèng. Relation to actual compass points, however, is of little importance—more essential are the related cosmological phenomena, and the consequences of this entire system of auspicious and evil correlation. There are other categories, apparently of divergent origin, which are more directly connected with the compass (see Chapter 4). There are also vertically opposed directions to be considered: the Upper World of the Gods (worshipped with "light" offerings served in stands) and the Nether World of the Demons ("dark" offerings put on the ground). No one aspect is complete in itself. The world consists, and actually is in need, of both good and evil, which complement each other. Only unification of all aspects and elements results in the Oneness, Totality, or Ultimate Reality which is behind the apparent diversity in this "phenomenal world" of relativity (see Chapter 4).

      Between Upper and Nether World in this Universe (for the Balinese identical with the world to which he is directly connected) is the madyapada, the Middle World of man. It is also that part between the mountains and the sea. In a way it is a vortex for all directions and conflicting tendencies. This center is anywhere the action is: in the village, in a temple, but most especially in temples regarded as the "navel" (pura puseh). It is also where during Creation the World Ocean first started to "turn into curd" when churned (pura kentel gumi).

      In Indian cosmology there is yet another very different center of the Universe. The archipelago's hinduized peoples were well aware of Mount Meru (Méru), Mahāmeru, or Sumeru, the world's central point and axis. In Indian cosmology this Cosmic Mountain was situated on the central continent of Jambudvīpa, where India itself was located. The mountain's appearance was variously described. According to one view its peak was surrounded by four additional tops on a lower level. Some-times another foursome was added still lower down (for this 1+4 + 4 symbolism see Chapter 4). The Javanese naturally wanted Mount Meru closer, and proposed that it had been removed from the central continent to East Java. During transportation, Mount Meru crumbled, and the main body and its top were separated. Interpreted in terms of modern Javanese topography, the main body became East Java's Mount Semeru (Sumeru), the island's highest (and still active) volcano. Stutterheim quite plausibly identifies Mount Meru's top with Mount Penanggungan, an extinct volcano of medium height (1,653 meters), rising as a solitary landmark from the plains of Surabaya. It is remarkable for its arrangement of 1 + 4 + 4 tops, which corresponds exactly with Mount Meru; Penanggungan therefore seems the best candidate for being the Cosmic Mountain's broken-off top.

      Figure 5: Telaga Waja. (See also page 161.)

      The importance which the Javanese attached to this specific mountain corroborates this proposal. Besides two sacred watering places, as many as 80 terraced sanctuaries are spread over Penanggunggan's slopes. The story of Mount Meru's removal from the central continent was likewise known in Bali, and was naturally translated into Balinese terms: Mount Meru was the Gunung Agung. It is curious that the Balinese connected this transfer with the historical Majapahit period. This was actually a mythological stage in Balinese history; their relations to Majapahit (see Chapter 3) marked the beginning of everything. During that period, God Paśupati moved Mahāmeru's top from the Indian continent to Bali, simultaneously sending his children Mahadewa and Dewi Danu to the island. Previously, however, the saintly hermit Sang Kulpu-tih had arrived from Majapahit to establish the Besakih sanctuary. In a way this story, told by the Balinese mythical and legendary history Usana Bali, stresses Bali's double relation with India as well as Java. Most important in the Mahāmeru transplant is Bali's direct connection with the Cosmic Mountain because of the Gunung Agung. The arrival of a new religion and its way of life is somewhat explained by the interference of Paśupati's children. Their struggle against indigenous powers, demons, and giants took place in the sacred land between the parallel rivers, Pakerisan and Petanu. Certain antiquities of an apparently unusual Hinduistic type, such as the colossal head in the Pura Gaduh temple at Blahbatu, are ascribed to giants antagonistic to the new way of life.

      There are also various versions of another mythical event regarding Bali's geography, its former connection to Java, and the final separation between the two islands. One version contains an exact date for this event, corresponding with A.D. 202. Curiously enough, the same year is recorded in the Old Javanese panegyric Nāgarakrtāgama, (1365) for a similar geological occurrence—the separation of East Java and the island of Madura. Another legend puts the Bali-Java separation much later, during the Kediri period of Javanese history (1042-1222). It was effected by a certain brahman, Mpu (the Lord) Sidimantra, who was forced to banish one of his sons to the Gunung Agung region, at that time still at Java's extreme end. To prevent the exile from returning, he drew a line with his finger across the isthmus connecting Bali and Java, thus creating an island.

      Whereas North Bali does not invite entry, Central Bali offers ready access once past the dangerous Lombok Strait. Here most of the remains of Hindu-Balinese kingdoms were found. Between Jembrana in the west and Karangasem in the east are the districts and former kingdoms of Tabanan, Badung, Gianyar, Bangli, and Klungkung (see Chapters 3 and 6). The district of Mengwi was divided between Tabanan, Badung and Gianyar in 1891.

      Most of the south's former kingdoms are comparatively narrow strips of land, often reaching from the coast far into the mountains, following the upstream courses of certain important rivers. Divided over each of these domains

Скачать книгу