49 Comments on “Bali Hindu Religious Schools”
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Cukurungan Says:
April 8th, 2009 at 12:42 pmLast time i was in Bali, all the media was much in favour of Islam. we hardly heard anything bad. That is until the 9/11 and the infamous Bali bombing.
So pre-terrorist attacks, Islam was shown as ‘right’ way in a sense, by the media.9/11 is too little to undermine Islam as faith but it was only awakening curiosity the other faith about Islam, even according to some research more and more people are turning to Islam after 9/11, therefore, whoever hate Islam try bit harder otherwise it will only lengthen the list below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_notable_converts_to_Islam
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ET Says:
April 8th, 2009 at 5:58 pmhein said
The richness I found within this religion was beyond my wildest dreams.
Even agnosts will whole-heartedly concur.
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Lairedion Says:
April 8th, 2009 at 7:55 pmET said:
Even agnosts will whole-heartedly concur.
That has to do with the sex appeal Bali has to bules, making them turning a blind eye towards the absurdities of the Hindu religion.
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Oigal Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 10:15 ammaking them turning a blind eye towards the absurdities of the Hindu religion.
As opposed to the absurbities of Islam..Christianity..Buddhism.. Flying horses, water to wine..birth thru slits in the side of the body…yup, no worries on that account
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Mike Oxblack Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 11:16 amSubjects:
Balinese, Old Javanese (Kawi), & Sanskrit
Wedic knowledge
yoga
ritual, chanting & ceremony..
————————————–…Geography? Maths? History? Modern languages?
——————-The richness I found within this religion was beyond my wildest dreams
Before we totally go overboard sucking Ganesha’s throbbing trunk it’s worth remembering the oppression and social discrimination that the Hindu caste system engenders. Look at India’s Untouchables. It’s India’s pinkos and social activists who have been trying to lift this oppression in recent years.
Also, if by ‘richness’ you mean stuff like elephant headed deities then you’re undoubtedly correct. The religion’s founders were clearly ripped to their tiny tits on psilocybin ‘shrooms if you ask me..which nobody is admittedly.
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April 9th, 2009 at 12:29 pmLairedion
That has to do with the sex appeal Bali has to bules, making them turning a blind eye towards the absurdities of the Hindu religion.
This is probably the reason why they stay agnosts.
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zekky Says:
April 16th, 2009 at 10:45 pmBesides when have hindus in Indonesia been militant, or violent?
In 1965 didn’t they kill proportionally more of their own people than Pol Pot during his entire rule? I believe they also used Hindu legends to justify the massacre.
And they still burned royal widows in 1905.
That said, I know many Muslim Javanese who love the Balinese today.
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sanj Says:
September 9th, 2009 at 6:25 pmA Muslim talks of absurdity in others…now that is a funny joke.
As for caste Bali and developments in India are not comparible. There is no concept of untouchable in Hindu texts, that is a development within the last 2000 years in India and was/is not found amongst native Hindu populations outside the subcontiant.
Better for the Balinese give the finger to the sham Indonesian republic and go thier seperate way.
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Odinius Says:
September 10th, 2009 at 1:41 amzekky said:
In 1965 didn’t they kill proportionally more of their own people than Pol Pot during his entire rule?
No. 80,000 (approx) died in Bali. This made it proportionately the largest regional death toll in the 65-7 massacres, though absolute numbers were much higher in Central and East Java. But not even close to what happened in Cambodia, where 1/3 of the population died.
@sanj: you must be from India. Balinese Hindus actually like Indonesia and are generally among the most patriotic and nationalistic Indonesians. But then again, Balinese Hinduism is quite a different version of the faith than the dominant Indian varieties, particularly Hindutva.
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September 10th, 2009 at 1:18 pmsanj said
As for caste Bali and developments in India are not comparible.
Every society, every civilization, from the most primitive to the most elaborate, knows some form of caste. I don’t know whether it has been corroborated by anthropological research but in every human society all over the world I see groups of people having different institutionalized tasks and responsibilities. The Vedas call it warna or colours. In broad outlines these warna are:
- a group of people responsible for security and administering community affairs, the military and political class. Hindus call them Ksatrya or the arms of Brahman.
- a group of people responsible for spiritual and intellectual development, the priestly, educational and media class. Hindus call them Brahmana or the head of Brahman.
- a group of people responsible for providing food and economic necessities. Hindus call them Vaiseya or the belly of Brahman.
- a group of people, the majority, responsible for carrying out the orders given by the three former leading classes. Hindus call them Shudra or the legs of Brahman.Hindus in India were the first to use this stratification as a basis for their comprehensive philosophical worldview. It would provide stability and continuity in an otherwise chaotic environment. The original concept of warna which was open and accessible to those who possessed the necessary qualifications however became ‘corrupted’ and changed into warga, a notion connected with birth and descent.
This shift to what we now consider to be ‘caste’ was understandable in an era when education still wasn’t democratized and the passing on of skills, knowledge and social networking went primarily along family lines. On top of that it certainly can’t be denied that the privileges of the leading classes – as they exist in any other society – had to be protected and what could be more appropriate than to translate them into religious dogma.
The latest developments however – as I see them translated into Hindu religious books in Bali – tend to deviate from the classic view of keturunan and return to the original concept of warna, an evident consequence of the now compulsory schooling system for every child.
In general caste in Bali is something that is only obvious in ceremonial matters but it lingers on in what one here refers to as adat or tradition. No one really understands why some things are being done but no one dares to ask and in order not to disrupt harmony one keeps on doing them. One example of this, which I personally find appalling, is the fact that lungsuran, i.e. the remnants of temple offerings which may be eaten after being consecrated, are not allowed to be shared with people of lower castes, even if they are poor children. -
diego Says:
September 10th, 2009 at 1:36 pmI personally find appalling, is the fact that lungsuran, i.e. the remnants of temple offerings which may be eaten after being consecrated, are not allowed to be shared with people of lower castes, even if they are poor children.
Seriously? These days? Where?
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September 11th, 2009 at 5:06 pmWhere?
In Gianyar, which cannot be considered a backwater.
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diego Says:
September 12th, 2009 at 12:41 amOh, gianyar…. no wonder. Lots of “high-caste” people there…. The cokordas and anak agungs. But depends, which puris?
*vomit*
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David Says:
September 14th, 2009 at 2:33 pmThe Cokordas in particular….ugh.
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September 14th, 2009 at 3:34 pmActually the title Cokorda is a contraction of two words cokor, meaning foot, and dewa meaning god, so something like ‘Divine Foot’. The underlying message is that ordinary folks had to crawl in the dust and were just good enough to look up and talk to this divine person’s foot, if they were allowed to talk at all. There seem to have been times this was literally the case. In the wayang theatre the servant Tualen always uses the full ‘Cokor Dewa’ when he talks to his master. The use of the term is equivalent to the old Javanese paduka (shoe) which is still used as a form of address e.g. Paduka Yang Mulia meaning His Excellency.
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diego Says:
September 14th, 2009 at 8:04 pmThe Cokordas in particular….ugh.
Patung, what was that “ugh”? Were you vomiting too? Y porque?
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diego Says:
September 14th, 2009 at 8:17 pmI guess you were vomiting patung. Let me guess, google told you something amusing about cokorda (?).
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September 14th, 2009 at 8:24 pmNo I just remember someone on the site who had a very long name with “Cokorda” in it….I need to spell it out?
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jitindia Says:
October 30th, 2010 at 2:00 pmHi to every body . I like to know about hindu society of indonesia.. i am from India
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