Offerings

In Bali, offerings ("banten" in Indonesian) are everywhere.  Usually small, they follow specific traditions that dictate timing and design to send the appropriate message to demons, or low spirits that need to be appeased; or deities with the power to support good things in your life.

Some offerings are very simple, just a few grains of cooked rice on a square of palm leaf.  But most are filled with flowers (specific colors in their proper place), sweets or other foods, and sometimes coins.

Offerings are usually made by women in their homes, and it is usually women who walk around every day with trays of offerings and place them with the appropriate ritual.

(There is also the option of buying offerings in the market, but most people make them daily themselves, because part of what is being offered is the work that goes into them.)

Did I mention that offerings are everywhere in Bali?  You will see them on the sidewalk or ground in front of a home,

perched on a statue,

and by the side of a shrine in a rice field.

Offerings are on motorcycles and cars,

in front of the rice pot in the kitchen hearth,

and on the counter of your family's business.

Offerings are piled at the bath emanating from the holy spring,

on the hillside shrine for the waterfall,

and behind the instruments of the women's gamelan orchestra.

Often you will see offerings that have been half eaten by dogs or chickens, stepped on, or run over by cars.  That doesn't matter, because the point is to make the offering, and once made it is literally out of your hands.

At the central Temple in Bali on Mount Agung, we saw an empty cylindrical beehive sitting with offerings at a shrine, in the hopes the visit would convey good fortune for the beehive when taken out to the forest.

Offerings play a central role in Balinese religion (Hindu) and culture.  But for me, their constant presence seemed also a way to preserve a sense of gratitude that we Americans too often lose track of.

So, how to bring this home with us?  In Bali, offerings constantly remind us that there is nothing that we have or accomplish on our own.  When we get home, I will have to find my own path to remember to express gratitude for the help and forbearance I receive.