38. The spirits stroll freely in the streets of Ubud, Bali

By Filipe Morato Gomes	Where is Ubud?
In Ubud, Bali, I entered in a world of mysticism, secular traditions and strong beliefs. Wearing a Balinese sarong, I attended to a religious ceremony that only takes place every two hundred and ten days. All that happened in Ubud, undoubtedly the heart of a different Bali - the one that travellers can't see in wild Kuta.

It is inaccurate. The picture painted by worldwide travel agencies about a tropical island like Bali, focusing on its palm trees, sunny days, beaches with exciting waves and sexy tanned bodies is inaccurate and, besides all, unfair. Because that is not Bali. And because with such sort of advertising, tourists and holidaymakers in general tend to go away without learning anything at all about the culture that welcomes them. And that is very unfair to the amazing Balinese people.

Women carrying offers to be purified at a religious ceremony in a temple of Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

That was what seemed to happen in Bali. Many tourists didn't risk further than Kuta bustling life, the busiest and most commercial of all the villages in the island of Bali. But the core of Bali, what really makes it such an attractive and fascinating place, is its vibrating culture as well as the traditions of the people who inhabit it. Leaving Kuta is entering a different world and Ubud, a few kilometres farther, is one of the most significant places of that different world.

Getting to Ubud, after coming from Kuta, meant a flurry of fresh air. One could grasp that the city had indeed something mystic and charming. A walk along the streets of Ubud unveiled all of a sudden a world of traditions, strong beliefs, spirituality and a way of living where the union of the family is an essential value. The local architecture was rich, nice, and different from everything I had already put my eyes on in other places.

The families lived in house complexes with exceptionally beautiful features. Several buildings co-existed, with different functions, around a playground or well cared central garden. A small house had rooms for the intermediate generations and their offspring. Another one, a few centimetres above the ground - a level upper than all the other houses - was the shelter point for the eldest of the family. The respect which is due to the older generation, wise and experienced, is something essential in a society where they are never abandoned or sent to old people's homes.

Danau Bratan Temple, north of Bali

In a precise location, next to the mountains, every family had it's own a temple. Everyday, the women prepared offerings containing flowers, incenses and rice cooked in the early morning; everything laid on quadrangular pieces of banana tree leaves. “The food is to feed the bad devils; the flowers are for the good spirits”, a native assured me. They scattered the offers about everywhere around the complex and splashed water, which was supposed to have been blessed, onto the ground. A ritual which was repeated everyday without exception in the houses and streets of Ubud, the heart of Balinese mysticism.

Ubud was full of all sorts of rituals and ceremonies. There were shows of traditional dances every night as well as a wide range of religious ceremonies. At a certain night almost all population started heading for a temple which was situated in the western zone of the city. A ceremony which took place every two hundred and twenty days was about to begin. “When does it start?”, I inquired. “Right now”, a Balinese man answered back. “But you are not allowed to enter the temple unless you wear a sarong”, he warned me. I went ahead to the temple.

Every morning, Balinese women place small offers to the spirits in their houses, Ubud, Bali

At the entrance, before coming in, I was given a dark-blue sarong, around my waist, and a sort of white kerchief around the head. And I stepped into the temple. What I could watch was an intense and fascinating ceremony. Women carried on their heads rounded trays with huge offers for the spirits. They consisted of several levels of fruit, many cakes and other goods I could not find out. Everything was colourful and well decorated, forming beautifully harmonious trays. The women then took the offers inside the temple and prayed at the same time as men did it. Then they were given holy water with which they symbolically washed their hands, their body and their face, before putting rice grains on their foreheads. “A symbol of prosperity”, explained one of the attendants in the ceremony. The offers were also “purified” with “holy water” and when the ritual was over, they were taken out of the temple. The women carried the trays again on their heads towards their homes where, in the company of their families, they were supposed to delight themselves with the tastes of the “purified” goods.

It was dark, and the falling rain gave an extra touch of mysticism to the queues of women who carried their offers along the village streets. At that night, the spirits strolled freely in the streets of Ubud.

(originally written in Portuguese)

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