Today’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will be presented in Indonesian, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Greetings elegant viewers and welcome to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television. In today’s program, we will take an excursion to the island of Bali in the Republic of Indonesia to relish its harmonious cultural and architectural heritage.

Located to the east of Java, the 5,600 square kilometer sub-equatorial Southeast Asian island is endowed with majestic mountains, picturesque beaches, lush rainforests, and diverse fauna. In 2009, it was honored World’s Best Island by Travel and Leisure magazine.

To represent the spirit of this special place, the Bali Government Tourism Office has adopted a crowned floral triangle along with the motto “Bali Shanti Shanti Shanti.” Shanti means peace in the ancient Sanskrit language. The triangle symbolizes the Balinese philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, or the balance between God, nature, and humans.

It also alludes to the three main gods in Hinduism, the religion of the majority of the Balinese, namely Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The floral pattern represents the beauty and importance of the island’s environment. The crown stands for higher awareness and the nobility of the Balinese people.

Bali is home to approximately 3.5 million peaceful inhabitants the vast majority of whom farm rice, vegetables and delicious tropical fruits. The cultured Balinese are highly spiritual. According to folklore, the Supreme Lord Ida Sang Hyang Widhi created gods, animals, and fish and assigned them to the sky, the Earth and the ocean respectively. He then created humans and entrusted them to make the world a paradise.

The devotion to God can be seen in every aspect of Balinese life – from ritual dances to daily etiquette, from family altars to temples. Currently there are about 20,000 temples on the island. No wonder Bali is known as the Island of a Thousand Puras (Temples), or the Island of the Gods!

Bali means “offering” in the local language. Worshiping and making offering to the gods are as natural as breathing for the island residents. Let’s now visit a Balinese family, who are our Association members, and find out how they prepare such an offering.

We are making dakshina. Dakshina is a form of offering to gods and goddesses that occupy each family temple. Dakshina has a base that is made of sugar palm leaves. Its contents are coconut, banana, and sugar cane. Well, we arrange these things; we put them inside the container. Then there’s decoration that consists of some kinds of flowers. This is to beautify its appearance.

Now we are cleaning the coconut. This coconut is used for dakshina, it is an item for our ceremony. Usually it is done by a male. Usually we make a lot before the ceremony. This is made of ripe coconut. And then we will put it inside the container of dakshina.

Then, we also make another arrangement that is called gebogan. Gebogan is made of various kinds of fruits. So we choose the fruits that can be arranged and ones that make it look beautiful. Then there are some kinds of cake. And the last one is an arrangement of bananas.

This is dry cake that is made of rice. So the rice is dried before it is formed like this; it is cooked first and then it is dried and put in an oven so it can stay long. To beautify its appearance, we give various colors so it becomes a beautiful offering for the gods. The way to stick it is like this: we stick it with a stick of palm leaf so it doesn’t fall, we arrange it like this.

There are also some things made of flowers. This also makes it beautiful, beside it being an offering to God. We arrange them on the dakshina, so it looks like this.

Then we also make things called klakat. This is for the base of all the facets of our ceremony. This can be made by the males and the children. So we make it earlier because it can be stored long enough. This is from bamboo.

The way to use it is like this: we put it above, then we use it as the base. There are a lot of them. This is already done. We make them, then we gather them.

We teach the children how to do this, so when they become adults, they can do that. We teach them how to make this klakat.

To make it better, you do like this, okay? Yes. Make this neat! This one is too high, right? Where is the other, dear? This one. Well, you continue this in the middle. In the middle, dear. Is it already finished, dear?

When we offer this, we light the incense. This incense functions to quicken the arrival of the offering to God.

Balinese faith is deep-rooted and spiritual tenets are taught from childhood. A Balinese saying about property is as follows, “It's not my land anyway. Only gods can own land. Humans just borrow it for a while.”

Farming and village life are often organized in units larger than the family level. Subak is a farmer’s organization that collectively makes farming decisions, in particular with regards to controlling irrigation of rice fields. A banjar is a group of families in a village who work together on community projects such as keeping their area clean, renovating the local temple and so on. These two social structures truly make for strong, close-knit neighborly relations where residents truly care for one another.

We will be back in a moment after this brief message. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television for our program on the splendid island of Bali.

A traditional Balinese house consists of a family temple, sleeping quarters, a kitchen, a barn, and a few other structures on a square or rectangular lot. The entire complex is surrounded by a protective wall with one gate. The layout is usually designed in accordance with an ancient Hindu manuscript called Lontar Asta Kosala Kosali.

Other similar time-honored Hindu architectural texts describe the methods to identify a good location for a home, proper functions of different buildings, and rituals before commencing construction. Let us now join our Supreme Master Television correspondent who will serve as our guide for our tour of a Balinese residence, starting with its gate called angkul-angkul.

Angkul-angkul has its own significance as a private gate that is different from the common gate in Bali that is called “candi bentar.”

“Angkul-angkul” is divided into three parts, namely the roof part that is called the head, the middle part that is called the body and the bottom part that is called the foot.

In these two parts there is also a place for offerings and in Bali it is called “plangkiran.” So this place is used to welcome the guests, and has a function as a guardian of the Balinese traditional house.

Worship of God and respect for nature are the noticeable themes seen in the architecture of a classic Balinese home.

Generally the “nista zone” of the Balinese traditional house consists of three parts: the gate area, the kitchen area, and the “jineng” area.

This is the area that functions as a storage place for the harvest. So the upper part of this house stores many seeds to be planted in the coming suitable season. And this building also functions to receive guests, and as a place to have daily meals.

The main portion of a home, called madya, consists of the quarters for sleeping and family activities and a family temple area called utamaning utama.

Now we are in the part that is called madya. Madya means middle part. So in the middle part of traditional Balinese house, there is “bale daja,” and “bale delod.” “Bale delod” consists of one bed. Besides as a place to sleep, this also functions as a place to prepare the ceremony for the family and the ancestors.

“Bale delod” also functions as a place to receive relatives, to have a chat and to do daily activities. Bale daja functions primarily as a place to sleep, and it is usually occupied by the head of the family or the eldest son who is responsible for the whole family.

In bale daja, there is one main entrance. The door uses two door eaves, usually carved with a depiction of the Ramayana.

There are two main windows in this room.

In the middle of the madya, there is a place called sanggah surya, which is used for daily offerings to God.

Sanggah surya is the holy place where people everyday offer a flower called canang, as a holy offering or thankfulness to God, the Creator. This place is regarded as a place to worship the Highest God.

This sanggah surya consists of three parts, namely the main part, middle and “nista.” In the main part, there is a roof made of palm fiber, and the head is made of wood, and the body is made of bricks, and then the foot, or the base is usually simpler.

The main area of this Balinese traditional house is divided into two parts. The area of utamaning utama is a location for the sanggah, and the area of the utamaning madya is a place for the bed. Let’s see the utamaning utama area of this house.

In the utamaning utama area of the traditional Balinese house, usually we see one temple that is called merajan or sanggah. The merajan or the sanggah functions as a place to worship Ida Sang Hyang Widhi or The Highest One. It is also a place to worship ancestors. The front side or the gate of the sanggah is called paduraksa. Let’s see the parts that are called the merajan.

Sanggah or the merajan consists of many buildings that are called pelinggih. Each of them functions as the seats of different gods. In the area west of the sanggah, there is a building where the priest leads the ceremony, who sits in the middle of this bale. There are a lot of pelinggih. Meanwhile, the main parts of this holy place or the merajan are in the north and in the east that represent the places to worship Ida Sang Hyang Widhi, or The Highest One.

To close today’s show we have briefly touched on the beautiful religious, cultural, and architectural traditions of Bali and seen how truly marvelous the Balinese people are. May the noble Balinese traditions be cherished and carried forward for a peaceful and sustainable future on this ethereal island!

Gentle-hearted viewers, thank you for being with us on today’s episode of A Journey through Aesthetic Realms.

Up next is Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, after Noteworthy News. May enlightenment and blissfulness always be part of your life