by admin | Oct 19, 2009 | Artikel
The Meaning Of Water In Balinese Traditional Garden by Mugi Raharja, translated by Putu Agus Bharatayadnya.
Balinese Traditional Garden
This study is concern about the meaning of water in Balinese tradition garden by using Hermeneutic philosophy approach. Balinese Traditional Garden is a natural building area which is influenced by natural condition, civilization proccess and its culture development. Start from years ago, Balinese Kings had local genius aspect to organize natural building in kind of garden with dominate of water element and It was watched from its desain object which was various and special local superior in gardening sector. In Balinese garden, water always needed because according to Hindu beliaving, water is one of 5 nature elements , called Panca Mahabhuta in Balinese. They are: Apah (liquid element), Teja (ray element), Bayu (air element), Akasa (sky element), Pertiwi (land element). Water element in gardens design of Balinese kingdom inheritage, was based of looking for inmortal water (amertha) philosophy . This philosophy resource was from Adi Parwa texts, one part of Mahabharata epic which contains god and godness stories. In ancient Hindu kingdom age, the stories was objected with relief form in Sangku Sudamala, Raja Asthasura Ratna Bumi Banten stone container written in 1329 AD at Pusering Jagat temple in Pejeng village, Gianyar regency. The another Philosophy is from Circling Mandhala Giri in Ksirarnawa philosophy. It is storing about Gods and denawa (mythical gigantic demon) stir up Ksirarnawa sea together by using Mandhara mountain helped by Dragon Basuki as cicling string , a giant turtle reincarnation of Visnu called Kurma awatara hold up mountain ground and dewa indra (God of war) hold up the top of mountain to make it has not throw out. They are looking for inmortal water (amertha) in Ksirarnawa sea because it beliaving, who drink amertha, they have inmortal life.
Gardening in ancient Balinese age have a square form type structures of Holy pool, Bathing pool, shower pool and it have fungtion as religion activity, for examples Tirta Empul Bathing Garden, builded by King Indra Jaya Singha Warmadewa (960 AD) and Goa Gajah bathing pool garden, Bedulu village, subregency of Blahbatuh, Gianyar Regency. It was calculated which builded during King Anak Wungsu government (1049-1077).
Middle Age Balinese Garden have Water pool or telaga Bale Kambang atau Meru building Land in centre of pool and it have Design philosophy likes,Building is Mandhara Giri symbol and Pool is Ksirarnawa symbol, for examples, first is Gili Puri Semarapura garden Was buided by King I Dewa Agung Jambe, when was buiding Semarapura palace in Klungkung, 1710, second is Taman Sari temple, Was builded in the same age with Gili Puri Semarapura garden and located in Banjar Sengguan, 500 metres north east of Puri Semarapura in Klungkung regency. Taman Ayun temple. Inheritage of Mengwi Kingdom and It was builded in the same age with Puri Mengwi in 627. It was legitimated when inaugurating the first Mengwi king, Ida Cokorda Sakti Blambangan (I Gusti Agung Ngurah Made Agung) . In this temple, Island/land is Mandhara Giri symbol and Pool/pond is Ksirarnawa symbol, third is Tirta Gangga garden, Inheritage of Karangasem Kingdom, It is located in Ababi village, Abang subregency, Karangasem regency and Builded by King Anak Agung Bagus Jelantik (Ida Anak Agung Anglurah Ktut Karangasem), in 1948. The Philosophy behind this place are Water tower Jalatunda is Mandhara Giri symbol and water pool is Ksirarnawa symbol. The last is Ujung Garden (Sukasada), It was builded by Raja Anak Agung Bagus Jelantik (Ida Anak Agung Anglurah Ktut Karangasem) in the same time with Agung Kanginan palace building in1909. This garden have Pavilion building as Mandhara Giri and water pool as Ksirarnawa, both are the philosophy symbols of Ujung garden.
So, the meaning of water in Balinese traditional garden are for Religion fungtion to take the holy water for religion ritual, ecology and konservation fungtions: preservation and protection of water spring sources (kelebutan)in Balinese, rivers, lakes, seas and natural environment, agrarian fungtion: for irrigating in rice field and social fungtion: for recreation place (interaction fungtion).
by admin | Aug 27, 2009 | Artikel
The Function Of Water (Tirtha) In Balinese Hindu Rituals
By
Ida Ayu Made Puspani and Ni Wayan Sukarini
e-mail:[email protected]/[email protected]
Waters in South and Southeast Asia: Interaction of Culture and Religion
3rd SSEASR Conference, Bali Island, Indonesia
June 3-6, 2009
I. INTRODUCTION
The Balinese belief and worship of Hindu Dharma in Bali governs all the activities of the daily life of the Balinese. The three basic fundamentals of Hindu Dharma are Yadnya (rituals), Tattwa (philosophy) and Susila (moral behaviour), which are interacted to form Balinese culture.
Hindu religion is originated from India. The practice of the Philosophy in the Balinese Hindu in Bali is almost similar to the practice of Hindu in India whereas in Balinese Hindu is more attached to the local culture. Basic practice of rituals are based on the Vedas (Holy Manuscript) and the philosophy of Yadnya (rituals ) are also referring to it. There are five types of Yadnya
( means holy sacrifice with a pure heart) in Balinese Hindu: 1)Dewa Yadnya: to the Gods and Goddesses as manifestations of the Supreme Being. 2)Pitra Yadnya: to the ancestors who give the people guidance in life and gave them the opportunity to be born. 3) Manusa Yadnya: to protect our lives and those of future generations 4)Rsi Yadnya: to the priests who guide us all on our spiritual journey. 5) Bhuta Yadnya: to any other beings (visible and invisible) to ensure that there will be harmony and unity in nature.
In Hindu believers there are important elements of nature to be considered as the guideline of rituals in retaining the harmonious living of the human being (Nair,2009). Those elements comprise of: earth, water, fire, air, and ether or sky ( which are called as panchamahabhuta). Among the five elements water is represented by a circle symbolises fullness based on the graphical depiction of panchamahabhuta. Primarily water is the building block of life and all the living beings are at the mercy of God, for the water.
In India as well as in Bali water has been an object of worship from time immemorial, which signifies the non-manifested substratum from which all manifestation arise. This leads the practice of utilizing water as the purification of all rituals. In conducting every religious rite, the presence of holy water is the most important part of all Balinese ceremonies (Agastia, 2007). Holy water accompanies every act of Balinese-Hindu worship from individual devotion at household shrine to island-wide ceremonies.
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by admin | Aug 26, 2009 | Artikel
Simbolisme Air Dalam Teks Tantu Panggelaran Oleh Turita Indah Setyani[1]
Makalah pada Seminar Internasional:
Waters in South and Southeast Asia: Interaction of Culture and Religion
3rd SSEASR Conference, Bali Island, Indonesia June 3-6, 2009
Membahas tentang air dapat dilihat dari berbagai aspek dalam kehidupan ini. Kita mengetahui dalam tubuh manusia terdiri atas 70 % air. Itu menyiratkan bahwa air sangat penting bagi tubuh manusia dan di dalam kehidupan ini. Bagi tubuh manusia dan dalam kehidupan sehari-hari air digunakan untuk minum. Selain itu, air juga dibutuhkan untuk kesehatan, sehingga disarankan meminum air 10-12 gelas (2,5-3 liter) per hari untuk bersirkulasinya cairan dalam tubuh supaya tidak terjadi pendendapan-pengendapan. Hal itu juga dimaksudkan untuk pembersihan dari suatu penyakit. Di beberapa daerah, khususnya Jawa dan sekitarnya, air dianggap suci karena digunakan sebagai sarana ritual-ritual, baik untuk pembersihan atau pensucian diri (mandi air kembang) maupun benda-benda pusaka (jamasan). Bahkan dalam agama air juga sebagai simbol pensucian diri. Misalnya dalam agama Islam, air digunakan untuk berwudhu sebelum melaksanakan sholat; dalam agama Katholik, air digunakan untuk pembaptisan. Contoh-contoh tersebut menggambarkan bahwa air digunakan sebagai simbol pensucian atau pembersihan dari kekotoran atau dari segala sesuatu yang bersifat tidak suci. Bagi manusia, pensucian atau pembersihan terhadap diri dari kekotoran fisik atau dari pikiran-pikiran duniawi. Penamaan air pun muncul dengan beberapa istilah yang dibedakan menurut maknanya masing-masing, khususnya dalam kehidupan masyarakat Jawa, air atau banyu, toya, way/wai (bahasa Jawa Kuna) disebut juga tirta (udhaka, Sansekerta). Pepatah Jawa meyebutkan “Ajining diri ana ing lathi, ajining raga ana ing busana, agama ageming diri.” Untuk memaknai hal semacam itu tentunya dibutuhkan pengetahuan simbolis berdasarkan latar belakang budaya yang dimiliki oleh masyarakat yang menggunakan air tersebut sebagai simbol pensucian diri.
Air pun banyak dibicarakan dalam karya-karya sastra Jawa, di antaranya menyebutkan juga bahwa air sebagai sumber kehidupan. Salah satu karya sastra tersebut yang akan dibahas dalam makalah ini adalah teks Tantu Panggelaran (TP). Karena teks TP merupakan karya sastra Jawa, maka untuk mengungkapkan makna simbolik di dalamnya dibutuhkan pengetahuan simbolis yang berkaitan dengan latar belakang budaya Jawa. Sementara itu, teori yang digunakan untuk memaknai simbol-simbol adalah yang dikemukan oleh Charles Sanders Peirce. Ia menyatakan bahwa simbol yaitu tanda yang paling canggih karena sudah berdasarkan persetujuan dalam masyarakat (konvensi). Contoh: bahasa merupakan simbol karena berdasarkan konvensi yang telah ada dalam suatu masyarakat. Selain itu, rambu-rambu lalu-lintas, kode simpul tali kepramukaan, kode S.O.S. juga merupakan simbol. Menurut Peirce dalam hubungan pembentukan
[1]
[1] Staf Pengajar pada Program Studi Jawa, Fakultas Ilmu Pengetahuan Budaya UI.
Program Studi Jawa, FIB UI, gedung 3 lantai 1. Kampus UI, Depok. Tlp./Fax. 021-78880208. Hp 081319570009 atau 021-93846124. Email: [email protected]
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by admin | Aug 26, 2009 | Artikel
Hindu Ritual Of Ngotonin In Bali
(A Discourse Analysis Approach)
By
I Made Rajeg, Luh Putu Laksminy, and Ni Luh Ketut Mas Indrawati
Balinese culture, in the course of its growth, has been passing a long road of history. It is mirrored by the firm bond of Balinese culture and Hindu since the beginning of the Anno Domini age, and by the integration within the skeleton system of national culture and modern era as well. (Mantra, 1993:11; Geria, 1995:91; Pitana, 1998:28-29).
Hindu, as one element of Balinese cultures, provides paths for Hindus to get closer to their Maker, their God; one of them is through Yadnya. The teachings related to yadnya is named Panca Yadnya, i.e. five kinds of yadnya ceremonies or sacrificing ceremonies. One of the ceremonies is Manusa Yadnya (sacrifice ceremony to humankinds). Ngotonin ritual, one kind of Manusa Yadnya, is carried out to humans in their age of six months, and is regularly held in the interval of the next six months during their lives. Ngotonin has a deeply religious emotion – not only a form of human effort to protect an individual and rinse the darkness of their thoughts out, but also to clean up the way humans think since it is believed only from the holly and purified humans’ thoughts are the positive ideas, which are beneficial for themselves and others, born they mark, with sometimes elaborate purification ceremonies. (Wenten, 1999:1-12, Upadesa (1978:63; Koentjaraningrat, 1985: 40-46; Eiseman, 1988: 84). The prayer produced orally in the process of ngotonin ritual is a language in use, whatever the form it takes and indicates the relationship between language, culture and structure, considering the social structure as one part of the social system. The spoken prayer can be recoded in written text and becomes the reflection of Balinese culture and give the identity symbol of ethnic groups if it is seen from its context of situation in which it is used.
It is very important that a text is characterized by coherence, it hangs together and an important contribution to coherence comes from cohesion as these sets of linguistic resources that every language has (as part of textual meta-function) for linking one part of the text to another. (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 1). The text consists of some features of the context of situation. It is important for us to know the context of situation of a text. By knowing the context of situation of a text we will be able to predict what are other people going to say and by doing so we understand what he or she does say (Koentjaraningrat, 1985: 40-46, Halliday (1985). This study will concern with the function of spoken prayer that is recoded in written text by relates it to context of situation.
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by admin | Aug 26, 2009 | Artikel
The challenge of finding out the relevance of traditional religious notions remains a fresh concern for the local church in the Philippines, a predominantly Christian nation in the heart of Asia. Enriched by its diverse religious traditions, the Philippines no doubt stand as a witness to the constant quest to find meaning about one’s faith. In general, there is the quest to find the relevance of faith practices within the daily grind of life. Within this picture, there is the search for religious meaning which is given life through inquiries that ask about the truths proposed in the Christian faith. The search for religious meaning is captured in the specific inquiry to make sense out of the growing demands and difficulties of life. Today questions about God and evil are raised to address the difficulties between the spiritual and the material. Traditionally, the question of God and evil are raised in the level of adults who raise the cry of pain or protest. Nothing much is heard, from a religious angle, about children’s notions for the simple reason that their mindset is too simple to handle such a delicate subject. How has the question of evil reverberated in the consciousness of the young pupils today? Hence, this paper seeks to address that issue by finding out how sixth graders interpret “evil” today. In particular, this paper wants to know how the sixth graders from selected public schools in Manila appropriate notions of evil today by evaluating their contemporary concepts of evil. This paper shall therefore describe the essential aspects of their notion of evil as gleaned from survey data from the students and shall analyze how emergent themes that are taken from their notions reflect particular popular mindsets.
The problem of Evil
The challenge of writing about evil rests on these framed limitations: (a) that it had always been defined as a negative reality in Christian sources, (b) that most discourses if not all takes evil in terms of its relationship to God and the good, (c) that by these characteristics, evil do not enjoy an epistemological distinction as a reality. The first two difficulties reflect traditional theological and Christian discourses on evil. Of late, current attempts have tilted towards rational discourses. In particular, philosophical and ethical discussions have proliferated in academic circles and literature. Indicative of this are the recent works of some scholars in the ethical practice such as that of Susan Neiman and Claudia Card. From the theological field, theological discussions remain anchored in traditional categories such as creation, God and spirituality.
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