Bali - Temple of the Moon

Bali is the island everybody dreams about. An island out there in the Pacific full of dancing girls conjured up by ‘South Pacific’. When I went there with my wife, somewhere back in the seventies I was surprised that it was all part of Indonesia. Not a big island, but bigger than I thought it would be, and stuck down in the south of Indonesia.

Bali was still an adventure, Australians were plentiful, but Europeans and Americans were less evident, and most were there for the sun and beach. Certainly when we went to the pool I would be encircled by new Australians telling me what was wrong with the Poms. The pool at the Bali Grand Hyatt was big enough, but somehow I felt they couldn’t wait for me to justify their leaving the U.K. We quickly found an obliging taxi driver who realised we were happy to see anything that was local and different.

‘I will take you to the ‘Moon Festival,’ not many tourists go there but it is not far,’ was his first suggestion. He did find plenty of other festivities, but the ‘Moon Festival’ was the first.

It wasn’t that far to the Ubad area and as it was March we could see the principle ceremony of the year at the Moon Temple at Pejeng. The ‘Pumama’ the passing of the full moon sees the Balinese women of the village carrying enormous and elaborate bowls of fruit and food to offer at the temple. The temple, Pura Pentataran Sasih, has the ‘Moon of Pejeng’ as the centrepiece of its celebration; a large bronze gong kettle drum with the ancient statues of Gadjah and Siwa flanking it at the main offering grounds.

We found the whole ceremony fascinating but it was quite some time ago and now when I ask recent visitors what they thought of it, it definitely has changed. We were never asked to wear sarong or sashes, and the wearing of sashes only occurred at the tourist spots. The one thing nobody seems to see nowadays is the ‘headless chickens’ it would seem that has been stopped, certainly if any tourists are around. The ‘headless chickens’ you may ask, well they chopped the heads off the chickens, and what happens. The nerve system lets them run around without a head for a few seconds. Quite amazing, but not pleasant.

Next time I blog on Bali I’ll tell you about the cock fighting.