Pecked to Death by Ducks

Author:Tim Cahill [Cahill, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-77841-3
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2011-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

As in Europe, there are some few people familiar with the origin and meaning of the ancient rituals. I. Ketut Suwena was one. He was fifty-two, the klian, or headman, of the banjar of Jangu. A banjar is an organization of households—usually several hundred of them—and is the most important social unit on the island. The banjar dispenses justice according to the traditional law called adat.

The banjar of Jangu is famous for its folk trances: nighttime ceremonies in which the people gather and sing while men in a state of trance perform feats of strength or dexterity that they could not do in a waking state. They climb trees like monkeys, lift heavy objects with the small finger of the right hand, or run barefoot through three-foot-high mounds of blazing coconut husks.

The trances, or sanghyangs, Ketut explained, were originally performed in times of trouble, especially when the banjar was threatened by disease. “You see,” he said, “when Sira Mede Mecaling came to Bali from the island of Nusa Pinida, he brought with him many butas and kalas.” Mecaling is considered the overlord of the evil spirits. Butas and kalas are various demons whose joy in the spirit world consists of tormenting human beings with grief and illness. The overlord went to Bali’s most powerful benevolent god, Ida Batara Dalem Besakih, and asked permission to bring sickness on the land. Permission was granted, though the butas and kalas could not afflict those villages where the proper sacrifices were performed.

“But,” Ketut explained, “Sira Mede Mecaling is evil and sometimes does not keep his promises.” Sometimes, even after the sacrifices are performed according to ritual, the demonic followers of the evil god visit sickness upon the land. The rice crop may fail. Epidemics may occur.

“If my family is sick,” Ketut said, “I am helpless. Then I may see a monkey at the door. I know this monkey is an evil spirit, and I chase it away, but I cannot catch it, because I am not strong enough or fast enough. So I go to the god of my banjar, and I make an offering of flowers and food. I ask for the strength to chase the evil spirit. And the god allows me to go into a trance and become the monkey. Then I can climb trees and am very strong. I do this in front of all the people in the banjar, and the women sing the old songs to help me chase away the spirit. Then, later, the sickness is gone.”

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