The banjars are busy looking for animal for sacrifice (caru). As it is a highest level (utama) ceremony, it needs many kinds of animals. The higher the ceremony, the more animals are needed.
“It is very difficult to get a kuluk blang bungkem (tabby dog),” says I Wayan Lantang Kejokan.
“I’ve gone to many traditional markets since this morning, nobody sell that kind of puppy.”
It’s a ceremony seasons. Each village is trying to show off by carrying out higher level of ceremonies. Nobody wants to carry out the lower level where using one chicken would probably be fine, instead they want the highest one, and they want to use a water buffalo if necessary, and dozens of priests as well.
“I came inside to everybody’s house to find a kuluk blang bungkem. I didn’t find any, nor a local puppy. I found more western dogs like herder, rotweiller, and dalmation,” says Wayan.
Of course the imported puppies do not fit for ceremony. In ancient time we didn’t have that kind of dogs that fed 2 kg of meat and sent to veterinarian once a week.
“You are right, Yan. I’ve been searching for a brumbun rooster, but nobody has. They say that it is difficult to find that kind of rooster as less and less people has local chicken, they prefer to have roosters,” says Ketut Carut Marut
It is understandable, that the more ceremonies, the more cockfighting will be held. The longer the ceremony will take, the longer the cockfighting, so more and more roosters you need.
Finally I got the brumbun chicken from Javanese vendors. It’s so colourful, bright red, stunning blue and strong green,” says Ketut. All the kramas are laughing. One of them say, “How stupid you are. You know, it is a painted chicken. The Javanese sell them to the Balinese children.”
“How creative are the Javanese. We should imitate what they do. What we just need to is to spray-paint the chicken and puppies, instead of looking back and forth for rare animal,” says Ketut. “To breed them is very difficult. Well for chicken, duck, puppy is not a problem. What about tiger, eagle and other wild animals? You might be sent to jail for having protected animals,” says Wayan. What if just replace them with the pictures of them for ceremony purpose. “Doesn’t it mean that we cheat the gods. We are just pretending to dedicate animals for sacrifice, but in fact, it is only a picture of them. What if the gods bless you something which is not real, only a picture of it. Would you accept that?” I Nyoman Babakan Polé
The kramas are all quiet. They are used to cheat the village bank, cheating political party is common for them, cheating their wives are something they do most of the time, but cheating the gods? Who dare to do that?
If we didn’t find the animal we need for sacrifice, why don’t we just stopped using animal for sacrifice. Or we might use Amrozy, Iman Samudra and Ali Gufron for sacrifice (caru)” says Nyoman.
The kramas are all laughing. They think that it is much easier to find a winged snake, than using Amrozy et. al for sacrifice. Because even the armed parties don’t dare to, let alone people like them who just have knives.
Glossary:
Kuluk Blang Bungkem: a puppy with orange brownish fur
I Wayan Lantang Kejokan: Refers to short person
Brumbun: A rooster with colourful feathers (mostly red and brown colour).
Ketut Carut Marut: A person with lots of problem that can be seen from his face
I Nyoman Babakan Polé: Somebody who speaks straightly and sometimes a bit crazy
“It is very difficult to get a kuluk blang bungkem (tabby dog),” says I Wayan Lantang Kejokan.
“I’ve gone to many traditional markets since this morning, nobody sell that kind of puppy.”
It’s a ceremony seasons. Each village is trying to show off by carrying out higher level of ceremonies. Nobody wants to carry out the lower level where using one chicken would probably be fine, instead they want the highest one, and they want to use a water buffalo if necessary, and dozens of priests as well.
“I came inside to everybody’s house to find a kuluk blang bungkem. I didn’t find any, nor a local puppy. I found more western dogs like herder, rotweiller, and dalmation,” says Wayan.
Of course the imported puppies do not fit for ceremony. In ancient time we didn’t have that kind of dogs that fed 2 kg of meat and sent to veterinarian once a week.
“You are right, Yan. I’ve been searching for a brumbun rooster, but nobody has. They say that it is difficult to find that kind of rooster as less and less people has local chicken, they prefer to have roosters,” says Ketut Carut Marut
It is understandable, that the more ceremonies, the more cockfighting will be held. The longer the ceremony will take, the longer the cockfighting, so more and more roosters you need.
Finally I got the brumbun chicken from Javanese vendors. It’s so colourful, bright red, stunning blue and strong green,” says Ketut. All the kramas are laughing. One of them say, “How stupid you are. You know, it is a painted chicken. The Javanese sell them to the Balinese children.”
“How creative are the Javanese. We should imitate what they do. What we just need to is to spray-paint the chicken and puppies, instead of looking back and forth for rare animal,” says Ketut. “To breed them is very difficult. Well for chicken, duck, puppy is not a problem. What about tiger, eagle and other wild animals? You might be sent to jail for having protected animals,” says Wayan. What if just replace them with the pictures of them for ceremony purpose. “Doesn’t it mean that we cheat the gods. We are just pretending to dedicate animals for sacrifice, but in fact, it is only a picture of them. What if the gods bless you something which is not real, only a picture of it. Would you accept that?” I Nyoman Babakan Polé
The kramas are all quiet. They are used to cheat the village bank, cheating political party is common for them, cheating their wives are something they do most of the time, but cheating the gods? Who dare to do that?
If we didn’t find the animal we need for sacrifice, why don’t we just stopped using animal for sacrifice. Or we might use Amrozy, Iman Samudra and Ali Gufron for sacrifice (caru)” says Nyoman.
The kramas are all laughing. They think that it is much easier to find a winged snake, than using Amrozy et. al for sacrifice. Because even the armed parties don’t dare to, let alone people like them who just have knives.
Glossary:
Kuluk Blang Bungkem: a puppy with orange brownish fur
I Wayan Lantang Kejokan: Refers to short person
Brumbun: A rooster with colourful feathers (mostly red and brown colour).
Ketut Carut Marut: A person with lots of problem that can be seen from his face
I Nyoman Babakan Polé: Somebody who speaks straightly and sometimes a bit crazy
From ‘Bungklang Bungkling’, ‘Buron’, in Bali Post, Sunday, 9 November 2008, a column by I Wayan Juniartha.Translated by Putu Semiada
