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Rice - Then My Mind Wandered
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Did You Know?
Rice is the staple food of a large part of the world and is attended with many superstitions and has many powers attributed to it. Did you know that:
In Bali rice grains are believed to have a soul and it is customary to address them as "Mother rice", " grandmother rice" or whatever soul you believe inhabits the rice grains you are addressing. You do talk to your rice don't you?
I must tell my own personal Bali story. The first time I was in Bali I was attending a pre bid conference at the famous Bali Hai Hotel and on the first morning I was there I arose very early and went outside for a walk just after sunrise. I noticed that a little Balinese girl about six years old was putting small bits of rice from a bowl in her hand into a small niche Hindu shrine in a rock garden wall. Almost as fast as she was putting it in there the birds would swoop down and eat the rice and the little girl who had backed off from the wall would return and put another hand full of rice in the niche. About the time she did this the second time I saw our driver that we had hired coming down the walk and I knew that he spoke excellent English. I asked him if he would ask the little Balinese girl what she was doing. He talked to her then turned to me and said, "She says that she is feeding the Gods and does this every morning with half of her breakfast rice." I made a remark that she ought to shoot the birds then because they were stealing all of the rice and the driver told the little girl what I said. The little girl replied through him "Oh no, the birds carry the rice to the gods". I like that. I have a slide picture of that little girl and her niche shrine somewhere.
Later the same day about four of us were riding around in the car and our driver took us to a beach on the extreme eastern end of the island. There was a crew of about twenty old men down there building two shacks or cabanas on the beach made of bamboo and resembling a US Indian teepee except maybe a bit bigger. Our driver said "We are in luck. This is the day for the washing of the gods. It is done once a year and will happen here in a few minutes. It is quite colorful ,would you like to stay and see it.?" We opined that we would.. In a moment a gang of about twenty Balinese teenagers came down to the beach dressed in normal Indonesian garb and carrying a mound of clothes in their arms. The bamboo houses were complete and all of the boys gathered around one and the girls around the other and one at a time went into these houses and changed into very colorful long robes or maybe sarongs and just filled their hair with flowers. Our driver explained that the Hindu gods would arrive soon and that some would be female gods and some male gods and that the two sexes of idols would be on separate platforms and that the female idols should be bathed only by female virgins and the male idols should be bathed only by male virgins. About this time the idols did arrive on two huge platforms laden with flowers and carried on the shoulders of four men for each ---big burly mean looking men. There were about four idols on each platform and they were all basically representations of men or women from about the waist up and were carved very beautifully from grey limestone, or at least it looked like that. The men carrying the idols walked into the sea until they were about waist deep in the water and then lowered the platforms off their shoulders until it just reached the surface of the ocean. The girls all ran out into the sea in their fine clothes and gathered around one platform and began scrubbing the idols with what appeared to be large sponges. The boys did likewise around the other platform. One very old frail man went out in front of the two platforms and was busy waving his arms and talking while the laundry activity was in process. Then the burly characters carrying the platforms raised them back up on their shoulders and started marching off into the little village nearby. Our driver had told us that once the idols were on the beach we should remain silent and that we should not drink or smoke until they had left.
One more Bali story. It also happened on the same day. We were driving through a Balinese park when a huge crowd appeared with two guys in the lead each carrying a kris. A kris is a long wavy dagger about the size of a bayonet. These two men were obviously very angry with each other. We asked our driver what was up. He said that one of the men —the older one–was married to a very pretty girl and that the younger man had been caught in a compromising position with the older man’s wife and that they were going to have a duel and one was going to kill the other. I asked if we could watch and he said "Of course" so we left the car and we tagged along with the crowd.. They came to a little clearing in the forest and each contestant wrapped a towel around their left arm from the elbow to the wrist and used this wrapped arm as a shield and began thrusting at each other with obvious murderous intent. This went on for maybe five minutes which is a long time when someone is trying to stab you with a wavy dagger. Then the younger man made a slash and caught the older man off guard and cut a slash across his left biceps—not deep enough to require stitches but deep enough to cause an adequate flow of blood.. The two men threw down their daggers and the younger man brought out a clean handkerchief and was binding up his opponents wound. I asked the driver "Is he going to kill him now." The driver replied "He just did. Didn’t you see the blood?" "But he is still alive", I remonstrated. "Of course he is", the driver said "We don’t kill people in Bali in duels, we just make them bleed. Actually they are good friends" I asked if the younger man was going to stay away from the older man’s wife now". The driver shrugged and said "Who knows?"
I also had some adventures at the cock fight in Bali but I’ll save that for another time. Also my entrance into the deserted Hindu temple in the jungle.
Bali is an absolutely gorgeous place and the people are gentle and friendly and attractive. It has been thirty three years since I was there last. I hope that it hasn’t changed too much. I wish all of you could spend a week there.
Love
Dad, Granmjpa, ami
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