The artful offerings handmade daily by thousands of women are one of the most beautiful performances in Bali.

The amount of work that is done in preparing an offering is itself an element of worship to the creator, for the gift of life.

It is the fragility of little palm leaf baskets, the gentleness of the colors that makes these pieces of art so unique. They follow the principle of “Panca Warna” – Five Colors: Green, Blue, Red, White and Orange. Each color has a distinct meaning and purpose in connection to a specific God. For example Red for Brahma, White for Ishvara and Blue for Vishnu.

These little offerings you can not only find in Temples but in many other places where blessings are asked for: in front of a house, at a holy tree, a shrine close to a holy spring, on the beach, even on a motorbike and a car.

Have a look and Enjoy!

IMG_0937IMG_0186IMG_0324 IMG_0322IMG_1370IMG_1369

Recently I found this little story about how Balinese imagine the creation of humans:

According to this myth the seven celestial sisters, the Pleiades, descended to earth in wing-like sarongs.

While they bathed a Prince came and stole the sarong of one of the seven sisters. He told her he would only return the sarong when she bore him a child. The Goddess gave in and gave birth. This was the first human being. She said: “You may have this child for his brief life on earth, but after that remember, he returns to me.”

 

It is said that even today mothers take their crying babies outside and point to the stars, saying: “That is the place we all come from and where we all return and there is no need to weep.”