Daily Life in Bali - Offerings. Everywhere.

A hand-woven basket, a stick of incense, some flower petals and
a bit of greenery - a typical daily offering as seen everywhere in Bali.
They are about 3 inches across.

Outside a shop in Ubud.  This is about 2 feet across.

There is an obsession in Bali of making offerings to gods that is something I have never witnessed before.  The area where we are staying is predominantly Hindu, and I’ve had a small glimpse into daily life of that religion.

Stone elephant with flowers in his ears
outside a family compound.

Stone statues are good for holding offerings

Just because it was pretty.

These offerings have some burning coconut husk
laid out with them.  

Sometimes there is one cracker.  Sometimes
it's a package of 5 or 6 crackers.  

A very large offering on a front stoop on Kuningan Day.
A good Hindu family sends the spirits home well fed!

Incense, burning coconut, offerings - all splashed with some holy water.
Some people go through a very elaborate ceremony when they put
out the daily offerings.

The people here live in family compounds - these are generally large walled areas that house a number of small, mostly open-air type buildings that are set in very specific (north, south, east, west) locations and are used for different family activities depending on various religious beliefs.  Wayan gave me a brief explanation one day - it seems a bit complicated, but easy if you've grown up with it I guess.

At the entrance to each compound will almost always be found some sort of offering box - either a permanent, stone-type structure, or a handwoven table made from palm leaves.  Daily offerings are placed in little hand-made baskets and placed in the boxes, on the tables, and on the ground at the entrance to the home.  

There are stone statues in front of most homes and shops.  Sometimes
more than one.  This one has an offering in its lap, some
on the ground in front, and a little bamboo platform to hold more at
its side.  The statues often have little fabric skirts as well.

Another bamboo/palm leaf structure to hold
offerings

This one is more elaborately decorated for
the Galungan celebrations

I like the placement of the offering on the
entrance to this compound.  The little
goose looks so happy about it!

The women here seem to spend a good portion of their day making the little baskets, and filling them with food items, flower petals, rice, bits of leaf and incense.

This lady is using a stapler for her creations - very modern!

This lady is using the more old-fashioned way of making her
offering baskets.  She uses a thin piece of palm that she pokes
through the folds to hold them in place.

After they are woven, they fill them up.  Most
families make their own - these aren't for sale.

Often it's the older women who make the offerings,
but many times I'll pass by a house where there's a
weaving party happening.  Get in a visit and do
the chores at the same time.

Throughout the day as we walk through town, we will see men or women placing the offerings.  They will have a big basket full of smaller baskets and it seems to happen two or three times a day at each home.  The offerings attract ants, flies and chickens.  I haven’t seen any gods, but maybe the flies, ants and chickens are the gods - they seem to be the main beneficiaries?

This man has a basket full of offerings he's placing on
the platform outside his home compound

A woman with her basket of offerings.  Some go
on the ground, and some go in the little
basket on the pole beside her.  See the little dog
behind her.  Typical Bali dog.  They are all roughly
the same size - just different colours.  

On the bigger holidays, such as the Guningan and Kuningan days that have just happened here, the boxes are stuffed full of fruits, vegetables, containers of yogurt and drinks, beautiful baskets and weavings.  Usually a couple of sticks of incense are set burning with these offerings as well.

A freshly made palm stand.

A palm stand overloaded on Galungan Day

Elaborate dressing up for Galungan and Kuningan.
The boxes are stuffed full with food, water and
flowers for the ancestors spirits that have returned.

This was pretty under the Galungan Penjor Pole

At the Galungan festival, weavings and extra
decorating happen to honour the return of
the spirits of dead ancestors.

In the 10 days between Galungan (spirits coming
home) and Kuningan (spirits returning to their
world), the boxes aren't quite so full.

Sometimes decorations fall off the offering boxes.  They usually
end up in the gutter.

We find a new offering on our doorstep daily - sometimes it’s just a piece of leaf with some rice on it, sometimes it’s a basket full of goodies and on the big holidays, we had very elaborate offerings.

A typical day at our front door.  Some rice on a piece of leaf
and sometimes a flower or some flower petals as well

We had way more elaborate offerings on our doorstep
on Galungan and Kuningan

The temples have tables which are filled to overflowing with offerings on the big holidays.

One of the many temple tables on Galungan Day

So what happens to the offerings at the end of the day or when a new one is to be put out?  Well, sweep them aside into the gutter of course.  Everywhere we go, there are piles of offerings in various states of decay.  At the temples, huge mounds of rotting offerings can be seen outside the doors.  It all seems like a huge waste of effort and food to me.  But that’s my western judgement coming in again.  Mostly I can’t stand the litter they create, although for the most part, the contents are biodegradable.  They are very pretty when they’re fresh though, and the imagination and creativity of some of them is a treat to behold.

A huge mound of decaying offerings outside the local temple

Bits and pieces - likely scattered by the chickens
or pedestrians.  This will all end up in
the gutter just behind it.

There's a street corner in Ubud that seems to gather a lot of
offerings daily.  They sit there until someone cleans them up.

Today's new offering at the top.  Yesterday's
offering is sitting in the gutter with bits of
wood, brick and other old offerings.

And of course, cars and scooters need to have offerings.  Many have little baskets sitting on the dashboard, or larger pieces attached to the front license plate.

Amazingly these stay on when driving.  The
cars don't really get going much more than 30 km/h
though, so that could have something to do with it.

Kuningan Day - a big offering on the front bumper and a
nice decoration for the hood as well!