The History of Dewi Sri

The History of Dewi Sri

One day, Batara Guru – the highest command of all gods and goddesses in the heavenly kingdom known as Kahyangan in Javanese – ordered all of his subordinates to participate in building a new palace. He imposed a harsh consequence, “I will hack the hands and legs of those who disobey my order!”

Upon hearing this mandate, Antaboga was getting very anxious since – as the god of snake – he had neither hands nor legs. “With my condition, how can I obey Batara Guru’s order?” thought he in retrospect. But, to him, the worst torment of all was the thought of the consequence. If he was to be punished, the only thing he had left for Batara Guru to cut was his neck. And that meant death, even for a god like him.

He then went to Batara Narada – the brother of Batara Guru – for advice. To his disappointment, Batara Narada could give him none. Antaboga cried in despair thinking about his imminent death. Miraculously, three of his teardrops transformed into eggs with very beautiful shiny shells. Batara Narada suggested Antaboga to present those eggs to Batara Guru as an offering to appease Batara Guru’s heart.

Antaboga went to Batara Guru’s palace right away, brought the three eggs in his mouth. On his way to the palace, he was attacked by a crow who was very upset because Antaboga did not answer his greeting. Two of the eggs fell out of his mouth during the assault but he went on. Unwavering, he struggled to keep the only one remaining egg and managed to get to the palace somewhat unscathed.

Fortunately, Batara Guru accepted his offering contentedly. However, when he discovered that it was a magic egg, he instructed Antaboga to incubate the egg. A menial task for a god but definitely better than losing his neck, Antaboga thought.

The egg was finally hatched. But, to his astonishment, in the hatching egg he found a very adorable baby girl. When he presented her to Batara Guru, he and his queen fell in love with the beautiful baby and decided to adopt her. They named the baby girl Nyi Pohaci Sanghyang Sri. Or Dewi Sri.

Years gone by and Dewi Sri grew into the most beautiful goddess in the entire heavenly kingdom. But, she was not just another pretty face. She was also smart, kind-hearted, generous and very humble. Everybody loved her and many men fell in love with her, Batara Guru included. Deep in his heart, the king of gods himself was enchanted by the beauty of his own stepdaughter. He wanted to marry Dewi Sri.

Other gods and goddesses were very concerned when they realized what happened between their king and his stepdaughter. Some of them secretly met to find a way to avoid yet another big scandal in the heavenly kingdom. They concluded: Dewi Sri must die.

The plot to assassinate Dewi Sri was very simple. They put a very potent poison into her drink and the most beautiful goddess dead almost instantly. Her death created panic and guilt, nevertheless, for the gods and goddesses now realized that they had just killed an innocent young woman.

In tears, the gods descended from the heavenly kingdom to earth to bury the body of Dewi Sri in a hidden place. After being buried another miracle happened. From her body parts grew many plants that later would turn out to be very useful and vital for human life.

From her head coconut trees were emerged. From her lips arose spices and vegetables. Her hair became many kinds of grass and beautiful flower shrubs. From her breasts grew many kinds of delicious fruit trees. Teak, oak, sandalwood and many other big trees appeared from her arms and hands. Various kinds of bamboo trees grew form her thighs. Her legs materialized into many kinds of tubers and cassava. Finally, paddy rice – the main staple food of Indonesian – grew from her belly (another version mentioned that the paddy rice grew from Dewi Sri’s eyes).

Source: Wawacan Sulanjana (Sundanese folklores), author unknown. Translated and adapted by Arie S. Hartanto

Balinese Traditional House Compound

Balinese house compound

Talking about Balinese traditional house or Balinese house compounds are surrounded by high walls and have only a single small entrance, we called it the “angkul-angkul”, at the side bordering the street. Entrance-ways define the threshold between inside and outside and are viewed ambivalently by Balinese: on one hand they admit welcome visitors, while on the other hand they can allow malign or bad spirits to enter since we know the Balinese belief there are bad spirit around us. Thus it important that the entranceway be small, and that immediately inside one faces another smaller wall called the “aling-aling” placed specifically to baffle uninvited spirits who are normally only capable of traveling in straight lines.  As a further safeguard a small shrine is often built just in front of the house facing the road. Offering of flowers and coconut leaves are placed in it in other to protect bad spirit enter our house.

Within the compound, on the northern east boundary wall, we can find “sanggah or merajan” family temple, normally consist of at least 6 small shrines, each shrine related to the ancestor worship, Hindu gods, and invisible being. Actually a collection of at least five small shrines are usually placed on high pedestals. One aspect within Balinese house need to be described shortly here is the family temple. The basic idea or the ancient form of this family temple must have been the ancestor's spirit worship or the worship of the guardian of the land. So in the past it might consisted only one or 2 shrines. With the coming of Hindu influence the number of shrines were added for the gods and goddess. Other thought that gods or holy ancestral spirits can be worshiped temporary from home have also added more number of shrines. For example a family can build temporary abode of god that reside on Batukaru temple or Besakih or any other temple in Bali. So it is not rare a family has a family temple with many shrines or just only 6 shrines as basic small new family. This basic small new family must be the bigger number of current Balinese family temple type. Normally the shrines in the family temple consist of the main function:

1. Kemulan shrine, a 3-niche shrine which has now associated with "Trinity" in Hindu god,
2. Gedong Kompyang, an ancestor's shrine.
3. Pesimpangan shrine, can be more than one shrines as temporary abode of god when a family having ceremony, they can praying to any temple in Bali without specially presence at the temple.
4. Piyasan shrine, is the biggest in the temple compound, to put offering during the ceremony. Also used to keep the cloths, umbrella, and other rituals tools,
5. Tugu shrine, is dedicated to guardian spirit of the land
6. Padmasana shrine, an open shrine, usually built in stone as the symbol of oneness of god.

Within different cast also have different number of shrines in their family temple according to their tradition in building shrines for their ancestors. While in families of urban areas within the cities which are normally new family most have only 2 shrines for their family temple, those are Padmasana and Tugu. Since their customary organization is still bound by their original village.

Parts of house compound it self we have  “Bale Daja” or northern house is the pavilion built near family temple. In the past this pavilion was used to keep all the ceremonial materials. While in some areas this pavilion is used to lock in a newly married couple as long as 3 days and sleeping room for children. But currently it is used as normal house. A small pavilion near the eastern side of the temple complex, called the “Bale Dangin” or eastern house is traditionally used for ceremonial purposes. It is built in open air with bed. This is also the place of grand parents to sleep; in addition, if one of the family members died is also laid down here before going to the cemetery. Next house called “Bale Dauh” or western house is normally an open pavilion with one bedroom which is not totally enclosed by wall. The pavilion is used for welcoming the guests, and this is occupied by the current head of the family and his immediate family, while the smaller dwellings house visiting relatives and children. Towards the south, there is “pawon” or kitchen sits, consisting of 2 rooms, one open sided for cooking, the other closed to store cooking materials. Behind the kitchen in the past was built rice granary. A family in the past it was not rare to have more than one granaries as the symbol of their economic level. Around the area of granary usually constructed the house for pigs, poultry, or some time for the cows. Here are usually dug out the well "semer"  where we can get water from it to fulfill our needs for cooking washing clothes and taking baths. In the back of the court yard is called " teba " in less or more can be translated into " wastes yard ". In the past the management of waste was not yet fully concerned because all types of wastes were endurable materials. A family just throw away the wastes to "teba", and normally they do not have private toilet or water closed, so every time they just go to "teba"

Rama and Sita Painting

The Story of Rama and Sita.

A King had four sons named Rama, Laxman, Bharat and Satrugan by his three different wives. The oldest son was called Rama, by rights he should have been the next king after his father. When Rama married a lovely princess called Sita the old King decided to give up the throne and let his son take over.
His newest wife was very jealous. She wanted the throne for her Son, but he was the youngest. A long time before, the Queen had saved the King's life. He had promised her two wishes. She decided that it was time to claim her wishes so she went to the King and said that she wanted Rama to be sent away for fourteen years and her own son Bharat to have the throne. The old King was very upset. He knew that he had been tricked, but there was nothing that he could do about it.

Rama and Sita went off to the forest where a wicked demon King, Ravana, was always trying to capture Sita to make her his bride. Every time that Rama went off hunting he used to leave Sita in a magic circle that protected her. One day an old man came by and asked for her help. She stepped out of the circle and Ravana caught her, he had dressed up like an old man to trick her. He took her away to his land. It took Rama a long time to find her, he was aided by the monkey King: Hanuman, and all of his subjects.

When they found Sita the fourteen years were over so they returned home. There was a huge celebration. Bharat did not want the crown, but he had looked after it until Rama came back. Everybody rejoiced, they lit candles and lamps to celebrate.

taken from: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_story_of_rama_and_sita#ixzz202D2CAoq