After Tampurhyang was shattered, its legacy, the ritual control over the flow of water, the deities’ blessing in the form of tirtha promising fertility, and the tax collection from the pasyan were indirectly appropriated by lowland courts. They had new shrines or even temples built, and appointed their own deputies there, first in “Sinarata” and, finally, in Batur. Lake Batur is one of Bali’s major sources from where water is said to flow subterraneously, like in irrigation tunnels, in all directions, even fuelling the lakes of Beratan and Tamblingan. Today, a sufficient and timely water supply depends on the Balinese calendar that has been available in print for decades. However, sufficient water supply thanks to rainfall is beyond people’s sphere of influence. Accordingly, Balinese peasants (pasyan) depend on the generosity of Dewi Danu, to whom the major shrine of the Batur temple is dedicated. Thus, it is important for the peasants to propitiate the deity through honouring and worshipping her in today’s Pura Ulun Danu. They regularly – on preset calendric occasions – make a pilgrimage to the Batur temple and provide tribute-offerings, yields of their fields, to achieve this. The temple of Ulun Danu Batur is, or rather the predecessor institutions of Tampurhyang and Sinarata were, the linchpin between water as a crucial material (sekala) resource for irrigation agriculture and its spiritual dimension (niskala) as tirtha that promises prosperity. A special form of monastery/temple economy developed by institutionalizing movements of people and goods from the periphery to the centre as well as from the centre to the periphery. The rulers of Tampurhyang and Sinarata co-orchestrated the mobilization of these movements which tied the periphery – the realm of both – to the centre, and vice versa, as this chapter will show.
1 From the Periphery to the Centre: the Pilgrims’ Tributes
Pura Ulun Danu owns a lot of temple land located in pasyan villages, as recorded in several texts of the Rajapurana Batur. Most of the temple lands were donations from regional lords who ruled over these villages (Hauser-Schäublin 2011a). The peasants work the land and bring its yields to Batur.1 The lords sometimes organized and led the pilgrimages of their people, as mentioned in early colonial reports (van Eck 1878). They presented the most expensive and prestigious offerings, such as a water buffalo (or even golden fish) to the temple (above; Hauser-Schäublin 2005:756). Thus, these relationships have resulted in a kind of centripetal move, from the peripheries to the Batur temple at the festival of the tenth Balinese month. In earlier times, people and lords – today, politicians, descendants of noble houses and businessmen – from various regions and of different standing met, delivered their goods and worshipped the deities – and, at the same time, acknowledged the noble patrons of the shrines of different standing (see Chapter 11).
Today, tens if not hundreds of thousands of Balinese from all over the island, many of them working in offices or the tourist industry, make the pilgrimage to Batur during the major festival. One of main the reasons for the masses of pilgrims is that Batur can be easily reached today, even from Denpasar, within two hours by motorcycle or car. The delegations from north coast villages, such as Julah and Sembiran, carried the requested atos, consisting mainly of the yields of the gardens and the forests, on their shoulders, in previous times. They went by foot on small tracks which led across steep hills and ravines. It took the delegation two days one way, and they had to stay overnight in a friendly village. The need of the villagers at the periphery to get the blessing of the important Batur deities was and still is considered crucial although wet rice cultivation stopped a long time ago. These villages still follow the invitation of the Batur temple and understand it as a fair exchange to provide the temple with a great amount of goods and money (atos and saleran) in exchange for the blessing of the gods as manifested in tirtha. The blessing of the pilgrims with tirtha at the end of the prayer is the climax of the worship. Some people and village deputies take some tirtha back home.
In the case of Sembiran, the pilgrim’s destination at home is Pura Puseh, the section housing the shrines for Batur deities. It is there that the priests perform a praying ritual, sprinkle the tirtha from Batur over the worshippers who also sip the water and, therefore, achieve a communion with the deities and their blessings.2
There were further links that bound temples and peoples at the periphery to the ritual centre in the Batur area. As has already been mentioned, an institution called mangku bunga (‘flower priests’ referring to their child age) exists in Sembiran (and also in Sukawana, see also Reuter 2002a:69, and probably in other villages as well in the past). There are two types of mangku bunga: mangku putih and mangku kuning; their clothing is white and yellow, respectively. Both types of child priests are chosen by the gods. The deities’ choice manifests itself in a boy suddenly falling ill apparently without any reason. Mangku putih are related to Pura Jati (above) and are conceived as being the disciples or followers of I Ratu Bagus Agung, whose site or istana (‘palace’) today is Pura Jati. Sembiran’s mangku putih have a lot in common with the child priests whose consecration we had seen in Pura Jati (Chapter 5). In 1997, I was told that there are about fifty mangku putih in Sembiran. We saw the ordination of mangku putih in Sembiran’s Pura Sang Hyang Marek. Each mother had manufactured a huge tower of offerings (bongkol) for her son becoming a priest.3 A year later, mangku putih accompanied Sembiran’s delegation to Batur to fetch tirtha for the festival of sasih kewulu. These boys carried the lances (pengawin), symbol of the deities, when the holy water was transported from Sembiran’s Pura Peken to the main temple.
Illustration 68
Pura Puseh section of Sembiran’s village temple. 1) 3-tiered shrine: I Ratu Mas Agung Susunan/I Ratu Gede Sakti (symbolizing Batur/Pura Jati)/I Ratu Meduwe Karang; 2) I Ratu Ayu Gunung Sari; 3) Gunung Lebah (“Batur”)/I Ratu Ngurah Rungking/I Ratu Bagus Pura Agung; 4) 7-tiered shrine: Pura Puseh; 5) I Ratu Ngurah Balingkang/Gunung Agung; 6) Pura Pucak Sinunggal; 7) Guardian/Escort; 8) Piasan; 9) Piasan for “Batur”; 10) Piasan for I Ratu Ngurah Balingkang; 11) I Ratu Ngurah Candi/Pura Ponjok Batu; 12) Jineng (granary); 13) Pelinggih Tampa Lawang; 14) Piasan for Pura Pucak Sinunggal (Ida Bhatara Bagus Wayan); 15) Piasan for Pura Pucak Sinunggal/Dalem Tajun/Bayad
While mangku putih, as disciples of I Ratu Bujangga Sakti, are directly tied to Pura Jati, the second category of boy priests, mangku kuning, are tied to the mountain temple Pucak Sinunggal, west of Sembiran (see Hauser-Schäublin 2008:45–49).4 These boy priests are disciples or attendants of I Ratu Bagus Pucak Sinunggal (called Bhatara Pucak Sinunggal by most people). Pura Jati (or rather Tampurhyang) and Pura Pucak Sinunggal were/are interrelated and acknowledge the segmentary structure of the formerly encompassing political-ritual domain, with its centre in the Batur area. Pura Pucak Sinunggal seems to be identical with the name Hyang Bukit Tunggal mentioned in an edict issued by King Warmadewa in 914 AD (Hauser-Schäublin 2008:45–48; Ginarsa 1979). It unites eleven villages today that form a desa gebog domas, an association of 800 KK (kepala keluarga, male family heads). I Ratu Bagus Pucak Sinunggal was apparently a deputy or rather a subordinate authority to “Batur” and governed temples (and villages) in the surrounding area, among them sea temples, such as Ponjok Batu and Sembiran’s Sang Hyang Marek. Sembiran was subordinate to the ruler of Pucak Sinunggal.5 The villagers had to regularly provide tributes and services (corvee labour). Formerly, Sinunggal, or rather the seat of the ruler (below), was also a site of socio-political control. Sembiran had to report demographic changes – births, marriages, deaths – to the sovereign of Pucak Sinunggal. It seems that a kind of demographic register was kept there which allowed the ruler to assess how many people, especially heads of households, were living in his bond villages. This was a prerequisite for the formation of regional organizations, such as gebog domas, and their integration into even larger networks orchestrated by kings. They were activated for warfare and the members were called to arms (Chapter 12).
The institution of Sembiran’s mangku putih and mangku kuning confirm the interrelatedness of Batur and one of its outposts, Pucak Sinunggal. These boy priests are parts of different segments of the same sacro-political domain. These relations are bundled in Sembiran’s Pura Puseh, where there are shrines for deities from Batur and Pucak Sinunggal. Mangku kuning attended the ceremony (ngusaba) at the seven-tiered shrine dedicated to Bhatara Pucak Sinunggal (no. 6 Pura Desa/Bale Agung) in Sembiran’s Puseh section of the village temple in 2001. There are two stone statues (a couple) representing the deified rulers of Pucak Sinunggal in the shrine. The statues were decorated and offerings were presented to them. Apart from this shrine, there are two more shrines devoted to Batur, one for the Batur volcano and the other for Pura Jati (below).
A further category of priests documents the ties between Batur and Sembiran. Sembiran’s top positions of the kerama desa, kubayan, are vacant. The office has not been filled for a long time. Instead of kubayan, there is the office of a mangku gede who is formally the head of the priests.6 This office is hereditary and the office-holder performs tasks no other priest is allowed to do. When Sembiran’s delegation goes to Batur, for example, and asks for tirtha in exchange for goods (seed cotton, beans of the varieties kacang komak, rice, betel nuts, a chicken, a duck and money), the mangku gede plays the leading role.
Illustration 70
Mangku putih are escorts of the deities and carry their weapon emblems, Sembiran (2001).
He is the head of the delegation and permitted to enter the central shrine (Paruman, no. 11) in the Jeroan of Pura Ulun Danu Batur where pratima are kept during the major festival as well as tirtha. The latter is usually fetched only by Batur’s priests (Hauser-Schäublin 2008:52, photo 15). Yet, it is the mangku gede to whom tirtha is entrusted and he carries it on his shoulder down the steps to the waiting congregation. As oral traditions tell, the first mangku gede was a deputy of “Batur”. He also had a juridical function and was empowered to impose sentences on wrongdoers in earlier times. Mangku gede is also in charge of the three-tiered shrine in Pura Desa. This shrine is dedicated to I Ratu Pasek, under whose name all important village ancestors are subsumed. Tirtha from Pura Jati is fetched for its odalan on purnama kasa, also called jumun sari. For this festival, all deities descend (bhatara turun kabeh) and their seats (pelinggih), in the form of flower symbols, are assembled on a temporary platform. Mangku gede leads this ritual and fetches the bundles with the copperplate inscriptions and money (small clumps of metal) temporarily stored in the three-tiered shrine. The copperplates are then ritually bathed (see Hauser-Schäublin 2008:17, photo 4).
Illustration 72
Sembiran provides saleran, the yields of dry fields in the eighth month (sasih kewulu), to the Batur temple. The tributes/offerings are disassembled and stored there, according to each type (2006).
The occasion or the point in time when the first mangku gede was sent to Sembiran has not been transmitted. Yet, we have to remember that Sembiran was one of Pura Jati’s (or rather its predecessor institution’s) starwatchers and had to report the rise of the Pleiades (Chapter 5). The descent of the present Mangku Gede – Polasari – speaks for the antiquity of this office. My interlocutors said that a deputy from Batur came in times past whenever a new mangku gede was consecrated (mengaruh) and acted as a witness. They compared the office of mangku gede with Batur’s jero gede. Conversely, when a new jero gede was consecrated in Batur, the new office-holder visited villages along the north coast. It was a pilgrimage, a tour from the centre to the periphery. He was seeking acknowledgement by these pasyan villages. I was told that the tour went first to Gretek and its temple Pura Pekonjongan. It proceeded to Tejakula and Sembiran, where a melasti ritual (purification ritual which usually includes a ritual bathing in the sea) was held in the Pura Desa.7 The group then proceeded to Tajun where a further ritual took place in the mountain sanctuary of Pura Pucak Sinunggal. Today, a newly appointed jero gede no longer makes the trip to the villages at the periphery.8
Sembiran’s mangku gede was – with the exception of a former perbekel and the gong orchestra and dance groups – the only individual who owned land privately. This appanage is called jawisan. All other land was village property and redistributed regularly. Mangku Gede lives in Banjar Dukuh, with which he is identified. The family temple (sanggah) of Dadya Dukuh Bharat is located there. A rock under a neem tree (intaran) is adjacent to this temple. This site is called Pura Peninjoan. Mangku gede, as part of catur kahyangan,9 and the paulu desa (the most senior office-holders of the kerama desa) had to watch there until bintang belusung (Pleiades; I.: kartika) became visible in the sky. As explained in the previous chapter, a messenger was then sent to Pura Jati or rather to I Ratu Bagus Agung, also called Bujangga Luwih, Bhatara Lingsir and Danghyang Wijendra. Subsequently, Pura Jati announced the beginning of a new saka year. The seat of I Ratu Bagus Agung in Sembiran’s Pura Desa celebrates its odalan on the second day of nyumunsari (jumunsari) of Pura Jati. Women bake cookies of different forms and material (rice, flour, beans) for this occasion;10 the cookies are tied to bamboo poles and presented to “I Ratu Bagus” (no. 4 in Pura Jati’s Jeroan; Hauser-Schäublin 2008:56, photo 17). In fact, we also saw such cookies as offerings in the temporary shrine on the occasion of Pura Jati’s odalan (though, in this case, they did not come from Sembiran).11
2 From the Centre to the Periphery: the Visits of Batur’s Deities
As the Rajapurana texts testify, some pasyan villages invited the deities from Batur for important ceremonies held in their villages in times past, (e.g. Pangaci-acin Ida Bhatara § 66a). The villages had to receive the visiting delegation with prescribed offerings (or rather dues in kind and money). The Batur delegation went as far as the villages at the periphery which had a shrine dedicated to Batur deities in one of their temples. The names of the visiting deities listed in some of the Rajapurana manuscripts include the name of I Ratu Baturenggong. This shows that temple activities became accommodated to the changed political situation outlined in the last chapter.12 In fact, the pasyan villages listed in the Rajapurana Batur mention a shrine for “Batur” in one of their temples, as a random survey showed. The lontar Pratekaning Usana Siwasana states, for example:
If Ida I Ratu Sakti [of “Batur”] embarks on a journey and visits those villages that have a shrine (sapelinggih) for them where they may rest. Then the villagers who own such a sacred site are obliged to offer sasantun [an offering usually consisting of uncooked rice and money, complemented by some further small ingredients] to I Ratu Sakti. It shall contain 1,700 [coins] and other components of sasantun. Sasantun offered to I Ratu Meduwe Gumi consists of 1,000, complemented with other portions of sasantun. The offering presented to I Ratu Gurun contains 700. The sasantun presented to I Ratu Batu Enggong [Baturenggong] consists of 1,700 and further portions of sasantun. The donation to I Ratu Bujangga Sakti [of Tampurhyang] consists of 1,700 complemented by further sasantun components. This applies to all temples. If there is a small pasyan [small village also dependent on Batur’s blessings], it is obliged to provide half sasantun.
Pratekaning Usana Siwasana § 73b; translation BHS
The name of “I Ratu Sakti” denotes the sacred ruler of Sinarata and the three deities that are subsumed under his name: I Ratu Meduwe Gumi, I Ratu Gurun and I Ratu Baturenggong. All three are associated with deified (and former worldly) rulership: I Ratu Baturenggong is the deified aspect of the legendary king who founded Batur. I Ratu Meduwe Gumi represents the ruling court at the time that is in charge of this deity’s shrine in the Batur temple. I Ratu Gurun is associated with pre-Majapahit forms of rulership or suzerainty. As a deified ancestral being of autochthonous mountain Balinese origin, he acts as a witness. I Ratu Bujangga Sakti – the embodiment of today’s Pura Jati – is the spiritual counterpart of I Ratu Sakti. The visits of these gods in the villages at the periphery also serve the affirmation of the sacro-political centre’s territory.
The amount of money the pasyan villages had to donate reveals the ranking among the deities. The highest authorities, I Ratu Sakti of Sinarata, I Ratu Bujangga of Tampurhyang and I Ratu Baturenggong, received the same top share; they are on a par. They are followed by I Ratu Meduwe Gumi and, finally, I Ratu (Aji) Gurun.
The organization of these journeys lay, as the Pratekaning Usana Siwasana testifies, in the hands of Batur’s kerama desa and was carried out by a delegation including priests and trance specialists. These journeys seem to have taken place on set dates, presumably on the festival days of temples with shrines dedicated to the Batur deities at the periphery. Thus, the preparation of the deity symbols – probably made of different ephemeral substances in a similar way as today’s godly symbols that are carried by young women on their heads – was a duty of the pasagian members of the kerama desa. The villages had to deliver dues (§ 74b) described as amblangan; they were collected during a gathering of the villagers apparently while the delegation was in the village. Each household had to supply one ceeng (about a pound) of rice and eleven pieces of money (jinah). As the Babad Patisora states, these contributions (especially money) were received by the male members of the delegation. The (accompanying) prewalen – today, the female trance specialists who become the seats of deities and speak on their behalf – collected the individual portions of rice; each prewalen was entitled to two shares of rice. The pramade – a term denoting today a male trance specialist – was the one “who firmly oversees the adherence to this regulation” (Babad Patisora § 42a,4 and 42b1–2).13Amblangan, as described in Batur’s lontar scriptures, was carried out in pasyan villages that were also summoned to attend the major temple festival and bring along atos as specified in the request.14
2.1 Tax Collecting Transformed into Rituals
The description of the reception of honoured guests from the centre is reminiscent of the ritual of formal tax collection called amblangan in Julah and Sembiran which is still performed today. Amblangan (see also Hauser-Schäublin 2008:58–59, photo 19) is embedded in rituals focusing on the tirtha from Batur and the celebration of Batur’s deities. It takes place twice a year in Sembiran, in the first month (sasih kasa) and the eighth month (sasih kewulu). The tax consists of rice, coins, cotton and different kinds of beans.15 The contributions were sent to Batur in times past. Amblangan is held upon the return of the delegation from Batur of temple priests under the leadership of mangku gede when it brings back tirtha from Pura Ulun Danu and Pura Jati.
Sembiran has a special temple, Pura Peken (‘Market Temple’), where the delegation returning from Batur with tirtha is welcomed. The temple is located at the upper end of the village where the track to the mountains begins. Pura Peken is not a market temple in the usual sense but a place of exchange with niskala, the deities coming from the Batur region. We documented this ritual on sasih kewulu in 1998 when Pura Peken celebrated its anniversary (odalan).16
The delegation of priests returning from Batur stopped at Pura Peken and the small bamboo tubes filled with tirtha were deposited there. The whole village welcomed the Batur deities in the form of tirtha. The gong orchestra, the baris dancer groups and mangku putih escorted them to the village temple (Hauser-Schäublin 2008:57, photo 18). The tirtha from Pura Jati was decorated with a red flower, the other from Pura Ulun Danu Batur with a white flower. The bamboo containers were wrapped in white cloth and a white ceremonial umbrella was put up over them. In the Puseh temple, the tirtha from Pura Ulun Danu Batur was deposited on the shrine of I Ratu Susunan (no. 1 map of Pura Desa/Bale Agung) and tirtha from Pura Jati on the shrine of I Ratu Gunung Lebah (no. 3). At night, the festival continued in Sembiran’s oldest temple, Pura Dulu, which is the temple of origin of Sembiran’s “Bali Mula”. It is dedicated to Daha Tuha, a virgin goddess. Tellingly, the sanctified water from Batur was not carried there since its reception would imply acknowledging her subordination under an external authority. Pura Dulu is conceived as the site of a sacred ruler who was “replaced” by authorities from Batur at an unknown point in history. Therefore, Pura Dulu does not “want” tirtha from Batur.
The villagers brought elaborate offerings to Pura Peken on the wayon (second day) of the festival. Baris groups and the wives of the senior kerama desa leaders danced in veneration of the deities who had all descended (bhatara turun kabeh) on this occasion. Then a nyanyan (trance session) should follow; it was the moment when men and women – especially sutri (women in whose bodies the gods descend) – sat on the floor and waited for the deities from Batur to manifest themselves. Jero Siut, the most senior of the kerama desa, burned incense, and thick clouds of fragrant smoke arose. The gong and the angklung orchestra played simultaneously. It was an intense atmosphere. But the sutri neither moved nor spoke. The deities did not reveal themselves. Today, trance no longer happens in Sembiran.
Then amblangan took place in the outer courtyard of Pura Peken. Some mats were spread while priests and the senior leaders of the kerama desa and their wives took seats. They supervised the women who brought small bowls with seed cotton, small beans (kacang and komak) and uncooked rice with some coins in it. They emptied the bowls into separate containers according to the material of the goods. The congregation prayed and consecrated these gifts to the deities who witnessed amblangan. The old women (wives of the kerama desa leaders) then danced around the site; this was a special kind of consecration. Later, a priest took a bowl with rice and entered the Jeroan where he presented some grains to the shrines. He then dispersed the rice with the coins over the courtyards; the children eagerly picked up the coins. He proceeded to the congregation and the gong orchestra and blessed them also with rice mixed with coins. The ceremony ended with communal praying and the priests sprinkling tirtha from Batur over the worshippers.
Today’s ritualized tax collection and the anticipated manifestation of the Batur deities in sutri is reminiscent of the progress Batur’s deities made to pasyan villages, according to the Rajapurana texts.
Julah’s situation differs from Sembiran’s. The village is not (or no longer) listed as a pasyan in Batur and refuses to accept this term which has the negative connotation of being subordinate. Nevertheless, the village regularly sends a delegation (ganti) to Batur – the village elders said their ancestors called it Gunung Sinarata – to ask for tirtha from Pura Jati and “Pura Agung Batur” at purnama kedasa; it provides atos (yields of the fields and money) in exchange. The kind of tributes they carry to Batur depends on the months. Sembiran provides saleran – the yield of dry fields – on sasih kewulu to “Sinarata”, today’s Pura Ulun Danu Batur and atos on sasih kedasa at the temple’s request. In earlier times, the villagers made this pilgrimage on foot, carrying tributes/offerings on their shoulder or head and accompanied by the gong orchestra. In Julah, amblangan takes place three times a year, on sasih kasa, sasih karo and sasih ketiga. After the sacred heirlooms had been bathed, the tirtha is later distributed among the faithful who also sip it.
For each ceremony, a delegation of the kerama desa fetches tirtha from “Pura Agung” (Pura Ulun Danu Batur) and Pura Jati and brings it back to the village temple. On wayon (second day), the kubayan first stage a ritual, sitting in bale piasan/pemutus in the centre of Pura Desa/Bale Agung. The members of the kerama desa tegak (the core villagers) sit on the floor and act as witnesses. Then follows a libation with rice wine presented to all shrines in the temple by the kubayans’ assistants, bau. The wives of the kerama desa leaders dance around the central bale and the baris dancers perform the whole cycle of baris. Two men ritually bid farewell to the deities by dancing and presenting them with menuri flowers (the only flower which may be used for offerings in Julah) and betel. Plaited mats are then spread out in a rectangular form on the floor and the male and female members of the senior kerama desa leaders sit along the edge of the rectangle. Children and adolescents stand around; they hold some small packages wrapped in leaves in their hands. On the behest of one of the leaders, they throw these small packages, which each contains one coin (Chinese coins and rupiah) per head of his or her family onto the mats. The elders open the packages, pick the coins and string them on a liana. These bundles are deposited in copper bowls in front of the kubayan who calculate the total amount. They then proceed to the shrine sanggar agung to inform the gods how much money they have collected.
In both cases, in Julah as well in Sembiran, amblangan is understood as a ritual embedded in the context of fetching tirtha from Batur. The fact that amblangan is similarly held in Batur village and pasyan villages shows that tax collection on behalf of the deities and mediated by tirtha is a crucial factor in Batur’s temple economy.
Extra-village relations of Sembiran and Julah, such as to Batur or Pucak Sinunggal, are also materially manifest in the form of shrines for their ‘foreign’ deities in the village temples. In Sembiran, the most mountainward courtyard, typically called Pura Puseh, is explicitly dedicated to Batur deities. In the midst of the row of shrines for Batur deities stands a shrine of origin, Pura Puseh, which seems to anchor the ties to Batur.17
Julah disclaims interventions or dependencies from the outside; the villagers emphasize their autonomy.18 Yet, their village temple displays features that document extra-village relations and even former subjection.19
3 Concluding Comments
The relationship between centre and periphery reveals a network of ties that was constitutive of the ritual organization of what can be called the premodern Balinese state. Its centre was a pair political-religious institution in the Batur area that created and maintained an exchange relationship with dependent villages spread over a wide area. This domain was governed by a kind of tandem of religious-political leaders at its apex, a domain apparently segmentary in structure, as the example of the (one among several) intermediary sacred site or relay station of Pucak Sinunggal with its subordinate lord suggests. The border of this domain was marked by shrines dedicated to Batur deities in villages at the periphery. These shrines also expressed the villages’ need or desire to receive blessings in the form of tirtha from the Batur deities. The villages provided the centre with yields of their fields in exchange. The way in which these ida bhatara are described in Batur’s lontar manuscripts sounds like a harmonious trinity: I Ratu Baturenggong complementing I Ratu Sakti (of Sinarata) and I Ratu Sakti Bujangga of Tampurhyang. The inclusion of I Ratu Baturenggong into the circle of the major Batur deities visiting villages at the periphery showed that a new political ruler managed to infiltrate the realm of deities.
Hall’s article on “Ritual networks and royal power in Majapait Java” (1996) reveals many similarities between the ritual organization during the Majapahit period in Java with that of pre-colonial Bali. The king in Majapahit Java made a royal progress to major temples in his realm. According to the Nagarakertagama, the “Royal Progress” is one of the major court rituals the king performed with the goal “to invoke the powerful guardian deities [who could only be addressed by resi or (bu) jangga) as Hall specifies] of the hinterland” (Hall 1996:109). This helps to explain why I Ratu Baturenggong ranges as a further defied actor among the pre-Majapahit deities I Ratu Sakti (of Sinarata) and I Ratu Sakti Bujangga, who regularly visit villages and temples at the periphery. While in Java, it was a living king who made the progress to the “hinterland”, Balinese oral and written traditions speak of deified beings, ida bhatara.
On a personal level, the ties between the centre in the Batur area and its periphery consisted of the monastery calling young children (mainly boys) to become novices and spend some time there. As a result, the mangku putih became go-betweens. In their home village, they acted as propagators of the religious teachings they had received at the monastery. Here, the basic meaning of pasyan, in the sense of sisya – disciples of a spiritual leader – seems to be confirmed.20 The mangku putih were educated in the spiritual centre and then sent back to their village. They were disciples in the truest sense of the word and, at the same time, deputy missionaries. The practice of Batur to regularly activate the religio-political domain by visits to the dependent villages strengthened this bond. The appointment of ritual leaders – such as mangku gede – in pasyan villages who were also instructed at the ritual centre, intensified the relations and certainly enhanced the conformity and compliance of the villages. As has already been mentioned, the kubayan positions in Sembiran’s kerama desa are vacant; the office of mangku gede obviously having replaced it.21
The economic – down-to-earth – dimension of this centre-periphery relationship is evident and manifests itself in tax collection at the centre as well as in the dependent villages. The Rajapurana manuscripts, which list the expectations of the centre, define the dues that have to be paid on pain of penalties. The double character of this spiritual-economic unequal but complementary relationship between the centre and periphery seems to have a long past. A brief glimpse into the early royal edicts illustrates this. The copperplate inscriptions, called Sembiran no. 209 A II by Goris (in Hauser-Schäublin and Ardika 2008:244–255), is an edict issued in the year saka 897 by King Sri Janasadu Warmadewa. It is addressed to Julah and already mentions tirtha-related tax collection. The king ordered people to also provide temples or monasteries with goods and services. They had to present the goods “on the occasion of rah tirtha”, that is, as Ardika and Beratha’s translation suggests, when tirtha was distributed on a set date (in Hauser-Schäublin and Ardika 2008:248).
Nevertheless, the character of tax collecting changed according to fundamental political, economic and ecological changes. According to the same royal edict, Julah was a major port for import and export and a marketplace, a function the village had already had many centuries earlier (Ardika 2001, 2008; Ardika and Bellwood 1991; Ardika et al 2019; Calo et al. 2015; 2020b). Julah was responsible for the security of the foreign merchants (banigrama) and their goods.22 The villagers had to pay taxes to royal tax collectors visiting them. They were ordered to provide services to some sites, villages and monasteries along the north coast. These sites were part of an elaborate network, segmentary in character, that expanded from the king’s seat over large parts of the north coast. One of the outpost at the periphery was Bungkulan. King Warmadewa ordered the villagers of Julah to look after his father’s grave, named Baleswara, in the monastery (partapaan) of Dharmakuta in the village of Bungkulan. Julah was also instructed to deliver taxes in the form of gold to this sanctuary (sangyhang paryyangan) and provide services. The grave of Warmadewa’s father in Bungkulan is, as my research suggests, today a temple, Pura Agung, located at the border of the village. It is not part of the three-temple system. Pura Agung, today owned by the descendants of a noble family,23 differs from others in so far as a major sacred site in the temple consists of an elongated stone flag on which several stone sculptures stand. This site is said to be the shrine of I Ratu Ngurah Susunan, ‘The Deified Ruler’, also called I Ratu Bujangga Luwih. Today, Pura Agung in Bungkulan celebrates its annual festivals two days after the jumunsari of Pura Jati. The main priests acting there are said to be of bujangga resi denomination, that is, priests of the same category as in Pura Kayu Selem and Pura Jati. The temple is explicitly related to Pura Jati (and also to Pura Penulisan), as I Gusti Dalang explained. Tirtha from Pura Jati is regularly fetched and used to ritually cleanse the old stone statues. In exchange, atos is carried to Batur and Pura Jati. Pura Agung in Bungkulan also holds, as has already been mentioned above, a material “proof” (I.: bukti) of the relationship to Pura Jati: a tirtha vessel in the form of a zodiac water beaker (sangku suda mala) said to be the gift of “Pura Jati”.24 The zodiac ornamentation points to the calendric calculation of the seasons, the movements of the sun, moon and planets cycling through the constellations of the zodiac in the course of the solar year (Proudfoot 2006:6, 2007:99). Such a zodiac beaker from Pura Jati stands for one of its major tasks: to calculate the beginning of the solar year.25 It also indicates Bungkulan’s embeddedness in a cosmo-ritual network that reached as far as today’s Singaraja (Chapter 8). Whether there is some continuity between the concrete, explicit, economically oriented tax collection as described in prasasti and the spiritually legitimated tax collection performed by deputies on behalf of temples and their deities, cannot be determined but seems quite likely.26
Nevertheless, the relations of a ruler to outposts, such as the grave of Baleswara, must have stopped when a new dynasty rose to power. The new ruling house had no interest in maintaining the grave of the ruler of a former dynasty. Yet, such a royal tomb – if Pura Agung in Bungkulan is such a site – continued to be worshipped on the local level as today’s ritual practice shows. This is not unusual, as Turner and Turner have shown but the result of ritual orthopraxis (1978:29–30). The obligations Julah once had towards Bungkulan are not remembered and there was no longer an authority requesting maintenance. Moreover, Julah lost its function as an important transmaritime entrepot and a major marketplace for imports and exports a long time ago. The formerly complexly structured society lost its pillars and developed into an only slightly differentiated community. Accordingly, royal edicts (copperplate inscriptions) lost their original function and were no longer publicly read. Yet, the villagers have continued to preserve them carefully; they became – and are – sacred heirlooms, deities.27 Thus, interlinked structural elements of the segmentary state – sacred sites, especially temples – between the centre and the periphery gradually dissolved and became more or less separate units.
Today, many of villages are no longer aware that some of their land was registered as temple land in the Rajapurana texts. Nevertheless, they still bring the requested yields of their work to the Batur temple.
These tall offerings had a lot in common with the seven huge offerings (adegan), each representing a novice we had seen during the consecration of child priests in Pura Jati.
Mangku kuning and mangku putih are also armed with flags (rontek, umbul-umbul), lances and other weapons, such as sickle-like knives on a long shaft (madek), lances with hooks as well as a trident (perancak). They also act as escorts of the deities when Sembiran carries the symbols of the major deities to the sea for a purification ritual (melasti).
Pucak Sinunggal was later appropriated by new authorities, even by a Muslim ruler in late pre-colonial times (Hauser-Schäublin 2004b) (see Chapter 12).
I was told that there had been two mangku gede previously. However, I never saw or met a second one. A similar office exists in several other villages, also on the north coast, such as Keduran and Gretek (Pura Pekonjongan).
The late Penyarikan Duuran of Batur had witnessed the pilgrimage of the predecessor of the current (2020) Jero Gede Duuran. He recalled that Jero Gede Duuran visited mostly villages on the north coast: Bulian, Kubutambahan, Bungkulan, Sangsit, Jagaraga, Pakisan, Sawan and Bila. He is said to have spent three days in Tajun (near Pucak Sinunggal).
Batur performs pilgrimages to coastal sites for further purification rituals at Pura Pekonjongan in Gretek/Sembirenteng, Pura Lapuan Aji (near Singaraja), Pura Watu Klotok and Pura Kentel Gumi in Banjarankan (both near Klungkung), Pura Masceti (near Blahbatu, Gianyar) and Pura Batu Bolong (Badung).
My interlocutors in Sembiran emphasized that the village does not follow the kahyangan tiga (three village temple) classification but catur kahyangan (four village temples): Pura Dulu and the clan responsible for it is denoted as “head” or “leader”; the second is Pura Puseh in whose service families living in Banjar Tegal stand; they act as “butchers” and are said to be responsible for sacrificing animals. The third is Pura Dalem, which is
attended by Bali Mula and denoted as “merchants”. The fourth is Pura Desa (or rather I Ratu Pasek), for which the families of Banjar Dukuh (mangku gede) are responsible. It is indicated as “agriculture”. These four mangku were the only ones when the office of mangku came into being. In offerings, catur kahyangan follows the four cardinal directions, with surya (sun) or Bhatara Guru in the centre.
Incidentally, Queen Sri Sang Ajnadewi requested that Julah submit such offerings tied to poles as a form of tax in her edict addressed to Julah (saka 938; Hauser-Schäublin and Ardika 2008:253–259).
I assume that the institutionalized visits of deities from the Batur area predated the colonization of the highlands by lowland courts. I understand them as parts of the ritual organization of a sacralized polity.
Visits from the centre to the periphery have almost vanished. There are a few exceptions left. Cokorda Gede Oka Sukawati explained that Dewi Danu or rather Jero Gede from Batur are sometimes invited when an exceptionally big festival is being held at Pura Gunung Lebah (referring to one of the old names of the Batur volcano). The deity, in the form of a flower symbol, is then brought from Batur to this temple and seated there for the duration of the festival. Jero gede acts as witness.
The text Pangaci-acin Ida Bhatara of the Rajapurana Batur associates amblangan (biya ablagung) with irrigation, especially with the maintenance and the safety of the weirs, and pekasih of villages depending on the water from Lake Batur (§ 50a1).
The orthopraxis of ritual tax collecting also reveals former modes of subsistence, especially the growing of rice, cotton and different sorts of beans. Sembiran had formerly specialized in growing cotton but ecological conditions do not allow it anymore. Today, the main crops are cassava, yam and maize since the land is dry. Rice cultivation is no longer possible.
On sasih kewulu, the delegation brings bija ratus, consisting of the yields of dry fields – beans of different varieties, sugar cane and cotton – to Batur.
The camat (head of the district) of Tejakula, for example, managed to have a shrine established in Julah’s conservative village temple in the 1980s in order to perform (rather small) rituals there. Twenty years later, the shrine was dismantled when he was no longer in power. A similar attempt was made regarding the regional temple of Ponjok Batu on the seashore, west of Sembiran. A camat had tried to mobilize villagers for a new ritual to be held there. He had wanted to act as a noble sponsor, but failed in the end.
The village temple, Pura Desa, displays two sections called jero: Jero Kanginan and Jero Kauh in the most mountainward position. They look as if they are superimposed on the village temple proper. Jero Kauh is also called Pura Puseh with its largest seven-tiered shrine dedicated to Ida Ratu Puseh Maduwe Karang Kawis (‘The Lord of Origin Who Owns the Village and the Gardens’). In Jero Kanginan, the shrine in the kaja/kangin corner is dedicated to I Ratu Ngurah Karangasem and refers to the kingdom of Karangasem which expanded as far as the north coast probably in the late 18th or early 19th century (Hägerdal 2016:289–290, 302; Wiener 1995). The most important shrine located in the centre of Jero Kangin is an eleven-tiered building dedicated to “Gunung Agung”. It stands for extra-village relations and the recognition of external deities’ supremacy; it is the most sacred and prestigious shrine of the whole temple. Sacred heirlooms are kept in it: an antique pair of wooden statues (Hauser-Schäublin and Ardika 2008:244, photo 2). It seems probable that this shrine represented “Batur” deities in earlier times. It was renamed to Gunung Agung. Gunung Agung does not imply that they were subordinates of worldly rulers. Instead, it signifies the acknowledgement of supreme deities summed up under Widhi Wasa today. A day after Julah fetches water from Batur (or rather Pura Jati) on purnama kasa – the commemoration of the beginning of the new year – the villagers celebrate ngusaba manggung, held in honour of the deities of Puri Kanginan.
The linguist Dr I Nyoman Suarka (Universitas Udayana, Denpasar, Bali) suggests that “pasyan” has its roots in “sisya”, the disciples of a spiritual leader. This interpretation is supported by evidence from the state temple of Batu Karu in West Bali. There, the villages dependent on the holy water from this mountain temple are called “sisia Batukau” (Ottino 2000:20).
There were no traces of ritual offices of bujangga priests in Sembiran. However, there a ward still exists some distance off the village core where people of bujangga descent are living, more or less isolated from the rest. Sembiran’s rituals have been substantially influenced by Muslim immigrants; this might have brought an end to the former bujangga offices and practices.
I Gusti Dalang, one of the officials in charge of Gedong Kirtya in Singaraja at the time of my fieldwork, was the head of this family and a member of Arya Tambahan, who came to Bungkulan during the reign of the raja of Bangli and re- or displaced the former owner family.
Such zodiac beakers often have an eight-pointed solar disc at the bottom, twelve symbols running round the lower half of the body and representations of divinities around its upper part. According to de Casparis, they were produced during the Majapahit period in Java for the first time (1978:32–33). Such vessels were used for tirtha to be sprinkled over the congregation by a priest (Hall 1996:112).
Hall notes a change in tax collection in the Majapahit era, as spelled out in the “Ferry Charter of 1358”: It shifted from a ‘worldly’ tax collecting system called dĕrwaya haji (called drbya haji in several Sembiran inscriptions, see Hauser-Schäublin and Ardika 2008:229–294) to a tax system called pamuja, in which tax collection became a more spiritual matter, embedded in ritual and worship. The leaders were no longer tax collectors but officials, “two designated community representatives, men of religious distinction”, who administered the king’s religious ceremony, the Caitra Festival (caitra corresponds to the Balinese month of kesanga) (Hall 2000:68–69). A similar change must have taken place in Bali.
