For this special time we have a special menu.

Available all day (as well as our normal menus).

The post Murni’s Chinese New Year Special 2025 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

For this special time we have a special menu.

Available all day (as well as our normal menus).

The post Murni’s Chinese New Year Special 2024 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Click on the images for larger print.

Murni’s Warung Chinese New Year’s Specials.

23 – 31 January 2023

Available as well as our normal menus.

Fabulous Food at Local Prices  ❤️

Open every day
⏰ 9am – 10pm daily
Dine in, Takeaways, Deliveries

murni (at) murnis.com

? + 62 361 975233

☎️ WA + 62 81239169648

? Available from Grab Food and Go Food

? Menus

? At the bridge

Map

The post Murni’s Warung Chinese New Year’s Specials appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Introduction

Bali’s wonderful volcanoes, rice terraces and temples, dramatic ceremonies, cremations and dances, processions, offerings, carvings, paintings, masks, puppets and gamelan music are spectacular and colourful but pretty much devoid of meaning without an appreciation of Balinese religion. The vital thing to appreciate is that there is hardly any division between the religious and the secular world. God is everywhere and in all things.

Origin

The Balinese had a religion before Hinduism arrived on her shores. Many aspects of the old religion are still practised today. The Balinese share a common ancestry with the Malayo-Polynesians, who settled the islands of the Pacific several thousands of years ago. They worshipped many nature gods and ancestors. Their temples were open rectangular spaces with shrines. The gods were invited to visit the shrines during ceremonies. Fruit offerings were presented to the gods. All these are common to the Balinese practice of religion and suggest its origin.

Binary opposites

The Balinese believe that the world is divided into opposites, ruwa-bineda. This philosophical principle is also found in Java: good and bad, day and night, mountain and sea, the Pandawas and the Korawas in the Mahabarata stories, right and left, young and old, male and female, sun and moon and so on.

The Balinese view of the world is somewhat reminiscent of Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, (c540-c480 BC). Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Balance

Many influences have been involved in the Balinese religion, which is known as Bali Hindu Dharma. The cardinal belief is that the world lies between two opposing and antagonistic poles. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

The aim is to achieve a state where the two forces of good and evil are in balance. This is the purpose of ceremonies, prayers and offerings. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Conflict

Hildred Geertz in Images of Power takes a more radical slant and says that conflict is the fundamental characteristic of life in the Balinese view of the world. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

On this view, temple ceremonies are best understood as procedures for accessing sakti in order to persuade spiritual beings not to destroy the vitality and fertility of the congregation and its lands, to hold off those that cannot be persuaded and to bless the congregation with the strength to continue to oppose them.

The Soul

Soul comes from the word for blowing; it is the breath of life. There are three main beliefs about the soul:

Vedic and Balinese view

This is that the soul migrates through bodies by means of reincarnation, like a game of snakes and ladders. The soul slowly progresses on its journey. Even Buddha went through countless lives. According to this view, the soul is separate from the body.

Abrahamic view

The Abrahamic view of Judaism, Christianity and Islam that this life is where you are tested. If you pass the test, you go to Paradise or Heaven, but if you fail, you go to Hell. Originally Judaism did not have much of an idea about the afterlife.

Chinese

The Chinese have all those views plus a view on immortality. Immorality depended on the body being made immortal. If it was not made immortal, the soul did not survive. To make it immortal it was necessary to drink mercury, gold and jade.

Reincarnation

There is a strong belief in reincarnation. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

A central theme of Hinduism, which was brought to India by Indo-European migrants, is that God is everywhere at all times. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Reincarnation is seen today as essentially Indian, being a major part of Hinduism and Buddhism, but it is also found in the Western tradition. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Animals evolved out of humans. Animals were humans in a previous life who could not reason well. Also, plants have souls, but they can only feel, not reason.

Aristotle also believed that plants and flowers have souls, but not consciousness. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Monotheism

The concept of the Trinity arose early in the history of Hinduism, namely Brahma, Siwa and Wisnu: Brahma, the Creator, Wisnu, the Preserver, and Siwa, the god of destruction and rebirth. Some say they are three manifestations of the one God and that the name for the one God is Sanghyang Widi Wasa. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

The State

After Indonesian independence, there was a debate over whether Indonesia should become an Islamic or secular state. Domination by an Islamic majority had long been a concern in Bali. The debate continues, but, for the time being, has been settled. Indonesia is a secular state.

To placate Islam, it became politically important for the Balinese to be clearly monotheistic. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

World religions

According to The Vatican Handbook 2000 and The World Christian Encyclopaedia there are 1.9 billion professed Christians around the world, 1.45 billion baptized Catholics and 1.2 billion Moslems. There are 811 million Hindus, 360 million Buddhists, 23 million Sikhs and 14 million Jews. There are 768 million non-religious people.

By contrast Bali-Hindus number 3 million.

Max Weber, the German sociologist, distinguishes traditional religions from rationalized religions and said that the world religions evolved from traditional ones, folk cults and folk mythologies. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Gods and Demons

Supernatural power in Bali is easily converted to good or bad.

The evil spirits, which live on the ground, and receive their offerings there, are called the Bhutas and Kalas. There are also witches, Leyaks. They study black magic, are usually married women initiated by a sorcerer, and get their power through secret rituals in the graveyard. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Anything, animate or inanimate, can be possessed by a spirit, good and/or bad, and is worthy of an offering to keep things in balance. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

God of Thieves

One of the more curious Balinese gods is the God of Thieves, Pelinggih Sang Hyang Maling. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Ancestors

The Bali Hindu belief in ancestors is different in nature from Indian Hinduism’s belief. Reincarnation takes place more quickly than in Indian Hinduism, occurring within a generation or two after cremation.

When someone dies, they are usually buried, and their spirit resides in Pura Dalem, the Temple of Death. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

The deified family ancestors (leluhur) are part of God and can help the family if they are accorded due respect. The reverse is also true: they can cause trouble to the family if they are not treated properly. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Ancestors more than four generations back begin to lose their identities. That is because they may already have been reincarnated. Geertz calls this “genealogical amnesia”. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Attendance

Most people belong to half a dozen or more temples and will attend them when there is a ceremony. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

There are no sermons – only a blessing with holy water and simple prayers and entertainment for the gods and ancestors.

The physical and the spiritual

Like the ancient Greeks, the Balinese do not draw a sharp distinction between the physical and the spiritual, so a deformed person is regarded as ritually unclean, mala. The inner life of a person is reflected in his appearance. Therefore, during important ceremonies, people who are badly handicapped, for example, by being blind, lame, or hare-lipped, are not allowed to enter the temple. Menstruating women are never allowed in temples.

Processions

Processions are a feature of many religions and a frequent occurrence in Bali. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Most temple anniversaries start their celebrations by taking the gods, their spirits residing in wooden images called Pratimas, to a holy river or the sea for symbolic cleaning and purification.

Holy Water

Bali-Hinduism is called the holy water religion, Agama Tirta, which indicates how important holy water is. It is used in every ceremony, in every ritual. It is poured over every offering, every sacrifice, every building, every rice paddy and every person. It blesses and purifies. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.Read more about it in Secrets of Bali..

Prayers

Prayers are an act of homage to God and form part of every ceremony. There are no formal prayers. In the temple prayers are said sitting on the ground. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

People collect their offerings and take them home to eat. Their essence has already been taken by the gods and enjoyed.

Entertainment

Music, dance and shadow puppet performances, staged to entertain the gods, who have been invited to the ceremony, usually take place in the evening.

See the chapters devoted to these subjects in Secrets of Bali: Balinese Music, Balinese Dances, and Balinese Shadow Puppet Performances: Wayang Kulit.

The chapter entitled Balinese Dances explains that performances take place in different sections of the temple. The holiest, purely for the gods, take place in the inner sanctum. Performances for two audiences, the gods and humans, are performed in the middle section.

Programme of a typical temple ceremony

These vary from village to village, but the basic scheme is the same. Normally a temple anniversary, odalan, takes three days. The main purpose is to invite the gods to the temple. The programme is described  in Secrets of Bali.

Everyone’s Four Invisible Brothers or Sisters: Kanda Empat

Males have four brothers; females have four sisters. They are conceived and born at the same time. At birth they take up positions inside the baby’s body. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Adat

Adat is knowledge as to how to behave properly, imparted by the founders of the village, who have since become deified ancestors. It is from a word of Arabic origin meaning custom, but it means more than that. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Indian Hinduism

The foundations of Indian Hinduism and Balinese Hinduism are the same, but they have evolved and are practised in very different ways. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Chinese influence

The Chinese came to Bali as traders and plantation workers. They were Confucianists and their influence on Balinese culture remains profound. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Kawi

Kawi is Old Javanese, the language of the Hindu kingdoms of Java from the 8th to the 14th centuries. It became the language of the courts of Bali, but has not been spoken since the 16th century. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Lontars

Lontars are palm leaf manuscripts. Characters are inscribed on the leaf and rubbed with a mixture of lamp soot and oil. Religious writings are written on lontar books in Kawi. Few survive more than 100 years in Bali’s tropical climate. Many have been copied many times since writing started in the first millennium AD. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Traditional versus modern

There are currently two opposing camps struggling over the fundamental teachings of Bali Hinduism. The first camp comprises the traditional religious leaders, mostly pedanda high priests and traditional political figures from the Satrias caste. They tend to come from various royal houses. Prominent members of this camp are the nobility of the Ubud palace. The other camp comprises a loose coalition of various clan-based organisations and progressive Hindu scholars. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Islam

Islam was a late arrival in Indonesia. One of the earliest surviving signs is a tombstone found in east Java and carved in about 1082.

Islam is believed to have entered Bali between the 15th and 16th centuries. Traders from Gujarat in India and the Middle East brought their religion. Some believe that there may even have been a special Islamic mission to Bali to spread the word.

It is also possible that Balinese kings invited Muslim communities to Bali. A.A.W. Wirawan, the author of The History of Islam in Bali says that King Dalem Ketut Ngulesir (1380-1460), who was king in Gelgel, visited the Majapahit kingdom in Java and brought back 40 Muslims, who established a Muslim village called Kampung Gelgel.

Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

The first Balinese Christian

In 1867 a Dutch Reformed Church missionary, Jacob de Vroom and his associate, Van Eck, appeared in Bali. The mission was not a great success. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Tsang To Han

In 1929 the Dutch Governor General in Java allowed Tsang Ho Tan, who was a Chinese representative of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, to come to Bali to look after Chinese Christians. Many of them had married Balinese wives. He was not allowed to proselytise and if he did he would be expelled.

Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Protestant Numbers

The first Christian community was established in Blimbingsari in 1939 and the first ordained Balinese minister was Made Rungu in 1942. In that year 1942 there were 200 Christians, in 1950 there were 500 and in 1960 there were 2,000. In 1965 there were 6,500.

Christian Contextualisation

An important milestone was reached in 1972 when the Synod in Abianbase in March 1972 resolved to rid itself of the anti-cultural legacy of Tsang and accept, or as they put it, contextualise Balinese culture. This has led to the Bali Church using Balinese art forms in its architecture and services – paintings, gamelan music, dance, shadow puppets, and woodcarving. Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Balinese Catholics

Catholicism has existed in Indonesia since the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, but it did not make headway in Bali until the 1930s. The first missionaries arrived in Bali on Easter Day 1936 and shortly thereafter converted a number of people in Tuka, a village, which is about 10 kilometers north of Denpasar.

Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Balinese Hindu Missionaries

Balinese Hinduism is not a missionary religion. In fact, there have been instances among the Balinese royal families of openness and tolerance. They have provided lands and helped build mosques for Moslem communities.

Read more about it in Secrets of Bali.

Summary

The traditional versus modern debate is an argument of the elite. The ordinary person is not much concerned with it. For them to cease to be a Balinese Hindu is to cease to be Balinese. Their lives are full of ceremonies. During a ceremony, the place of ritual activity is a stage. The believers are actors, the priests are directors, their helpers are assistant directors, and the gods and demons are the invisible but critical audience.

A pious Balinese leads a busy and crowded life full of rites and ceremonies, whose purpose is to cleanse the unclean, reconcile the irreconcilable, worship, appease, avert danger, obtain nourishment and secure a happy life after death and a good reincarnation. It is a full life and very difficult to maintain these days in cases where a business is being run at the same time.

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