A Celebration Called Nyepi

31 March, 7.00 a.m. Here in Bali. I rushed here from Bangkok thinking I could get into a 30 March flight via Merpati to Dili. Right at the airport, an airport staff told me there would be no flight out by any airline on that day.

At the hotel, the staff repeated the same information to me. On the way to my room, the hotel boy who helped carry my two pieces of luggage said Bali would be celebrating the New Year. I thought I heard him say it was a Buddhist ceremony. Later, I found out from a copy of the Jakarta Post I bought in a convenience shop that it was actually a Hindu ceremony. It’s their New Year according to the Hindus.

Nyepi is to them a Day of Silence. Lights are put off. Machines are turned off. Shops are closed. Locals stay indoors. Tourists are advised not to leave the hotel compound. At the Melasti Beach Bungalows where I stay, the guests eat in a tent inside the inner compound; the restaurant by the road was closed yesterday. The Jakarta Post says in an editorial: “Let the sounds of the wind and the birds be the hallmark of Bali for one.”

This year’s celebration of what Hindus called Caka 1928 fell on a Friday, a day when Muslims would gather at mosques. On this day, however, Muslims did not use the loudspeakers for their Friday sermons. They also did not use their motorized vehicles to go to the mosques. As the Jakarta Post noted: “It was an admirable show of tolerance without sacrificing the practice of one’s respective religion.”

I agree. It has caused us inconveniences during the day, e.g. not being able to shop; going to the toilet in total darkness; groping the keyboard to be able to type; giving up TV for one day and a night, etc., but these are small things to pay for giving us the chance to see a glimmer of hope that the world will rediscover tolerance.

The Hindu who came later in the day to make my bed said, “It’s for reflection, sir. Thinking about self and family and others.” For me, the word introspection, which I loved to quote from my existentialist idols when I was younger, would never be the same again after this brief interlude of observing Nyepi in Bali.

Cheers!