Monday, March 19, 2007

BALI FLOWER OFFERINGS

A bit of a rant: I am beginning to really HATE Google. When the internet started if you typed something in a search engine, you got reference material, articles, college library hits. Now I get tons of commericial advertisements.

To wit: I wanted to learn more about "Bali Flower Offerings", and typed into the Google search engine: "Bali Flower Offerings". So what did Google return? A bunch of stock photos I could buy. Some flower companies. A couple of wedding websites where I could buy my Bali flowers. Oh yeah, and of course, the 1-800-Flowers website. Reminds me of the definition of an economist: "Gives a lot of data and tells you nothing."!!

I do know that on Bali the Hindu population makes prolifc offering to the Gods. Yes, the Gods as there are many,both good and evil, for almost everything or spirits if you prefer. At Ketut's Place in Ubud, he explained that offerings were made each morning to the spirit of the ravine to appease the spirit for disrupting the area when he built his house.

This was left as a comment by Tanas Aramuk:
An offering is something tangible, presented to appease the Gods in times of prayer. Philosophically, an offering is a sort of self sacrifice. One spends a significant amount of time and money in making an offering, putting something of oneself into it.

The most common form of offering that is seen everywhere in Bali on a daily basis is known as canang. It placed in temples, shrines and strategic locations of importance with a waft from a stick of incense and sprinkle of holy water. Shop keepers place this kind of flower offering in front of their stall upon opening up for trade and taxi drivers invariably have one on the dashboard of their vehicle.


At the hotel in Legian, I was there for only two mornings, but each morning the design in the bowl was different. Next time I want to be there when the offering is made and designed. I wonder how long it took to create one of these.

Double Left Click on any image to enlarge in a separate window


















5 comments:

baliwwwdotnet said...

An offering is something tangible, presented to appease the Gods in times of prayer. Philosophically, an offering is a sort of self sacrifice. One spends a significant amount of time and money in making an offering, putting something of oneself into it.

The most common form of offering that is seen everywhere in Bali on a daily basis is known as canang. It placed in temples, shrines and strategic locations of importance with a waft from a stick of incense and sprinkle of holy water. Shop keepers place this kind of flower offering in front of their stall upon opening up for trade and taxi drivers invariably have one on the dashboard of their vehicle.

More at
http://blog.baliwww.com/religion/145/

Michael R pdx said...

And now, in early May 2007, the #2 search result, after sponsored links and product search results, is this page.

Fortunately, we have Tanas' comment and link to lead people to real information.

Perhaps it is also somewhat ironic that Joe "I am beginning to really HATE Google." Keenan uses Google to host his blog.

Paintscribe said...

hey Joe!

For more informative searching, you can always try this:

http://scholar.google.com/

Anonymous said...

The blog is nice. I like it very much. Laptop batteries

Amazing Flower said...

nice flower arrangements. don't forget to check ours too.

Love from International Flower Delivery :)