Photographer's Note
My 3rd photo of my serial posting "Melasti ceremony"
The rain has just gone away when I saw this small group headed to the beach.. I pointed my camera to them and I got them with a rainbow in the sky..
For those who want to know what is Melasti ceremony, please read the note below :
MELASTI CEREMONY
Three days before Nyepi, Balinese new year is celebrated a melasti must be performed. Melasti, according to the ancient scripture of Sundari Gama and Swamandala is “melasti ngarania ngiring prewatek dewata anganyutaken laraning jagat, papa klesa, letuhing bhuwana, amet sarining amertha ring telenging segara“. In English this sentence means “Melasti means to follow the deity in the purpose to drift away impurities, miseries and poor mundane elements and take tirtha amertha, or holy water of life in the sea”.
For community of which village is away from the beach, like at mountain range, melasti can be performed to lake, river other sanctified springs in the vicinity of the village. Since the concept regularity and conformity is unknown in Balinese culture the performance of melasti is adjusted to the local concept of desa, kala and patra (place, time and circumstance) so every region has its own characteristic and the term melasti varies to some regions like mekiyis, melis or mapeningan. There is no authoritative scripture that gives an explanation on how the melasti ritual is conducted. So its performance is mostly based on drsta or tradition that has been believed and practiced from time immemorial.
Melasti conducted in relation to celebration of Nyepi Day is commenced by carrying all pratimas (hallowed effigies of deity) to Bale Agung pavilion in village temple. The pratimas are assembled there and given a set of offering then carried to the sea or springs nearby. There are also those that do not assemble in advance, but waiting on the street and then depart together to the beach in a procession.
Melasti procession to the sea or spring involves all community members. Children and adolescences march neatly while bringing along the long pennant, spear and ritual umbrella while women balance offerings and other ritual paraphernalia. Meanwhile, adult men carry jempana or sedan chair of the effigies and many kind of hallowed representations like barong and rangda. During the passage, the temple priests chant holy hymns that accompanied by bleganjur gamelan orchestra played in fast rhythm as if it meant to provoke the enthusiasm of the devotees. For the devotees who live away from the beach or springs, they do the melasti procession by truck or other vehicles. While, there are also some executing it on foot and the pratimas are not carried on the head or shoulder, but put them into a sort of cart then pushed by devotees alternately. This pilgrimage does not make the devotees feel tired it is a show of their faith and loyalty to their deity.
On arriving at beach or spring, after the pratimas are abode on the position prepared, the ritual is commenced by performing mecaru or exorcism rite as symbol to purify the location and neutralize the power of bhuta kala in order the ritual will accomplish flourishingly. Then, continued with executing puja wali, or the culminating agenda to the Almighty God along with His manifestations and particularly to Lord Varuna as the master of the sea, resource of holy springs. Having completed the puja wali, it is resumed with ngamet amertha (taking holy water) in the sea while putting sesaji pekelem (offerings) equipped with a white duck and chicken that are thrown away alive into the sea. When the procession of taking holy water is over, devotees perform worship en masse and concluded with nunas tirtha amertha (invoking holy water) that sprinkled three times on the head, gulped down and washed away to the face for three times.
After the worship, the melasti ritual ends. All pratimas then carried back to Bale Agung escorted by devotees and nyejer (stand by) there for one day and entertained with offering and sometimes with sacred dance. Tirtha Amertha taken from the sea is placed on special spot to be re-used on the tawur and pangrupukan rituals. The tirtha amertha is sprinkled at home and village territory as symbol of purification and getting rid of any impurities.
Source : http://blog.baliwww.com/religion/632/
I hope it could give you more info about the richness and the beauty of balinese culture.
PEACE !!
vagabondtravels, arnabchat, Elaine_Blath, eirtem, teutza, Vincent_R, cherryripe, flory, doubay, everlasting, tasuray, marine-coeur, CLODO ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile
Critiques | Translate
delnaja
(2056) 2007-04-12 3:48
Superb one. The colors are exquite, the reflections on the sand perfect and the rainbow in the grey clouds...
Brilliant!
vagabondtravels
(6511) 2007-04-12 3:51
Hi Yoga
What a beautiful image from Bali. Great note. Excellent capture of this ceremony. Very sharp with good detail. Nice background and topped off by the rainbow. Really well done.
Ben
sabyasachi_d
(415) 2007-04-12 3:56
marvellous. good use of colors mate!!! i like it. brilliant work
TFS
sabya
Kenggaroo
(849) 2007-04-12 3:56
What a magic moment, Yoga
Two wonderful elements, the rainbow and the traditional parade joined together under a stormy cloud. Interesting things happened and they're very well captured.
Wonderful scene.
kenggaroo
Gerrit
(62042) 2007-04-12 3:58
Hi Yoga,
fantastic picture. The light and contrast are superbe. The colours of the clothes but alsdo the browngolden sand and sky are very appealing. The inclusion of the rainbow is an excellent extra.
Great work.
Regards, Gerrit
hatti52
(12786) 2007-04-12 4:17
Hi Yoga
Wonderful shot.
Composition,colours,light,reflections..Everything is very nice
well done
cheers
arnabchat
(7233) 2007-04-12 4:17
Yoga, my friend, this is a nice post from this year. I still remember your posts of the same last year.
This one is fantastic, with the rainbow being the cherry on the top.
Thanks for posting,
Greetings from Kolkata.
Arnab
Elaine_Blath
(8471) 2007-04-12 4:36
Hi Yoga,
really beautiful capture and even with the rainbow, great one!
take care, Ivana
maduixeta
(1795) 2007-04-12 5:19
Hi Yoga,
wonderful photo!!! beautiful colors and escene.
Greetings,
Sònia.
ndb1958
(9289) 2007-04-12 6:22
Hi Yoga, it's wonderful. Certainly the wet beach, the clouds and the rainbow are beautiful. Most I love the people doing their ceremony and living close to their tradition.
Nino
Furachan
(0) 2007-04-12 6:28
This one too is extremely beautiful, Yoga, though my earlier critique still stands...too much background, man! To ilustrate my point, I will try a WS.
All the best,
Francis
gulnilgun
(0) 2007-04-12 6:51
Hi Yoga,
so beautiful shot, so magical, rainbow and umbrellas are great,
regards,
nilgun
jafadabret
(56501) 2007-04-12 8:04
Yoga, je note deux points forts dans cette merveilleuse photo : le reflet sur le sable mouillé et le ciel traversé par l'arc-en-ciel. C'est de la très belle photo tant pour les couleurs que pour cette lumière spéciale d'après la pluie.
Jacques
eirtem
(420) 2007-04-12 8:16
Hi Yoga;
Sky - sand reflection - rainbow - and composition .... all wonderfull
Thanks sharing
Engin
marietom
(34611) 2007-04-13 7:34
La lumière est extraordinaire, l'arc-en ciel en plus !
Jolis reflets et couleurs.
Marie
Felinefoto
(58) 2007-04-13 9:29
This is a very nice picture! I like the colors, the atmosphere! Great work!
teutza
(10590) 2007-04-13 9:38
Hello ,
i love this image!so manny beautiful colours and that rainbow is great...
very good composition
teo
innerlight
(0) 2007-04-14 13:48
How'd you get those deep rich browns and greys? Even without these spiritual men this would have been a worthy photo. Wonderful series of beach pix. I'm green with envy.
chriswhitley
(2027) 2007-04-14 13:49
Breathtaking colours. My favourite of the three. The rainbow is the icing on the cake. Chris
cherryripe
(21033) 2007-04-15 4:21
Hi Yoga
What a magic moment seeing this ceremony during a rainbow. The reflections on the wet sand are excellent too. The light is simply splendid.
Regards
Nikki
flory
(4848) 2007-04-15 5:59
ciao Yoga,
what an interesting this melasti ritual,they have a beauty culture,indeed.. and a magic light gives by that rainbow,with nice reflections on the sand makes a splendid picture!tks for the note..
nice Sunday,
flory
Polonaise
(5802) 2007-04-15 21:14
Spectacular photography, Yoga.
All three in the series are nothing short of pure amusement, but my favorite is this one.
the colors of it, the most captivating atmosphere of that place, the way you finally presented the photo for us - pure blast, man.
I have to take a closer look into your gallery…
Such photos are not an accident.
There is a great deal of practice and long term experience behind them.
All the best, pal.
george
doubay
(674) 2007-04-17 9:03
Hi!
I don´t know waht to say. It is just a superb shot! Really amazing.
Best regards
Andreas
everlasting
(19680) 2007-04-18 4:21
This is extremely beautiful, Yoga, you have so much here, the wetness and rrefelctions on the sand the rainbow the colours, a true delight to view.
kingofquns
(0) 2007-05-31 12:16
Hi Yoga,
When I look at TE and TL, I see that most photographers from the Far East are great and you are one of them. Your Melasti ceremony series is amazing. Here the use of light, reflections on the sand and the capturing of the rainbow left me speechless. Well done!
Burak
baclama
(19214) 2008-04-03 12:41
bonsoir,
une superbe scene presque surrealiste avec une luminosité fantastique...
bravo
vero
marine-coeur
(1072) 2008-04-03 12:50
Beautiful and warm colours the details are excellent,
SEA BY LIGHTS,bravo yoga.
delkoo
(68) 2009-07-06 1:47
i am discovering a beautiful galery,you certainly have a very good eye for this type of photography, the composition, colours and light are just wonderful.
didier
dkmurphys
(79209) 2011-03-08 5:22
Hello,
That's quite an amazing shot. Great colors, splendid effects. Dramatic atmosphere. Well seen, good work.
Have a nice day.
CLODO
(45116) 2011-03-14 3:36
Hi Yoga
All the elements for a stunning picture: the procession on the wet sand and a cloudy sky plus the rainbow.
hats off
CLODO
limielski
(0) 2011-08-22 3:07
Hi Yoga
Wonderful shot. Colors, compositon, reflection, rainbow, beauty of the landscape. All together causes that your shot is really beautiful
scalerman
(26900) 2011-10-10 7:42
Yoga: some extraordinary images and especially artful post-processing. I would love to hear some about your technique - it's magical. Consider a post to 1X.com... I think your work is up to the standard... best, c
http://nazweb.com/coleman/
JMCruz (98) 2013-04-17 0:28
Hello Yoga
Just one critique, please do a favor to this great shot: Put the horizon horizontal.
Congratulations well done.
José Cruz
kasianowak
(17676) 2014-08-29 10:33
This is simply amazing, this image reminds me of the meaning of the world photography - painting with light. The colours and the reflections in the wet sand are superb.
Kasia
Photo Information
-
Copyright: Yoga Raharja (simplyoga)
(6506)
- Genre: Persone
- Medium: Colore
- Date Taken: 2007-03-16
- Categories: Cerimonia
- Camera: Nikon D200, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X AF Pro DX, SanDisk Extreme III
- Esposizione: f/8, 1/90 secondi
- More Photo Info: view
- Versione Foto: Versione Originale, Workshop
- Tema(i): my favorites..., mon hommage à l'Asie, CLODO's SELECTION X, PARADISE ON EARTH, Kasia's Favourites 6 [view contributor(s)]
- Date Submitted: 2007-04-12 3:46
- Preferiti: 8 [vista]
Discussions
- To Furachan: Thanks (2)
by simplyoga, last updated 2007-04-12 09:01 - To delkoo: thanks (1)
by simplyoga, last updated 2009-07-06 07:34