December/January, 1998
No. 032/VI/97
cover story
How Christianity came
to Bali
Once Upon a
New Years Eve
MC-ing a New Year's
Eve party during a
blackout
bali focus:
nusa dua and
jimbaran
The Origin of
Nusa Dua
A fable
People of a
Fertile Sea
The fishers of
Jimbaran beach
Center Stage
Steve Charles revamps
the Candraloka
Amphitheatre
Nusa Dua Nights
How to survive them
The Sacred
Wilderness
Colonial encounters with
Bali's southern peninsula
arts and
culture
Latter Day
Laksamana
A.A.M. Djelantik's
recently launched
autobiography
Kulkul
new Fiction by Gde
Aryantha Soethama
The Rat Pack
Who are Bali's literati?
beyond
bali
An Eddy in The
Counter of Time
Kayaking off the west
coast of Lombok
Slick and Cool in
Sengigi
Round midnight at the
famed Lombok resort
regular
Fashion
Adventure
Into the blue
Food
Jewel of the southren rim
Jungle Drums
Bali Update
On the Road
Home Grown
Made Adi Putra
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BALINESE-GOTHIC
The first Balinese to become a Protestant Minister, I Made
Rungu, is still spritely at one hundred years old. When he arrived in Blimbingsari, the
forest was almost impenetrable. He has since watched the village develop into a model
Balinese Christian community. Here, the entrance of the local church is marked by an apit
surang - traditionally the gateway to a Balinese temple. The church yard is bordered
by a penyengker, as the limiting wall of a Hindu temple is called, and the church garden
is positioned according to the Balinese organisation of space.
Catholic Palasari has adopted a similar aesthetic. The roof of its Sacred Heart Church is tiered like that of a Hindu temple. In fact, the only thing differentiating it from a Hindu shrine is the presence of a large cross at its entrance.
The
Sacred Heart Church is the work of a famous Balinese architect, Ida Bagus Tugur, whose
other works include the Art Centre in Denpasar, and the Latto Mahosadi Museum at the
School of Arts. A relatively recent addition to the town, it is Palasari's second church,
the first having being commissioned in 1956 by Brother Ignatius Am de Vrieze. In 1988,
Brother Ignatius commissioned Tugur to design a new church for Palasari. The Brother
suggested a marriage of Gothic with Balinese architecture, and Tugur consequently came up
with some drawings that had the steeple resembling the tiers of a Hindu temple, the
bordering wall of the church yard as a penyengker, Balinese carvings dotted about, an apit
surang at the entrance, and the layout of the interior according with the Balinese concept
of trimandala. Needless to say, if the architecture of the Sacred Heart Church
conveys a sense of Hindu-ness, its proceedings are a far cry from any Hindu ceremony. That
is, the religious rites that take place beneath its towering steeple are, but for a single
voice booming from the pulpit, silent and peaceful affairs.
Actually, elements of so-called 'Hindu Balinese' architecture are evident in churches all over Bali. "Brother Ignatius expressly wanted Balinese elements to be included in the design, so that Balinese Catholics would not forget their cultural heritage," explains Yosef Wora of the Sacred Heart Church. It is a sentiment that has its genesis in the small revolution prompted in Catholicism following the issuing of the Koncili Vatican of 1963, which allowed for the Eucharist to be performed in the local tongue rather than Latin which had hitherto been the case. "Even in Flores, church design incorporated elements particular to local shrines," said Father Yosef, himself a native of Flores. By making use of traditional symbologies, says Father Yosef, "we mean to show our respect for local cultures."
Although Balinese Hindus have not reacted as violently to the use of Balinese symbology in the practise of Christianity as they did to the missionary activity of the thirties, some critics continue to take offense to the use of Hindu attributes in church design, viewing it as part of a conspiracy to goad Hindus to convert to the Christian faith. Not only are Hindu attributes used in church design, the critics say, but also the name of the Christian Messiah has been 'Hinduised', so that Jesus is known locally as Sang Hyang Yesus (Hindus recognise Sang Hyang Widhi). The Bible, the Mass and the hymns have all been translated into Balinese so that Hindus who convert to Christianity don't feel too culturally dislocated.
Such criticisms are countered by the Bishop Vitalis Djebaris, who presides over Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa "What the missionaries meant by 'inculturation' was to make use of those elements of Balinese Hinduism which assist converts in their practise of Christianity. After all, it is hardly realistic to rip an ethnic community away from its roots and graft it onto a completely new cultural context," he argues. "Moreover, Christianity is making use of local cultural elements, not religious elements. Traditional ceremonial costume is the property of all Balinese, not only Hindu Balinese. Hindus in India wear a different costume, don't they?"
Not all Christians agree with Djebaris that 'inculturation' is a good idea. Some Balinese Christians who believe that the use of Balinese aesthetic in church design does little to assist public understanding of the Christian faith. And there are even some Christians who refuse to pray in Balinese-style churches, thus being forced to go outside their village to attend services.
The debate about church architecture in Bali has seeped beyond the boundaries of the local Christian community, passed through the dilpadiated corridors of the prestigious Udayana University, to-ed and fro-ed between members of the island's intelligentsia, and been immortalised between the pages of Denpasar-based intellectual Usadhi Wiryatnya's 1995 book, Bali di Persimpangan Jalan (Bali at the Crossroads). "The lotus seat and the tiers are indeed particular attributes of traditional Balinese architecture, not Hindu architecture," concedes Balinese cultural expert Ketut Sumadi in response to Djebaris' argument for distinguishing religion from culture. "But Balinese identity is so intertwined with the Hindu religion that discussion of the distinction between culture and religion becomes one of mere semantics. Rather than make use of symbols which have come to be widely recognised as Hindu, Balinese Christians should come up with new design elements for their churches, which retain the sense of being specifically 'Balinese' but have different names to those used in Hindu temples. This would also help develop our treasured architectural traditions."
Photos and text by Putu Wirata
Translated by Emma Baulch
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