On the 2nd of February 2008, with my driver from Tanjung Benoa (and who was also headed to West Bali to visit his family as part of the Balinese new Years’ celebrations of Kuningan), I picked up Agung and his wife in front of the Ubung Bus Station in Denpasar where they had parked his motorbike.
Agung was again dressed in his traditional Balinese finery. Although not a wealthy man as far as money goes, Agung takes pride in his clothing attire and sees to it that it reflects the best in ceremonial fashion for each occasion.
Agung does certainly have a wealth of siblings. He is one of 13 children and both his parents are still alive. Most of them live still in Bimblingsari.
Upon my arrival in his village some three hours west of Tanjung Benoa, Agung took me immediately to the town’s large and centralized church. (There is more than one church in the township these days.) Outside this church building, the entrance gates reflected similar designs and form to those found at any Hindu temple entrance in Bali--except that in Blimbingsari the red-earth-colored gate entranceway is decorated with crosses.
There were traditional garden ponds further inside the church complex along with a wonderful variety of flowers and plants.
To the left of the large open church was another structure for use by the church’s orchestra of traditional musical instruments found in Bali—and naturally also often found in similar structures next to temples at Balinese dance celebrations throughout the isle.
The subsequent Sunday in church , musicians—including Agung’s uncles and cousins—sat there under that same structure at the edge of the church and played kendang (drums), belagenjur (cymbols), gamelan, reyong and terompong, i.e these are different type of Balinese gongs and bamboo instruments creating sounds similar to marimbas and chimes. (These same Bimblingsari musicians would also play these instruments along with some Balinese and traditional church hymns.)
The roof of the church is reminiscent of the large open structures whereby some Hindu ceremonies take place in other parts of Bali, but there is a large cross and baptistery nearby as well. Also, where one might otherwise find carvings or images of dragons, elephants, and other gods in a Hindu structures, the only figures or creatures observed around this church were that of rooster or chicken, i.e. symbols used on protestant churches in Europe in order to distinguish the Lutheran from the Catholic structures..
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