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We were several times on the
Indonesian island where occurred the
terrible massacre of October 12, in the
Kuta nightclub.
Like everyone, we knew it is a prime
tourist destination, but we would not have
thought that fascinates us so much. since
the early days we were literally bewitched
by the magic of her dances, the mysterious
eyes of the dancers and their archaic and
exotic movements.
Bali owes its fame mainly to art, so there
developed in all respects, including that of
religion, being a Hindu world in a nation
like Indonesia, which is a very large
majority of Muslim religion.
And 'even Indonesia is the most populous
Muslim country in the world.
The Hindu Bali for centuries has kept
this unique religious, cultural and
artistic. Evocative monuments and often
carved in stone, lying on the slopes of
volcanoes fascinate and immediately receive
the visitor.
Bali is an island of modest size of 5561
square kilometers, an area that is equal to
about two thirds of Corsica.
The volcanic island is like most of
Indonesia and is crossed from west to east
by a chain of mountains that culminate in
Gunung Agung (volcano Gunung =) well 3165
meters high, almost like our Etna.
The island is located just east of the large
island of Java which is by far the most
populous of Indonesia, where he established
the capital Jakarta. A narrow channel
separates it from Java, while to the east
arm of the sea a much wider, from 30 to 60
km, connecting to Lombok, the sister island
somewhat 'smaller (4962 sq. km).
Bali is an island thanks to the very fertile
volcanic soil. The capital, located in the
north, is called Singaradja, while the
tourist area, located near the main is
located in the south, to Sanur, south of
Denpasar. There many very elegant hotel,
surrounded by very well-kept parks, and
practically on the shores of the Indian
Ocean, welcome tourists, both Australian and
European Americans. The famous beach of
Kuta, very fine sand, it is every evening at
half past five, the destination of many
tourists who enjoy the spectacle of the sun
dips into the sea in a golden sunset so fast
as (we are near the ' equator). Each day of
the year, at 18 is already dark night. If
you want to turn the island, in a spirit of
adventure, on a rented jeep for a few euros,
you must get up early and leave at 7.
Going back to talking about volcanoes, some
forty years ago, March 20, 1963, the Gunung
Agung came at the height of an eruption
which began a month earlier. Lapilli, ash
rain, tremendous flows of magma and strong
earth tremors bend that part of the island
(the central east), causing the deaths of
several thousand people, and causing
incalculable damage to many crops that
filled the region.
To the north east dell'Agung rises a huge
crater of a volcano off now, filled by water
of a lake, the Batur. On the banks of the
lake country of Trunian has a haunting
cemetery where, unlike the custom spread to
the rest of the island, the bodies of the
dead are left outside, prey birds of prey.
Across the island, however, the funeral
ceremonies are held by the public cremation
of the body of the dead, in special coffins
of logs extracted, placed in the top on
special scaffolding. Sometimes these coffins
in the shape of a bull.
We have seen in 1993 to one of these very
evocative and touching ceremonies. Women in
their bright clothes, we have both a po
'deviates from the monument of wood on which
the corpse is placed. The men are in another
group apart, but closer to the coffin. The
pedanda, namely the Hindu priest, dressed in
white and with the head in turban, began the
ceremony, praying and Asperge the body with
essences and perfumes. Singing of nenie,
slow and melancholic, is then set on fire to
the pyre, and everything starts to burn. The
ceremony ends with the collection of ashes
and their transport to a nearby river, where
they are dispersed in the current.
In other rivers, in addition to any village,
washing place, in areas where the water is
pretty low. In the current, clean and fresh,
wash behind the men, women and above.
Temples with stones covered with moss,
stairways that are lost in the forest, every
square meter covered with green, especially
palms. The climate is hot, but bearable and
ventilated.
Along the many hills, man has dug over the
centuries, the terraces on which he proceeds
with the appropriate banks of small ponds
which, in thousands, slope, and from these
slopes are the crops of rice. The light of
heaven is reflected in these artificial
ponds, giving the viewer a unique ecstasy
green, light, symmetry: dell'infaticabile as
human ingenuity.
That's why the island of Bali attracts. E 'a
treasure of an ancient civilization, a
religion which endures in the midst of the
rest of the world Islamic nation of
Indonesia, and demonstrates his uniqueness
every day, proud of its ancient rituals and
imaginative, its fascinating dances, with
very beautiful girls , fine and elegant,
bandaged in costumes of great value.
All this in a scenario of temples, of
monsters in stone, large portals lack the
upper part of terracing bright, multicolored
costumes and processions, where the women
wear on their heads hovering above special
donuts cloth, baskets full of fruit.
This is Bali, the island of the gods, struck
at the heart of the massacre of Kuta on 12
October 2002. |
