New building with 4 guest rooms at Bhanuswari

Mid-August, there was a Balinese Hindu ceremony to bless a new building with 4 guest rooms under construction at Bhanuswari.

The head priest and 2 assistants - Nyoman's mother is farthest from the camera.

And here is the view that guests in the 2nd floor rooms will have! You see additional offerings for the ceremony in the foreground. And on the right-hand side, there is construction for another villa.

How are Ogoh-Ogoh constructed?

The Young Men's Association in each village (desa) or neighborhood (banjar) use inspiration from the Balinese Hindu gods and goddesses for their designs.

Construction starts with a frame of wood, bamboo or rattan, and wire mesh.

(1) Here you can see "balls" being used to provide rounded buttocks and belly.

(2) Once the torso shape is established, layers of newspaper are applied.






(3) Then a base coat of paint, and the hands and feet are attached.




Examples of some of the final products...

(1) This one has the woven "balls" inside.



(2) This is the witch Rangda - shown above with newspaper applied.


And a close-up of her face and her foot.

















(3) And this pair were the ones with a base coat of paint above.

Bali's own New Year - Nyepi

Bali’s Nyepi Day - March 7, 2008, marked the Balinese New Year. The exact date of Nyepi varies slightly each year, as it is based on a Lunar calendar - usually near Easter.

On the day before, each village display Ogoh-Ogoh. These are papier-mache "statues" created by the Young Men's Association in each village (desa) or neighborhood (banjar). They are mounted on bamboo platforms. In the late afternoon, you’ll hear firecrackers and small cannons made from bamboo. And around sunset, there is an island wide parade of Ogoh-Ogoh to transform negative energy and drive off the evil spirits.

Nyepi Day itself is a Day of Silence. Having driven off the evil spirits, everyone must now stay quiet for 24 hours (sunrise 7th to sunrise 8th), so that the spirits will think everyone has gone, and there is no one left in Bali for them to bother for the next year - or at least, that's the explanation for children and tourists.

Businesses are closed, except for hotels. No cars, buses, or motorcycles will be on the roads. And Bali is the only place I know of where the government shuts down the airport for meditation & introspection! Balinese stay in their family compounds, dedicating an entire day to introspection and cleansing - intelectual, emotional, and physical. The entire island becomes quiet. There are no cars, no tv's or loud radios, no lamps or fires and no airplanes overhead.

Bhanuswari Resort & Spa - 2nd Anniversary PARTY

Bhanuswari Resort & Spa in Bali opened just 2 years ago. This year's anniversary celebration included...

Bali's traditional "welcome" dance...

A speech by Nyoman Suweta, the Managing Director...

More Balinese traditional dances...


Including the very beautiful "Bird of Paradise"...

Live music...

"Sexy" dancing...

A cake...

Guests...

And the wonderful staff and their families...

Awarding prizes to the winners of the games from the preceding 3 days...

And more dancing...

Soloist and Bird of Paradise Balinese Dancers

There was a teenage soloist.

The final dancers at the Panorama party were the Birds of Paradise -

2 women who were exquisitely beautiful in their dance.

Rice Harvesting, the "modern" method

Even with "modern" machinery to separate the grains of rice, most of the work is still done by hand.
A field almost ready for harvest in the foreground, and one that is being harvested in the background.





Moving the separation machine into place - I told you there is still a lot of manual labor involved!




Preparing to capture the separated grains of rice.




Work in progress - those bits of yellow in the air are rice straw being expelled after the grain is separated.







Collecting the separated rice grains.




Bagging the rice straw.










Portrait of a farmer...












...and her husband.