Rainy Season in Bali
Up at o’dark-thirty to photograph rice fields, and driving through the rain made us wonder if we’ll see sunrise at all. Alas, nary a sign of the sun or the volcanoes that rise in the distance. However, as we were preparing to run for cover from an approaching downpour, we were lucky to catch this view of mist rising through the palms.
After the rain, we were off to scout out celebrations, which are plentiful here. Our first stop was a temple in the midst of a multi-day celebration, where we watched people preparing offerings for the next phase. The process of preparing offerings is time-consuming, and many hands are involved. Single offerings are presented in these shallow baskets woven from coconut leaves. This young boy was proud of his suckling pig!
Women balance these towers of fruits and flowers on their heads.
We wrapped up the morning with a visit to Tirta Empul, the water temple, where anyone can go to be purified. I’m not happy with the water shots I got, but I’ll have another crack at it when we return with next week’s group. The temple itself is full of beautiful carved stone figures, gates and arches, and this gigantic woman’s head (Vishnu, I think) woven of bamboo.
We have another early morning ahead…..
I love the mist rising through the palms. The offerings represent so much work. Do they work on these as a community or individually and then bring them together. What beauty of place and spirit!
I’ll write more about offerings later, but preparing them is a daily ritual for families. At our hotel, there’s a woman who prepares dozens of them every morning and places them all over the property. When there’s a big celebration it’s a community effort.
Absolutely amazing art between carvings and statues. The landscape looks heavenly 😍