Balinese Puppetry

Balinese wayang performance

Balinese wayang puppets 

Historical Background

Puppet (Indonesian: wayang means shadow) has existed in Indonesia around 1500 BCE where the function of the wayang at that time was to be used by shaman to perform religious practices in worshiping ancestors. The ancestors were personified in the forms of images made from rocks where in later development they were engraved in the rawhide of animals. Since the penetration of the Hindu religion and traditions into the archipelago in circa 400 CE, it brought with it the most famous Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata.

After the influences if the Indian caste system, traditions where the priests and other expertises have played different roles in society, therefore, in later development wayang is not performed by the shaman any longer but instead it is performed by a dalang, the puppeteer whose role is more for show rather than religious performance. Shaman and dalang are not the same, however, in Balinese beliefs sometimes both the shaman (Balinese: balian) and the dalang can play the same role in helping people to get recovered from certain diseases which is believed to be caused by the unseen evil spirits. In Indonesia wayang was first only known in Java, Bali, Sunda, North Sumatra and Kalimantan (Borneo), then it is also known in Lombok, a small island in the east of Bali.

Material and Subject Matter

In Bali wayang are made from cow or buffalo hides, there are only certain people who have artistic talent to create wayang. There are about 175 characters in one box (Balinese: gedog). The carving of wayang are very delicate and a lot of details. In making the wayangs the artists must follow the ancient rules and beliefs. There are fixed patterns in creating all characters of the wayang, each character has its own distinctive straits. The most famous characters of the wayang are the characters that depicting the two Indian great epics: the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. However, one character can have double roles or even multi roles (like the kayon). The kayon is used to depict a mountain, wind, water, and to tell the audiences that the Dalang switch the scene. And between the characters of Ramayana and Mahabharata the wayang can be used interchangeably. For example: the character of lord Rama of the Ramayana can be used to depict the lord Krishna of the Mahabharata since they both are considered as the reincarnation of Vishnu. But not all characters can be used interchangeably. 

Kayon is the symbol of five basic elements in this world

The Instruments

In general, there are two types of instruments that accompany the wayang show depending on the subject matters: the batel and the parwa. If the subject matter is taken from the Ramayana epic, the instrument to accompany the show is called batel, but when the subject matter is taken from the Mahabharata epic then the instrument to accompany it is called parwa. The difference between the batel and the parwa is the number of the instruments played during the play. The batel needs more instruments than the parwa, therefore batel needs mope players. The wayang group is sometimes called sekaa batel consists of people who are interested in wayang play. The puppeteer is the one who studies in school or from the older dalang. The Dalang is assisted by two persons who sit on the left and on the right of the Dalang. Those two persons are very important called katengkong. They have to know the story well in order that they can provide the Dalang with the right characters during the show. Before the initiation ritual they have to perform every night for a month.  They are initiated by the guru with a special ritual called melaspas wayang. During that ritual the wayang is performed for public.

The clowns are the translators of fine characters who speak Kawi, the Old Javanese

The Roles of wayang

Wayang has played important roles in Javano-Balinese societies. The roles of the wayang are varied depending on the demands of those who need it. The wayang can be performed merely for entertainment or for certain events like marriages, tooth-filing or three months old baby ritual and for other religious purposes to purify environment or spiritually unclean persons. The wayang for entertainment is usually performed on the temporary raised stage built only for the performance. The subject matter is taken either from the Ramayana or the Mahabharata and it can last for all night long. During the performance the wise smart dalang usually insert some moral advice for the audiences, or sometimes the dalang will narrate the current socio-political events being undergone by the regional and central government of Indonesia. These insertions are usually relayed by the clowns whose roles are to translate the language of fine characters who speak Old Javanese language (Kawi) into common language, which can be understood by all level of the audiences. Any jokes are also presented by the clowns to keep the audiences awake before the climax of the show which is the victory of good (dharma) against evil (adharma).

Types of wayang

Based on the topic of the wayang, there are various types of wayang. There is a wayang lemah which is performed during the day-time. The main purpose of the wayang lemah is to exorcize the polluted people spiritually. This type of wayang usually takes the plot from the sudamala story where the sudamala means “to free the stain”. This wayang does not need screen or lamp but instead they use white tread for the screen tied into two vertical daddap trees (a kind of coral tree) on the left and on the right of a horizontal banana trunk. This wayang is needed to exorcize the babies who were born on the wrong time according to the Balinese calendar, and also the twins need to be exorcized by a dalang. This wayang is performed when the babies three-months-old. 

Wayang lemah or Sudamala when wayang is performed without screen

Another type of wayang is wayang Calonarang which is considered dangerous because it is very magical. This wayang is usually performed in the death temple or near the cremation ground since in Bali we consider the cremation ground is the place to gain supernatural power from practising the black magic and white magic. The topic of the Calonarang is about the fight between the practitioners of the black magic represented by the Rangda, the witch widow against the white magic represented by a powerful sage Mpu Bharadah. During the show, the dalang will draw a magical invisible wall (mandala) with certain boundary lines in the four compass directions to protect the audiences from the attack of the black magic practitioners because the dalang with his loud voice invite all of the witches to test his magical power. The dalang himself is considered magically powerful (sakti) but to find out the strongest witches there is a night fight amongst them. In addition to classical types of wayang, in present day Bali young dalang created new types of wayang called wayang Tantri. The characters of this wayang are animals and the story is taken from the Tantri Kamandaka, a collection of animal stories.  

Wayang Sudamala where the demonic Durga will be exorcized by Sadewa

Applying for a visa to Canada

Down town Vancouver

Gardenia house at Larkin Drive, UBC

Applying for a visa to Canada

Holding an Indonesian passport is not easy. Anytime we want to go abroad outside the Southeast Asian countries, we have to apply for a visa. This summer 2014, I applied for a visa to visit my family in Canada. It was not too hard because I asked a travel agent to organize my application through the Canadian Embassy in Jakarta. I just need to prepare the following documents:

1. My Passport (of course)
2. Kartu Keluarga (Family Registration card)
3. KTP (which I did not have yet at that time due to the lateness of the E-KTP which never arrive)
4. Photograph must be standard
5. Print out of the air-ticket (can be booked at Anta Tour)
6. Bank book showing your financial balance
7. Sponsor letter from Canada (in this case my husband issue a letter from me)
8. An invitation letter from any institution showing that I will present a paper at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada.
9. A letter from Udayana University to guarantee that I will be back to Bali or not illegally work in Canada
10. Than some cash depending on the kind of visa you apply for. In my case I paid IDR 1,570,000 for multiple entry visa which is good for a year.

After all the requirements are complete, the travel agent then send all those documents to Jakarta to be proceded at the Canadian Embassy.

It took about two weeks to get it done. It was a good way to apply for a visa using the travel agent or other services because we do not need to deal directly with the Embassy or the consulate, but we have to pay extra fee for their services.

I was scheduled to give a talk on at the UBC in June 17, but due to the lateness of my visa, I could't leave for Canada till June 23, therefore they rescheduled my talk for June 26 on Thursday at 12:30 at the Asian Center, UBC.

What a pretty place to be during the summer

I hope the above information is useful for you if you need to apply for a visa to Canada someday. Good luck, guys! I hope that you all have no problem in applying for any visa to Canada. Wishing you all the best from Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Note: The following is the list of the Southeast Asian countries where we can get Visa On Arrival (VoA).

Countries

Country	Area (km2)	Population (2012)	Density (/km2)	GDP (nominal), USD (2012)	GDP (nominal) per capita, USD (2012)[7]	HDI (2012)	Capital
Brunei	5,765	434,320	74	16,852,000,000	$38,801	0.885	Bandar Seri Begawan
Cambodia	181,035	15,254,000	84	14,246,000,000	$934	0.543	Phnom Penh
East Timor	14,874	1,119,000	74	4,214,000,000	$1,066	0.567	Dili
Indonesia	1,904,569	244,468,000	127	894,854,000,000	$3,660	0.629	Jakarta
Laos	236,800	6,376,000	28	9,269,000,000	$1,454	0.543	Vientiane
Malaysia	329,847	29,038,000	87	305,826,000,000	$10,579	0.769	Kuala Lumpur
Myanmar	676,000	63,672,000	92	54,049,000,000	$849	0.498	Nay Pyi Taw
Philippines	300,000	101,392,320	320	250,436,000,000	$2,462	0.654	Manila
Singapore	724	5,366,000	7,285	267,941,000,000	$49,936	0.895	Singapore
Thailand	513,120	64,460,000	125	376,989,000,000	$6,572	0.690	Bangkok
Vietnam	331,210	90,388,000	270	137,681,000,000	$1,523	0.617	Hanoi

Gigolo dari Amazon

Just a Gigolo

Wayan Godogan dari Amazon: “Just a Gigolo”

“Bukan hanya manusia yang bisa menjadi gigolo, rupanya katak pun meniru tingkah laku manusia, ikut-ikutan jadi gigolo”. Saya mendengar seorang pengunjung berkata demikian ketika kami menyaksikan pameran habitat hewan amphibi yang digelar di Museum of National History di New York pada musim panas 2007.

Di Bali kita punya cerita rakyat berjudul “I Wayan Godogan“ atau "I Wayan Kodok", yang sering diceritakan oleh nenek saya waktu saya kecil dan juga telah dipentaskan dalam bentuk arja dimana diceritakan bahwa Wayan Godogan ingin mempersunting seorang putri raja untuk dijadikan istrinya. Banyak tantangan yang dihadapi Wayan Godogan dan ibunya di dalam memenuhi keinginnya, namun dia berhasil mempersunting putri raja berkat ketabahannya di dalam menjalani segala cobaan yang ditimpakan kepada Wayan Godogan dan ibunya dalam proses pelamaran sang putri. Di belahan dunia lain, di daerah tropis Guyana, Amazon, Peru dan Brasilia, keluarga Wayan Godogan telah menjelma menjadi Gigolo kawakan.

Pada musim panas 2007 ini penulis sempat mengadakan kunjungan ke beberapa kota di Amerika. Kami tinggal beberapa hari di rumah Prof. Hildred Geertz, seorang anthropolog Amerika terkenal dari Princeton University, New Jersey. Prof. Hilly [nama panggilan beliau] menyarankan agar kami berkunjung ke kota New York karena tidak jauh dari tempat beliau di New Jersey. Kami pun menerima usulan beliau dengan antusias. Pagi-pagi kami naik mobil sewaan menuju terminal metro atau kereta bawah tanah untuk menuju kota New York. Sebenarnya perjalanan ke New York hanyalah tindakan yang spontanitas karena tidak ada tujuan pasti apa yang akan kami lakukan dan apa yang kami lihat di New York, tak ada rencana yang tersusun sebelumnya, semuanya hanya berdasarkan naluri wisata.

Setelah tiba di New York, saya merasa bagaikan rusa masuk kampung, karena memang sesungguhnya saya orang kampung asli. The Big Apple itulah julukan bagi New York yang memang menyuguhkan kehidupan menggiurkan bagaikan apel yang ranum, namun dibalik keranuman sebuah apel ada sesuatu misteri yang mungkin dapat mencelakan orang yang tergoda untuk memakannya. Karena tak tahan godaan maka malapetaka pun mendekat seperti misalnya dalam dongeng Putri Putih Salju. Sang Putri tak tahan melihat buah apel yang ditawarkan oleh ibu tirinya karena sirik atas kecantikannya yang tiada banding lalu menyamar menjadi nenek tua renta datang ke gubuk para kurcaci sambil membawa apel beracun dengan tujuan tiada lain untuk membunuh Putri Putih Salju. Dengan tenang sang ibu tiri yang sirik menyuruh Putri Salju untuk makan apel bagian yang beracun. Makanya setelah makan apel beracun Putri Putih Salju pun tergeletak tak sadarkan diri. 

Dalam teori theologi juga disebutkan dimana Adam dan Hawa yang telah berani makan buah apel yang sengaja diciptakan untuk menggoda mereka, maka menjadi sengsaralah mereka karena tergoda dengan ranumnya si buah apple.

New York memang mirip seperti kisah buah apel yang menggoda, sangat merangsang setiap orang. Kalau orang tersebut punya keberuntungan maka kota New York akan menjadi sorga dunia, tetapi malah sebaliknya kalau Dewi Fortuna tidak berpihak kepada orang bersangkutan maka nerakalah yang ditemuinya.

New York memang terasa berbeda dibanding ketika masih berdirinya dua World Trade Center yang saya kunjungi pada tahun 1996 setelah mengajar di Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. Tapi kehidupannya di New York masih tetap seperti dulu, penuh mobilisasi, orang-orang sangat agresif, dan sangat menghargai waktu. Ada rasa takut dan khawatir ketika kami berada di terminal kereta bawah tanah atau metro, terasa nyawa kita terancam oleh kekuatan maya dibalik kejahatan manusia yang memimpikan perdamaian dengan cara meniadakan nyawa orang lain. Tapi syukurlah, saya masih sempat menulis journal kecil ini, yang berarti kami terluput dari ancaman tersembunyi dari makhluk maya tersebut.

Berjalan ke sana ke mari di terik musim panas di jalanan di New York merupakan sesuatu yang dihindari oleh para wisatawan, kecuali pengunjung seperti kami yang tak ada rencana matang sebelum menginjakkan kaki di kota Big Apple. Kaki capai, perut lapar serta panas matahari menyengat, debu jalanan serta polusi kendaraan yang lalu lalang telah membuat kami mengiginkan untuk melakukan sesuatu di dalam ruangan, tidak peduli apapun bentuk kegiatan tersebut pastilah lebih nyaman dibanding dengan jalan-jalan di bawah teriknya matahari.

Akhirnya kami mendekati Time Square dimana lokasi dari Museum of Natural History of New York yang kebetulan saat itu ada pameran menarik sedang berlangsung. Hatiku sangat gembira karena itu berarti kita akan segera masuk ke dalam gedung, terhindar dari sengatan matahari. Ketika memasuki museum, antrean sudah sangat panjang untuk mendapatkan tiket masuk menyaksikan pameran yang ada.

Ada dua pameran yang diminati oleh para pengunjung yaitu “the Life of Frogs dan the Mysterious Creatures”.  Jadi, kami membeli tiket untuk dapat melihat kedua pameran tersebut. Setelah berdiri kira-kira setengah jam, kami pun mendapat tiket masuk. Segera kami menuju ke ruangan “Mysterious Creatures”. Pameran ditata sedemikian rupa sehingga menciptakan suasana yang dapat membawa kita seolah-olah memasuki alam misteri. Poster besar dipasang di samping pintu masuk dimana sinar koreografinya sengaja diredupkan supaya lebih menyerupai alam gaib.

Yang membuat saya kaget bagaikan terbawa ke alam niskala Bali yaitu ketika kita memasuki ruangan misteri dimana adanya dipamerkan hasil seni budaya Bali yang tersohor yaitu Barong dan Rangda. Mungkin orang mengira bahwa Barong dan Rangda adalah makhluk misterius sehingga perlu ditampilkan dalam pameran bergengsi tersebut. Saya melongo beberapa saat di hadapan figure Barong-Rangda mengagumi hasil seni budaya putra Bali. Sayang sekali kita tidak dibolehkan ambil photo disana jadi saya tidak bisa mengabadikan Barong-Rangda yang mewakili Myterious Creatures dari pulau tercinta ini. Tapi rasa bangga akan Bali selalu tetap terjaga dalam lubuk hati yang paling dalam. Di museum apa pun yang pernah saya kunjungi salah satu dari hasil seni budaya Bali pastilah ada terpajang dengan anggunya, penuh mesteri, spiritual dan keunikan tersendiri.

Pameran yang lain yang banyak diminati pengunjung adalah “The Life of Frogs”, karena kami memang mempunyai tiket untuk menyaksikan kehidupan para amphibi, maka setelah terseret ke dunia misteri beberapa jam kami pun memasuki dunia penuh dinamika kehidupan sekular seperti yang dijalani makhluk hidup di dunia ini. 

Ketika memasuki ruangan “Kehidupan Amphibi” sudah banyak pengunjung yang antre dari aquarium satu ke yang lainnya. Kami penuh sabar menunggu giliran untuk dapat menyaksikan kodok satu ke kodok yang lainnya. Saya heran, kenapa orang-orang tertarik untuk melihat katak, karena saya sendiri berasal dari kampung pertanian di daerah bagian selatan pulau Bali, jadi kehidupan saya berdampingan dengan para katak. Bahkan waktu kecil saya sering ikut ayah untuk ke sawah dan menangkapi para katak yang berlompatan. Pada malam hari selalu kami mendengar suara katak yang membentuk berbagai melodi membuat tidur semakin nyenyak. Terlebih-lebih pada musim hujan, para katak akan dengan penuh ceria menyanyikan gita alam sekitar menyambut turunnya hujan. Betapa mengagumkan sebenarnya alam di sekitar kita, kalau kita punya waktu untuk merenungkannya dan menikmatinya.

Ternyata para katak yang saya kenal di Bali tidak dipamerkan di ruang Kehidupan Katak, semua jenis yang saya saksikan berbeda dan punya ciri-ciri yang unik serta langka. Yang paling banyak menarik perhatian para pengunjung adalah aquarium habitat amphibi dengan judul “Just a Gigolo”. Saya pun berdesakan ikut ingin tahu apa sebenarnya yang menarik dari katak tersebut. Seorang pengunjung bule menoleh pada saya berkata, “Saya kira hanya manusia yang jadi gigolo, ternyata katakpun mempraktekkan hal tersebut” [dia berkata dalam bahasa Inggris]

Saya tersenyum mendengar komentarnya lalu bilang,”Benarkah? Coba saya lihat“

Dengan penuh perhatian saya mengintip ke dalam aquarium dimana para gigolo tersebut dipamerkan. Dalam hati saya berkata dan tersenyum menyetujui komentar bule tadi, ya memang benar, bukan hanya manusia yang menjadi gigolo namun katak pun tak mau ketinggalan.

Figure berikut adalah photo ”Sang Kodok Gigolo“ yang memang tampan dan menarik.

Sang Gigolo penghuni Amazon yang nama Inggrisnya adalah “Milk Frog“ serta nama Latinnya Trachycephalus resinifictrix dari keluarga Hylidae, dia termasuk binatang amphibia yang bisa hidup di dua tempat yaitu baik di darat maupun di air. Ukuran tubuhnya berkisar antara 3 sampai 4,5 inci atau sekitar 8,9 atau 10, 6 cm. Makanan kegemarannya adalah serangga, dia suka tinggal di cabang-cabang pohon di daerah tropis yang tinggi dan lembab seperti di Guyana, Brazilia, Ecuador, Peru Amazon. Siklus hidupnya berawal dari pembiakan yang terjadi di atas pohon-pohon tropis tinggi. Para betinanya bertelur antara 2000 sampai 3000 di lobang-lobang pohon tinggi yang berisi air. Telur-telur yang berjumlah ribuan tersebut lalu menetas menjadi cebong dalam jangka waktu dua minggu kemudian. 

Nah sekarang, kenapa jenis katak yang hidup di ketinggian pohon-pohon tropis basah tersebut dijuluki Gigolo? Perhatikan foto berikut ini:

Berdasarkan terjemahan bebas dari keterangan photo yang penulis ambil waktu itu, ceritanya begini:

Pada saat musim berkembang biak, sang kodok jantan berusaha untuk menarik perhatian sang betina dengan suaranya yang nyaring untuk datang ke tempat yang telah disediakannya di lobang pohon berisi air di istana pohon tropis. Lalu sang betina tergoda mendatangi panggilan sang jantan lalu dia bertelur di istana air tempat si jantan. Setelah bertelur si betina meninggalkan pasangannya untuk menjaga telur-telur tersebut sampai menetas menjadi cebong atau berudu. Tetapi setelah telur-telur tersebut menjadi berudu, maka si jantan gigolo merayu betina lain untuk mendatangi tempat yang sama agar kawin dan bertelur disana. Sayang sekali, telur-telur dari si betina kedua tidak dipeliharanya tapi bahkan dipakai untuk makanan bagi berudu-berudu yang kelaparan dari betina pertamanya. Dengan mengumbar “Cinta Palsu“, dia telah berhasil memperdayai betina kedua untuk memberi makan anak-anak dari telur-telur hasil perkawinan mereka.

Alam memang penuh kejutan dan selalu menarik untuk dicermati

Red Roses of Venice, Italy

Red Roses of San Marco Square, Venice, Italy

a Pink rose

A red rose

If someone gives you a red rose, you might think that you are a very special person. Flowers are symbol of beauty and love. During the Valentine day, people will give yellow roses to their lovers or friends as a symbol of eternal pure love. I love the beauty and the fragrant of roses. Yes, the red roses should give us an happy lovely feeling if it is given with pure love. However, not all roses give us good happy mood. This is what happened in Venice related to the red rose.

July 25, 2014, when we walked around at Plazza San Marco or Saint Mark's Square in Venice, a man gave my daughter a red rose, she took the red rose from him with a happy smile, but that sweet smile became a bitter look because she had to pay Euro 4 for that red rose. When she told him that she didn't want the rose, that man insisted that my daughter must pay him because she has already touched the rose. She gave that man 4 Euro with full of disappointment.

The red-roses man at the San Marco Plazza

Then, my daughter handed the rose to me because she couldn't stand the feeling of anger seeing the rose in her hand. I told her that the rose was not guilty we should just keep it. "Okay mom, you hold it, I am just too upset with that man. Venice is very interesting, I love the views here, but I don't like its people", my daughter mumbled. 

We sat down for a while on the bank of the ocean thinking about what we should do next after our day has been ruined by a man of the rose-giver. 

Well, I just entertained myself by thinking that whatever happened during our trip, it would be a great lesson for life. We started feeing relax and continued walking around the plaza, trying to forget about the man. But then, we saw a couple of being the targets of the man with roses. He gave the woman three stalks of red roses then he forced the man to pay 20 Euro for those 3 roses. They were mumbled of disappointments, I was not sure if they were happy with the roses or not.

Later on that day, at the same place, a woman with her girl-friend was given a rose by the rose-man, she received it with a wide smile then she was forced to pay. She didn't pay but instead she gave it to her girl-friend who walked with her. The girl-friend grabbed the rose from her and handed back to the man while yelling at him in the language I didn't understand. She got so mad at the man, and told him to "f--k-off". He walked away with a bitter look.

At that time, I thought that he deserved that mean treatment from that tough girl. We didn't feel so sorry for that man, I feel sorry for those people who became targets of the red-rose scam.

She looked happy and grateful for the flowers

The rose-man forced the woman to accept the flower

The husband must pay for the rose

Conclusion

Don't believe in free stuff

Don't trust people in the first sight

Always be cautious with people kindness

Don't let small things ruin your day
learn the lessons from your experiences,
they are the best teachers

Casa Di Giulietta or House of Juliet

Casa Di Giulietta or House of Juliet

Verona, 1 August 2014

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet."
--Juliet from "Romeo and Juliet" (2.2.45-6)-William Shakespeare

                           Romeo and Juliet (1968)

The sign in front of Juliet's house

I read Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare when I was a student at the Udayana University, Denpasar Bali as one of the required readings assigned by our professor on the subject of Ancient English Literature. It was a very hard reading but I got the point that how tragic their love story was. 

The story goes as follow:

"Romeo and Juliet met one night at a masked ball and fell desperately in love, but she was a Capulet and he was a Montague, and the tow families were enemies. The lovers met in secret for some time, Juliet aided by her maid, Romeo by his friar. One day, however, Romeo was walking through the street of Verona together with his friend Mercutio, when he was came across one of the Capulets, a cousin of Juliet, who insisted on fighting. Romeo, tried to refuse, but in that period, not accepting a challenge was a sign of cowardice, so his friend Mercutio accepted he duel, on Romeo's behalf, to have his honor, paying with his life. At this point Romeo, enraged, killed the Capulet and was condemned to exile. Desperate, he recounted everything his beloved Juliet, and the two decided to get married immediately in secret. The friar, their friend, married them. That night Romeo entered the Capulets' courtyard, climbed up the balcony and spent the night with Juliet. In the morning, he had to leave for exile in Mantua. After a while, Juliet's parents decided she to marry somebody else. Juliet tried to refuse or to postpone the marriage, but in that period it was the parents' decision and that was that. She went to the friar to ask for advice and he gave her a herbal infusion to make her seem dead for 48 hours. In the meantime he was to go to Romeo, who was to come back to rescue her, so that they could elope...but the friar did not reach Romeo. Having arrived at the gate of Mantua, he found them closed; there had been cases of plague in the Padana plain, and the people in Mantua were afraid of the illness, so nobody was allowed to enter the city. Romeo had heard his beloved Juliet was dead and so, desperate, he got on his horse, rode to Verona, went to Capulets' graves...there she really was, apparently dead...Romeo gave her a last kiss and killed himself. When Juliet awoke, she found Romeo dead beside her, and she too decided she didn't want to live without him: she took his knife and killed herself. Juliet was fourteen and Romeo was sixteen, and the story is a true story, at least in its main lines" (Maria Pia Girolani and Michael Lee).


To this present day, there are many people visiting the house of Juliet for various purposes. Some lovers go there in order that they will gain happy eternal love. Some people just go there because they are curious about the place. I went there because my daughter actually directed a play of Romeo and Juliet for her theater assignment. Therefore, she was very excited to visit the House of Juliet in Verona. It was a hot sunny day with a heavy backpack we walked from the Arena to the house of Juliet. It was not far from the Arena. 

When we got to the house of Juliet, there have been many people inside the compound, some of them were busy writing their messages on the walls in both side of the entrance gate. Some of the visitors were busy taking pictures both in the balcony and with the bronze statue of Juliet. It was very crowded, therefore, Kadek and I had to take turn to get closer to the statue of Juliet. 

The following are some of the pictures of the graffiti made by visitors.

Graffiti on the wall engraved by the visitors 

Graffiti on the wall

Visitors touch the right breast of the bronze statue of Juliet

The right breast has become very shinny

Visitors stick their gum on the wall after making a wish

Lovers also locked their love here

Another scene where lovers locked their love

The balcony of Juliet

I hope that those who made a wish or wishes there will gain an happy eternal love. My own graffiti on the wall was "Love is beautiful, therefore the world should be full of Love".

Basic Info on Hindu Rituals in India

Hindu Rituals in India

The girl light some candles to celebrate the Devali

In present day India, there are several Hindu festivals and holidays that are celebrated nationally. These are: Holi, Diwali and Durga Puja. In addition to those major festivals, there are also minor festivals. These include festivals like Mahashivaratri (“the sacred night of Shiva”), which is popular in both North and South India, Ram Navami (“the birthday of Rama”), Krishna Jayanti (“the birthday of Krishna”) and Raksabandhana (“the renewing of bonds between brothers and sisters”). Some festivals are most popular in particular regions of the subcontinent; Dassera, celebrating the victory of Rama over the demon king Ravana, for example is most popular in the north, while Ponggal, which may have originally been a rice harvest festival, is celebrated only in the south. Other festivals involve pilgrimages timed to astronomical cycles, like the Kumbha Mela, which is held every 12 years at the confluence of the Gangga and Yamuna rivers at Prayag.

The celebration of colors, we are the same color during the Holi

Holi is the Spring festival of colors celebrated for two days in either February or March. On the evening of the first day of Holi the celebration begins with a public bonfire commemorating the burning of the Holika, and effigy that represents the aunt of Prahlad, a devotee of Vishnu, whom she threatened with a fiery death if he disobeyed the ban on worshipping Vishnu that had been issued by her brother Hiranyakashapu. The second day of Holi is called Dhul-hendi. People spend the day cheerfully throwing colored powder and water on each other, regardless of the usual questions of hierarchy and status that dominate traditional Indian social life. During this Holi celebration the rigid social norms and traditions associated with caste, sex, status and ages that confine them in daily normal life are loosened, and a carnival-like atmosphere dominates everywhere. The Holi festival helps to bridge social distance and brings people together as they set aside polite behavior for one day. By the end of Holi, everyone should look the same—very colorful and with barely recognizable difference among them. Some people also celebrate Holi by indulge in drinking alcohol, or thandai, a cooling drink that on this special day is laced with bhang, a concoction made from cannabis that is sacred to the god Shiva.

Diwali or deepavali is the celebration of lights that celebrates the victory of good over evil and the triumph of light over darkness. It is held in early November and for many communities represents the high point of the yearly cycle of rituals.

The image of the goddess Durga flanked by Saraswati (left) and Laksmi (right)

Durga Puja, the celebration of the power of Shakti, the female energy of the gods, focuses on the goddess Durga and the celebration of her victory over Mahisasura, the buffalo demon. Durga Puja is an especially important festival for the Bengalis. It consumes an enormous amount of energy during the period of its festivities, which usually fall during the first week of October. The city of Kolkata is especially notable during this festival. People from every neighborhood build pandals, temporary buildings designed to enshrine images of the goddess Durga, and at times her “sister goddesses” Saraswati and Lakshmi. The goddess Durga is the central image, flanked by the goddess Saraswati on the left side and the goddess Lakshmi on the right. The goddess Durga is the most popular amongst the devotees compared to the other goddesses because the goddess Durga is very generous to her devotees.[1] Here for a period of nine days devotees can do puja by chanting sacred hymns taken from the Devi Mahatmya or Durga Saptasati to temporary images of the goddess artfully fashioned from papier-mâché and paint. After this the images are taken to the steps (ghat-s) that line the river Gangga and are thrown with reverence into the waters of the holy river with the hope that with the completion of the cycle of Durga Puja new life will begin.

Another pandal depicting the Tri Sakti (Saraswati, Durga and Laksmi)

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[1] Personal communication with the devotees during the Durga Puja in India, October 2002