Ceremony, Offerings and Gamelan

Everything here on Bali is infused with ceremony and the sacred. Naturally, this is centered in the temples, but each village has three! It is part of daily life and not a separate category of activity. The gamelan you are hearing is the Ubud Women's Gamelan, well-known for playing daily in the center of town. Inexplicably, I took no pictures of gamelan: other images will have to do. Gamelan is now often presented as an entertainment, but it's function for the Balinese is ceremonial. Each village has it's own gamelan, just as they have their own priests and temples.

Every day, somewhere in Bali, this happens. The man at the head of the procession is the priest.

Balinese temples very often have a sacred tree. This banyan at Pura Kehen has an altar built way up in it's multiple trunks.