Devotion: Balinese Hindus pray to the goddess Quan Im, who is believed to be the immortal Princess Kang.Millenia
ago a Singaraja- based Chinese merchant’s daughter caught the eye of
Bali’s King Sri Jayapangus. Despite a ban on intermarriage in Bali
during the 11th century, the king was smitten and would love no other. Their romance took this young girl on a life’s journey from merchant’s daughter to princess, and then on her death into the divine. Kang Ching Wi was destined to become the goddess Quan Im, or in Balinese Ratu Ayu Mas Subandar.
While her life is shrouded in mystery like the mists that hang over her mountain home in Pinggan village, Bangli, and despite the twists and turns of a thousand years — the earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the banning under Soeharto of Chinese celebrations and culture — hundreds of worshippers have continued across that millenia to make the pilgrimage to Quan Im’s temple, Baling Kang, high in the mountains of Kintamani to pray for health and prosperity on Chinese New Year.
Among these annual pilgrims are those believed to be Princess Kang’s descendents, who were making the journey Monday to honor their ancestors and to pray.
At nearly 100 years of age, one Kang descendent, The U Chai, journeys the 200 steps to the temple as, like her ancestors before her, she has done since she was born. Today she is surrounded by her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren as this extraordinary pilgrimage is passed down into the future.
“I come here every year to pray,” says this tiny woman still brimming with energy and joy. I am 93 years old now and I have been coming here all my life. Princess Kang came from China a very long time ago and we honor her. We did not stop coming to pay our respects during the Soeharto years, we kept coming to pray on Chinese New Year,” says The U Chai.
Her son, 72-year-old Tang Siang Hok, or Budi Suartama under his once enforced Indonesian name, says his family gives thanks to former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid or Gus Dur for lifting the ban on Chinese culture because, “we can celebrate New Year’s. I feel happy every year now because we don’t have to hide our culture and our kids can go to school and learn Chinese,” says Tang.
While the family is not absolutely sure they are the direct descendents of Princess Kang, they believe it
is likely.
The U Chai’s 43-year-old grandson Kang Shue Kwang explains the family has stories passed down from generation to generation of the elusive princess. “We know she came as a trader’s daughter and King Sri Jayapangus fell in love with her beauty and wanted to marry her. We know she was from Fujian province and I think this is why our family has come here every year to pay our respects as her descendents,” says Kang Shue Kwang.
He adds that the princess is believed to have introduced many
of Bali’s religious and cultural
ceremonies such as the Barong and tooth filing.
“We have been told that the princess said yes to marrying the king on one condition. … The face of the king had fangs and they had to be cut. So potong gigi [tooth filing] began and since that period Balinese must file their teeth before marriage, that’s what I know,” says Kang Shue Kwang, adding that he believes “Balinese culture cannot be cut from Chinese culture — look at the
kapeng coins used in every Balinese religious ceremony — this came from Princess Kang we believe,” says this possible descendent whose family has for a thousand years climbed the difficult mountain to pray for their ancestor who became a goddess.
It is believed Princess Kang, who lived during the Song Dynasty from 960 to 1279 CE, was a Confucian and it was to her temple that Lie May Siang’s immigrant parents turned for comfort in a new land some decades ago. Lie May joined other worshippers Monday to pray for a prosperous year in this, the year of the Water Dragon.
“My Mum and Dad were from China, but I was born here in Bali. We are no relation to Princess Kang. My parents were Confucians, but me I am Balinese and all Hindu. I don’t really know the story of Princess Kang if is it a fairytale or a legend, but here it is a big day for us as Chinese descendents to come and pray on Chinese New Year at this Chinese temple,” says Lie May.
Princess Kang’s temple has red lanterns swaying in the breeze above a Hindu altar. At the entrance a great bowl of incense burns, suggesting a Buddhist or Confucian influence in the temple’s rituals. Red-scarfed lions guard the temple entry, iconic Chinese kapeng coins are carved into many surfaces and a pair of ancient fir trees, rather than banyan, are worshipped at the head of the 200 steps to the temple.
These firs combine with the misty ragged mountain landscape to form an image more in tune with Chinese watercolor scrolls than tropical Bali, almost as if Princess Kang chose
this spot to ward off her sense of
distance and strangeness; the firs living symbols of her life remote from China.
Nearby village names also echo down the centuries after the princess’s footsteps here; a few kilometers away is the village of
Songan, closer still is Pinggan. Like the names of their villages, the
people here too have a richer Chinese cast to their features than
other Balinese.
The stories of Princess Kang are almost as diverse as the thousands of Balinese Chinese still bearing her name, she is a mystery, a secret not quite lost, a merchant’s daughter that attained moksa or enlightenment, according to Tjoa Minfa from Singaraja, another traveler on this New Year’s Day pilgrimage.
Sacred: The misty mountains of Pinggan, home to the Baling Kang temple that honors Princess Kang.Before speaking of the goddess, Tjoa Minfa says a quick prayer asking for forgiveness from Princess Kang as Goddess Quan Im. “She attained moksa. We believe the goddess came here because it was only in Bali that she could achieve moksa, the state of the immortals. At that time, I understand, it was forbidden for Chinese women to marry Balinese, but she married the king of Bali. I heard she never had children,” says Tjoa Minfa as she heads off to the Pura Ulundanu Batur temple to continue her prayers on Chinese New Year.
At the temple a group of mainland Chinese holidaymakers are snapping shots of Balinese Chinese New Year’s worshippers.
Clearly not fussed with tradition, the 40-odd tourists from Zhe Jiang say they see Chinese New Year as a chance to get away on vacation.
“We are here in Bali for a holiday. We decided to give ourselves a New Year’s gift with some travel and a holiday,” said the group’s English speaker, who is more interested in sightseeing than ceremony.
— Photos By J.B. Djwan
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/01/26/1000-threads-song-dynasty.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment