Ogho-ogho: a community ritual of purification in Balinese culture

 

In the photo, under the twilight of evening, we see a group of Balinese men carrying a demon statue mounted on a bamboo frame. The demon statue, known as the Ogho-ogho in Balinese culture, depicts the evil spirits of an imaginary evil frog rider based on Balinese Hinduism. The blurred background and the slanted lifting angle imply they are moving this massive statue quickly, shaking it vigorously. A closer look reveals a child sitting underneath, gleefully clutching a part of the statue to keep it from tumbling down. The Ogho-ogho is part of Bali’s Nyepi Day parade, with the main purpose of cleansing and removing any spiritual pollutants emitted from human activities in the natural world. In the 2-3 months leading up to Nyepi, every village in Bali starts crafting their Ogho-ogho. These are not sole creations of individual artists but a collective endeavor by the village youth, including elementary school children. Captured on the Hot in Bali tourism guide website, this photo seizes a moment of raw passion within a communal religious ceremony against a purplish-red evening sky, draping this Southeast Asian island’s culture in an added veil of mystery and romance.

In “Purity and Danger,” Mary Douglas argues that “dirt is essentially disorder,” implying that the presence of dirt is an affront to order (Douglas 2002:2). As a result, the removal of dirt from an environment represents an active endeavor to impose order and re-order the environment. Such endeavors serve to reaffirm the presence of social order and norms to the group members, thereby fostering a sense of unity in shared experience within the community (Douglas 2002:5). Moreover, Mary Douglas’s Durkheimian perspective is reflected in her assertion that the dichotomy of order versus disorder transcends individual experiences but rather contributes to a collective rationale that exists in the external world. Through this lens, linking Douglas back to “The Rules of Sociological Method and Suicide”, Douglas underscores Durkheim’s sociological belief that social facts possess an externality to individuals and, thus, that the social structures are significant in molding individual perceptions and behaviors. Additionally, Douglas also states, “Each primitive culture is a universe to itself (Douglas 2002:4)”, challenging the conventional view that regards primitive culture as underdeveloped and immature.

On the night of the Ogho-ogho parade, with the accompaniment of the local gamelan ensemble, Balinese carrying the statues will rhythmically sway the bamboo frames to the music until parts of the demonic figures start to disintegrate and fall away. At the end of the parade, these statues are collectively discarded on a lawn to be purposefully destroyed, either dismantled or set ablaze. Through the act of crafting and then intentionally demolishing depictions of the evil spirits, Ogho-ogho becomes an annual ritual of nature purification for the Balinese. This ritual of purification extends into the subsequent Nyepi day (Day of Silence), regarded as a day for meditation, beginning at 6 a.m. the day after Ogho-ogho and lasting 24 hours. During this time, individuals remain indoors and reflect themselves through meditation or fasting. Commercial activities cease, and even Bali international airport closes for this day. Some locales avoid using electricity for the whole day and even after dark. From a religious standpoint, Nyepi day is also a period of waiting, waiting for the “dirt” deterred by the Ogho-ogho to find their way home. Therefore, venturing outside on Nyepi day risks attracting these disoriented evil spirits to follow you home. Essentially, Ogho-ogho symbolizes the Balinese rationale of environmental and self-purification, clearing the accumulated dirt, resulting from human environmental interaction over the past year. Through the removal of evil spirits, the ritual of Ogho-ogho and Nyepi day reaffirms the social order based on the collective commitment to value of embracing one's authentic self and living positively in the present moment. Through the participation in the creation and parade of Ogho-ogho, each community member reclaims a sense of validation, derived from the collective life's order and logic, imbued into their personal living experience and self-existence.



Reference

Douglas, Mary. 2002. “Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo.” New York: Routledge.

“Ogoh-Ogoh and Nyepi – Exorcism and Silence.” March 8, 2016. From Hot In Bali. Retrieved April 4, 2024. (https://www.hotinbali.com/ogoh-ogoh-nyepi-exorcism-silence/).