Spiritual leaders in Bali have been speaking to the media about the surge in demand from tourists for traditional Balinese melukat ceremonies.
These deeply spiritual rituals are a form of water purification ceremony and date back for centuries. Yet, as interest in these practices grows, some fear that many tourists are simply taking part in sacred practices simply to create social media content.
Bali is one of the most culturally generous destinations on earth. At least not because the community widely opens up many of its most spiritually significant cultural performances and ceremonies for tourists to observe and even partake in.
Many in Bali feel that opening up the culture and sharing the experience with people from the outside helps keep the culture alive and thriving, while others have deep concerns that things have gone too far and that tourists should be excluded from certain practices until there is sufficient cultural respect and the deep understanding required to take part in such profound rituals.
In an interview with BBC Indonesia, Dewa Gede Bawa, a yoga teacher in Ubud, explained how he has seen a sharp rise in the number of people traveling to Bali to take part in melukat ceremonies since the rise of TikTok.
The first wave of tourists and spiritual seekers traveling to take part in these ritual blessings rolled in off the back of the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and the subsequent film adaptation starring Julia Roberts.
Yet, social media’s impact on travel trends in Bali is far larger than that of Eat, Pray, Love, which has had in over 20 years. Bawa told reporters, “After the pandemic, many people want to travel and heal themselves. [After being stuck] at home for several months, people experience depression. That’s why they come to a place like Bali to reconnect [with] themselves.”
He has seen a notable increase in the number of international tourists wishing to visit Tirta Empul Temple, which is Bali’s most famous water temple, to conduct melukat ceremonies and obtain spiritual ease and renewal.
Bawa has cautioned tourists who wish to take part in a melukat ceremony. He wants to see all tourists respect the ritual as a profound spiritual and religious experience and not treat it like a consumerist fad.
He told reporters, “For the last four or five years, [I feel] this tradition has been too exposed. A number of [people treat it] like a trend [and] it makes me a little worried. I don’t want the authenticity of the meaning of Melukat to be lost.”
He noted how, though many tourists do respect the process and the important steps and protocols of the ritual, there are many who show total disregard for the ceremony, such as those who do not wear sarongs into the temple, those who do not take the process seriously, and those who disrupt the ritual processes of others.
Bawa is calling for Balinese communities to be ‘wise’ when it comes to sharing its most precious cultural practices with tourists. He shared, “This is the challenge we face now, especially after the economy is affected by the pandemic. Many people are desperate and want to get something from the wisdom or culture that we have. As a result, they often forget that there are rules that we must keep.”
Marlowe Bandem, from the Saka Museum in Bali, told reporters”, Melukat is not meant to be a grand spectacle. Melukat should feel sincere, respectful, and spiritually grounded. Anyone who follows [Melukat] should feel clear in their heart after the ritual is over.”
Many have criticized tourists who travel to Bali for paying above and beyond for melukat experiences without taking the time to learn more about Balinese culture and the reasons why this ceremony is so powerful and demands respect.
American tourist Andrea Elliott told reporters about her experience taking part in a melukat ceremony in Bali and the profound effect it had on her life. Elliott was concerned about cultural appropriation and felt that she conducted herself in as respectful a manner as possible. Choosing a less well-known temple to conduct the ceremony, Elliot explained, “I wanted to be as respectful as possible. I wanted to be guided and welcomed by a local [rather than] ‘Ugh, what are you doing here?”
Over the years, both the Bali Tourism Office and the national tourism board, Wonderful Indonesia, have issued plenty of advice and guidance on cultural respect and travel in Bali.
As Balinese communities become more protective over their culture, tourists are also urged to practice cultural respect and really check in with their reasonings before taking part in any kind of cultural or religious ceremony, such as the melukat water cleansing ritual.
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