Voogs

Offerings are made to the temples/statues, they are lil bamboo boxes filled with flowers, rice, tea, coffee, a sweet/cake and maybe tobacco.  You place them there and say a small prayer and ask for health, happiness. They are all slightly different in what they have in them for different askings/prayers.  I bought some of them at the market, mine are for ‘good life’ and I have to put them there tonight. Whe I bought them all the flower ladies where so happy to see a Westerner/tourist getting them, they explained the importance/meaning of them.  So I put the lil plastic bag down to retrieve my purse out of my back pack and heat all these ‘nooooooo’s  in shock and horror……You never put the offerings on the ground.  They also put small fragrant lily flowers behind my ear, in my hair.  When I got home the laundress was there getting the towels, I showed her my ‘offerings’, she then showed me to pick the frangapani flowers from the tree, NOT the fallen ones on the ground, to add as well.  So will take them to the compound temple this evening and ask for my ‘good life’ for myself and my family and friends.

The gold ornate statue is ceremonial cremation offering that will be burnt for the deceased, the florist shop pictured if you look to the left wall you will see the oval plaques of floral arrangements that will be given as offering at the funeral too.  It’s a bit expensive to have a funeral in Bali and the older people all save up for it.