Pemelaspasan is a purification and blessing ceremony. Normally,
such ceremonies are performed on buildings such as houses,
commercial structures, and temples. However, large objects
such as gamelan orchestras may also be purified.
A pemelaspasan ceremony can be carried out on new or old things,
depending on the situation. Most commonly, pemelaspasan are
for new objects, however if the object has changed hands,
modified in some sort of way, or something unfortunate or
nasty has happened in the building or to the object, they
may also be cleansed. If a Balinese buys an old house or object
(for example an antique gamelan), it also needs to be cleansed.
If a something is believed to be inhabited by evil spirits,
the Balinese call this condition ‘leteh’, meaning
‘dirty’. A building is considered leteh if there
has been a murder, a death, a fire, or if it has been struck
by a natural disaster. Evil spirits like this sort of atmosphere
and tend to hang around and cause problems, so they say. The
‘caru’ part pemelaspasan ceremony is an effort
to exorcize the building of these evil spirits, known as bhuta
kala. An exorcism requires special offerings to the underworld
and involves animal sacrifices. It is hoped that by way of
these offerings, combined with prayers and mantra, the bhuta
kala will leave the building and not return to wreak havoc
again.
Pemelaspasan are normally carried out by high priests (pedanda),
however one may choose to use just a lay priest (pemangku).
Before the ceremony takes place, an auspicious day is chosen
by a high priest, in the hope that the desired result is achieved.
The ceremony is quite large, and even for a small house it
can involve many expensive offerings. Today, pemelaspasan
cost at least 12 million rupiah, not including the food and
drink for invited guests.
Copyright@ Kulture Kid 2005
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