This year Nyepi Day fell on March 16^th. It is a day in the Balinese Hindu culture where the island is silent and the people fast and meditate. It’s a day of self reflection. From 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. the next day the whole island of Bali comes to a sudden halt. Nobody is allowed to be on the streets as special officials monitor and enforce people to stay in their homes and keep silent. Everyone is restricted from work, lighting fires, using electricity, traveling, talking, any kind of self entertainment, and for some, not eating anything at all.

Nyepi is predominately a Hindu holiday, but other people who live in Bali or visit the island observe this day of silent too. They may not believe in what the day is all about, but they participate out of respect for the Hindus on the island.

For people who spent their holidays in Bali during Nyepi and did not wish to participate in keeping the day for self reflection, they were taken in consideration. They were allowed to watch television and enjoy all the amenities of their hotel or Bali villa, but they were not permitted to be out on the streets or on the beach. They had to stay in their hotels or villa in Bali. Even all the busy touristic areas that are usually jam packed with people such as Seminyak, Kuta, and Ubud became total ghost towns.

During this day of silence, no airplanes were allowed to land or take off at the Denpasar International Airport, as it was completely shut down for 24 hours. Although no one was allowed on the streets, they made special exceptions for people to be transported to the hospital for any type of serious emergencies such as women who were in labor and life threatening causes. Planes were only granted special permission to leave Bali for people who had serious traumatic injuries, which needed special attention to be flown out of the island. The only people that were allowed on the streets were what they call in Bali the Pecalang, which are security guards and police who enforce the prohibition rules.

The day after Nyepi is called Ngembak Geni. Slowly everything came back to normal, as the streets were busy again. There were many ceremonies that were performed around the island and people celebrated for accomplishing a day of total self reflection and meditation. The Balinese Hindus repented and forgave each other for all the wrong they have committed. It surely was a very festive day in Bali, Indonesia.

Mount Agung also known as Gunung Agung is one of the tallest mountains on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Because of its massiveness, it affects its surrounding regions through different environmental changes. When the clouds come from the Western side, Mount Agung is so tall and immense that it blocks rain clouds from getting onto the Eastern portion of the surrounding area. So the Western regions get more rain, which makes it more verdant and fertile compared to the dry and desolate Eastern side.

Mount Agung is an active volcano that has a vast and seemingly bottomless crater. Although it has a large crater, it is so massive that it looks totally conical from a far. On clear days, you can even see the peak of Mount Rinjani on Lombok from Mount Agung.

The Balinese people mainly practice the religion of Hindu and believe that Mount Agung is a total reproduction of the famous Mount Meru. This is a holy mountain in Hindu cosmology, which is said to be the core of everything that is metaphysical, physical, and spiritual in all the universes out there. Many Hindu temples all over the world have been built to symbolize this sacred mountain. The most significant temple in Bali, which is named Purah Besakih is perched on the towering slopes of Mount Agung. On February 18, 1963 Mount Agung erupted which caused destruction in surrounding areas. The lava flow came very close to Purah Besakih, but did not destroy this holy temple. The Balinese people believe that the Gods allowed this to happen to show their power and to express how important this temple is.

Many tourists and visitors who come to Bali make it part of their itinerary to do a trek up Mount Agung. They can choose to do this trek without a guide or through our company Pambali. We can arrange special trekking guides who are professionals and are very familiar with the area, weather conditions, and trained to do first aid. This trek can be done in two ways; the first one is to finish it as a single climb, which starts at 10:00pm. The hikers trek all night into the wee hours of the morning, just in time to watch the sunrise. The second way is to stop three quarters of the trek, set up camp, sleep for a few hours, continue hiking, and eventually arrive to the summit. This is a very difficult hike where weather climates and conditions can change very rapidly so people should make sure to wear comfortable waterproof clothing. Water is also not available along the way so climbers should pack a sufficient amount of water and also food.

Tapa Brata for the immortality.

Bali is the land with unique culture and tradition which develop and born in Bali it self. But Balinese culture also has a great influence from other country like china, Tibet, and India. But mostly the Balinese culture and traditions has a great influence from china and India which each of them has same characteristic in culture, traditions and religious so for Balinese it observed and mixed together with Balinese culture and tradition.

India the home town for Hindu giving a great influence for Balinese religious so there is mixed between India culture and Balinese culture which created a harmonization. All the role and philosophies of Hindu is taken from India and step by step it fixed and mixed with Balinese culture. Some of ceremonial in Bali is followed from its source India and had modified so it became unique and beauty without leaving the meaning of it.

Shivaratri is one of ceremonial which sources from India, in edition this ceremonial is base of the concept of Tapa Vrata for immortality. Basically people in this world created by the god as social human (homo socious) life with their society and which each of them has their responsible and own problem. But in the way they living their life commonly faces so many problem which dialing with this world where they can not realize they self from this virtual world. So the Hindus theory teach about Tapa Brata Shivaratri as guided for it followed to reach, the immortality of life, realize our self from this virtual world, and find the happiness and peaceful.

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