Within the tiny island of Bali or the Island of a Thousand Temples of which population in majority practice Hinduism, also spread out some houses of worship belonging to other religions. As soon as leaving for your hotels from Ngurah rai International Airport, you will encounter temples and mosques in Tuban. In other occations, when you have a sightseeing tour of downtown Denpasar, like visiting the Bali Museum, in close proximity there is a temple and some churches. Or even if you happen to go on an optional tour to Eastern Bali, after watching the Barong Dance in the morning, you will pass by a Buddhist temple in the vicinity of Hindu temples at Blahbatuh, Gianyar. These are only some examples of houses of worship that are adjacent to one another.
As a matter of fact, gracious interfaith concord in bali has been established since a few hundred years ago. Mostly set in motion by troop’s assistance amongst kingdoms in Bali with those from outside Bali (Islamic kingdom) in facing both local and outside attacks. When the warfare was over, members of the troops were bestowed land, and then they lived there interacting with local people by establishing their kampong. Meanwhile, the arrival of Chistianity in bali by missionaries took place starting circa 1930s during the Dutch administration.
In this day and age, there has been some prominent Moslem or Javanese kampongs across Bali like Pegayaman village in north Bali, Kepaon in Denpasar and some others. Just as that of the Christian, there are Belimbing Sari Village in Tabanan, Tuka and Untal-Untal Village in Badung. By Nature, they all live adjacent and in harmony on every occasion with the local Hindu villagers. Without leaving their roots, they at least persistently conserve some values of local traditions to maintain their social relatonships and establish tolerance.
When celebrating religious festivity, they will adopt and discharge a tradition names ngejot in Balinese language. It conveys an action of delivering food delicacies prepared to neighbors in order they also find pleasure in the joyful and exuberant celebrations and maintain the social relationships. The ngejot may consist of food, cake or assorted fruits. In modern times as today, this tradition still works even in heterogeneous community in housing complexes in urban area. They live together in a small community that usually belongs to a part os sub village administration nearby. Another matter that is no less important is sensitiveness of each religion, such as toward certain foods. For example, every time preparing the food for a celebration, wedding party or the like, the Hindus deliberately provide a special menu called penyaleman. It means special food prepared for the invitees of nyama selam or the Moslem companion or others who do not consume pork and its variant foods.
When the holiday of different religious accours coincidentally, each religious figure assemblies and government will sit together to find out the best solution in order to carry out each celebration gracefully. Formerly, Nyepi and Idul Fitri have once fallen on the same day and so have Idul Fitri and Christmas. Through the spirit of togetherness and high tolerance, difficult situations such as those started above can be resolved and conflict can be avoided. This indicates the gracious interfaith concord in Bali that has been well established.

News by International Bali Post

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