A latest development of non-Balinese individuals (together with Indonesian celebrities) posting about their expertise doing melukat (purification ritual) on their social media accounts has triggered considerations among the many nation’s main authority of Hinduism, who denounced the commercialization of the sacred follow.
Native retailers reported that the subject was raised final week by Ngurah Saka, a social media influencer. In a sequence of tweets, Ngurah addressed Bali vacationers and stated that paying for melukat shouldn’t be a part of Balinese tradition.
“[I’ve become] aggravated with [social media] content material that claims [one] ought to pay for melukat,” Ngurah wrote on his Twitter account @ngurahsaka.
Tolong wisatawan yang ke bali, Melukat tapi bayar itu bukan budaya kita,
biar ga salah, melukat itu sakral, ga pake teriak2 nangis2 berkedok therapeutic.
kalian cukup ke Pura atau Tirtha enpul misalnya,kesal juga liat konten penjelasan melukat itu ada bayarannya.
— Bli Saka (@ngurahsaka) May 17, 2022
That one tweet from Ngurah, who has 4,204 followers, has obtained 1,930 retweets and 6,126 likes as of this text’s publication.
In conclusion, Ngurah criticized the commercialization of religious “therapeutic” as a part of a brand new tourism development in Bali.
I Ketut Pasek Swastika, the deputy of the Bali chapter of the Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia (PHDI) who oversees non secular and religious affairs, stated that he was involved with the so-called phenomenon, citing that melukat is a sacred follow that may solely be completed by Hindu adherents.
“Non-Hindus are allowed to carry out the ritual. [But] it’s referred to as bathing and never melukat. [You] can do it in a pond, a river, a lake, so long as you don’t use the phrase ‘melukat’ as a result of it’s sacred,” he stated.
A number of Indonesian celebrities have uploaded their melukat expertise on their Instagram accounts. A few of them are identified to be a non-Hindu themselves.
Melukat, which includes bathing at a Balinese temple amongst different intricate steps, has change into more and more fashionable amongst vacationers who wish to embark on a religious journey on the Island of Gods.
