Unlike the Muslim majority of the rest of Indonesia, the Indonesian island of Bali is predominantly Hindu. Like Buddhism in Cambodia the Hinduism in Bali is primarily about the art and ritual rather than scripture and appeasing the myriad of hyang, spiritual entities endowed with supernatural powers capable of good and of harm. The cigarette in this guardians mouth has been placed there as a form of respect.
@seattle Now that M has graduated we have moved to Jakarta, where J has been working for the past 18months. Sad to leave Cambodia after 4 years but its fun settling into a new country too. I'm not so keen on the cigarettes but Indonesia is finding it very hard to let go of its tobacco fix. It is still common for people to be sitting inside cafes smoking even though it is supposedly banned inside....even downstairs at the very modern Grand Indonesia.
posted August 28th, 2012
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