I Wayan Juniartha, Denpasar – It clearly was not an ordinary day. The morning sun radiated a warm glow that softly embraced the spacious patch of plush green grass in front of the office of the local education agency in Renon. At the same time, a light drizzle wet the ground while a strong breeze set the nearly pine trees swaying gently.
"That's what usually happens when a large number of high priests gather in one place," said the secretary of Bali's Hindu Dharma Parisadha, Made Mayor Sudharsana. .
"It is a sign that Mother Nature has bestowed her blessing upon this meeting," he said.
Interestingly, the meeting he was referring to had a lot to do with nature. Co-organized by the local branch of the Hindu Dharma Parisadha (the Hindu religion's governing body in Bali) and the WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature), a global conservation non-governmental organization, the meeting on January 15 was focused on the conservation and protection of sea turtles.
It was a unique meeting due to the presence of at least 29 influential Hindu high priests from East Java, Bali and Lombok.
"This pesamuhan (gathering) is the first of its kind. Never before has such a large gathering of respected high priests been called to discuss the issue of turtle conservation," the chairman of the Bali Parisadha, I Made Artha, noted.
It was not an easy task to secure the participation of all the high priests. There were "political" obstacles; the fact that Artha's Parisadha is not the only Parisadha on the island and the existence of slight feelings of mutual antipathy between the Pedanda (high priest of the Brahmin caste) and the Sri Empu (high priest of the Pasek caste). There were also more practical problems, mainly due to the tight schedules of the high priests.
"Fortunately, despite all those obstacles, all the high priests eventually agreed to attend the meeting, even those who supported the other Parisadha," said WWF's turtle campaign leader Ida Bagus Windia Adnyana.
Windia was the person responsible for contacting all the high priests. The fact that he was born into a respected Brahmin family and is thus a candidate for the high priesthood himself, and is well-versed in religious scriptures obviously played a critical role in his ability to win over all the high priests.
"The Pesamuhan went so well that all of those problems mean nothing now," he added.
The meeting did indeed go surprisingly well. WWF Indonesia's executive director Mubariq Ahmad gave a chilling presentation on how the island's turtle trade and consumption, which by the late 1990s resulted in over 20,000 sea turtles being slaughtered per year, was not only robbing the island of its turtle population but was also creating ecological strains in numerous sea turtle habitats around the country, such as in Sulawesi and Kalimantan.
The presentation apparently brought about a sudden realization of the crisis facing sea turtles on the part of the dozens of Hindu intellectuals and community leaders attending the meeting.
"I never knew that our tradition (of consuming turtle meat) could have such grave ecological impacts in other places," admitted Sri Wahyuni, one of the participants.
For decades, Bali has been the center of the country's illegal turtle trade. Despite all the regulations and law enforcement efforts, between 500 and 1,000 turtles are still illegally imported into the island each month.
Various elements of Balinese society, particularly turtle poachers and traders in the island's main turtle ports of Serangan and Tanjung Benoa, have justified, and thus perpetuated, the trade by claiming that turtle meat is an essential part of Balinese Hindu sacrificial rituals.
According to those involved in the turtle trade, those who sought to protect and conserve turtles were, in fact, trying to destroy the island's cultural and religious heritage. Such arguments have placed local conservation NGOs and law enforcement agencies on a perpetually frustrating defensive footing for years.
The meeting changed all this. "Only the biggest sacrificial rituals require turtle meat. By the biggest, I mean rituals aimed at cleansing the island or the world, certainly not rituals or offerings at the family level. In this context, Hindu rituals only need between 100 and 200 turtles per year," stressed the chairman of the Sabha Pandita (Council of High Priests) of the Indonesia Parisadha, Ida Pedanda Sebali Tianyar Arimbawa.
Meanwhile, another high priest, Ida Pedanda Gde Bang Buruan Manuaba, a passionate conservationist, boldly stated that turtle meat could be substituted for by turtle rice cakes or pictures of turtles. Another alternative was to use a live turtle for the ritual and then release it back into the ocean once the ceremony was over.
"These alternatives are not new as they are mentioned in various ancient scriptures. I have put it into practice. I have conducted a Caru Satya Ahimsa sacrificial ritual, in which no animal was killed, and I have also officiated at a ceremony in Yangapi village, Tabanan that involved live sea turtles. At the end of the ceremony, I released these sacred turtles back into the ocean," he said.
Buruan Manuaba stressed that Hinduism was a religion that not only respected life but also cherished and celebrated it.
"The international NGOs have dubbed the turtle trade in Bali as "Slaughter in Paradise". We must work to show them that life starts in paradise, not death," he told.
"It is simply a matter of educating the Hindu faithful to stop using religious pretexts for non-religious purposes. If they use turtle meat for meals during traditional parties, then they should be honest and admit that they need the turtles for personal consumption rather than for religious offerings," the influential Ida Pedanda Gde Sebali Kenatan of Lombok stated.
At the end of the meeting, the high priests issued a seven-point recommendation, which, among other things, asked Balinese Hindus to stop using turtle meat during in religious ceremonies until such time as the turtle population was deemed stable by the government. "We will present the recommendation at the next Mahasabha (grand convention) of all the country's Parisadha in March in Lampung. There is a good possibility that the Mahasabha will agree to adopt the recommendation as a Bhisama (religious decree)," Ida Pedanda Sebali Tianyar Arimbawa stated.
Securing the high priests' support was clearly a major victory for the conservation NGOs, turtle activists and law enforcement agencies. Not only that, it was also a major triumph for Balinese Hinduism.
"Today, we see that our high priests have courageously taken the first step in revitalizing our religion so that it contains a body of teachings and, most importantly, practices that place the life and well-being of all living things above selfish, petty rituals. To a large extent, it will be a journey back into what Hinduism once was, a religion of compassion and enlightenment," said young Hindu activist Cokorda Yudhistira.