Bali My World

Lizard, the God’s Voice for Balinese

For Balinese people, almost every aspect of life has a religious values. They will always try to relate everything in this life into religiosity point of view. It sounds odd for the outsider but that is what they believe, they way of their life. Sometimes, it just does not make sense but as we know every culture has its own standard and for Balinese people what they have been told for centuries has became an absolute truth including the story of this post.

From Balinese point of view, lizard is not simply a reptile but it has special role in helping them to make decision upon certain religious conversation. The sound of lizard, which is something like ck…ck..ck.. is an almost absolute justification on what topic is being discussed. Here is an example, some Balinese parents are having discussion about car accident that occurred to their son yesterday. The father said “Well, I think the accident occurred to us as a punishment from God, you know we forgot to do some offerings yesterday”, then out of nowhere some lizard’s sound loudly can be heard right after the father finish his sentence, “ck…ck…ck..ck…”. Having heard the sound of lizard right after his sentence, I can guarantee you that the family comes into final conclusion about what cause of the accident. Yes, exactly like what the father thought, some kind of punishment from the God. How come? Balinese people consider that the sounds of lizard during any conversation, especially religious topic or something to do with religion, as an ‘endorsement’ from the God that what they said is true.

“Oh damn, this place must be haunted, big giant ghost..” and then suddenly ck…ck…ck…. Yes, thats right. No doubt, this place must be haunted. Just another example. So the formula will be something like this: what are being said + lizard’s sound = the truth. This formula are accepted worldwide Bali wide. I have no clue when, why and how this whole idea come. I am Balinese myself but I don’t think I can fully accept this formula as an absolute truth or the God’s voice, not even as a clue. It just does not make any sense. How come the power of the almighty God transforms easily into a lizard’s sound? It is just a coincident. What will happen to Balinese people if they live nearby a zoo? For sure there will a lot of animal, not only lizard but crocodile, tiger, elephant, lion and so on. Will they consider all those animal sound as voice of God too? If so, oh no, I will quit!

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