CATEGORY 126 AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST REALITY BITES The Big Magic in Dark Forces There was a ruffle across the rice paddies in Bali this year that wasn’t caused by the usual earth tremor, or out of control rental scooter. Monsters were being made all over the island for the annual parade celebrating the dark and demonic, but this year, a new bad guy was prowling the limits of taboo. Oggo oggo is the ancient Balinese version of Halloween. After months of planning, teamwork and ritual creation of their own village monster, the young men of each village, under tutelage of older generations, artists, priests and builders will carry their giant effigies of everything nasty, mean, dangerous or spooky onto the streets, alive with Carnivale, for a public relishing of the many faces of all that haunts and harms us. It’s a wild and brilliant open air festival that brings the whole of Bali to life throughout the night in a wild display of human strength, art, community, celebration and unified witness and welcome of the larger-than-life images of every demon, devil, dread and deathbringing force that every one of us has had to deal with through the year and will deal with again as the wheels of life keep rolling. Village boys carry their massive creations with pride on their backs as they march and stumble down streets hung with live wires, decorative poles and exploding with fireworks and wild musicians to a central crossroads where their giant monsters must be danced around and around, back and forth, taking all the collective might and personal endurance of each barer, who takes the full burden of the village’s imagination and building skill on his very back throughout the night. There they go: blood-thirsty apes, ferocious aliens, lusty foreign demons, death mothers, fabulous witches and grotesque whores ... all brilliantly made, all massive and commanding, all destined to be burned tonight after the demons have had their day of owning the streets and receiving their longed for moment of recognition and celebration. This year, one village not only tested the public limit about how far into the dark side we’re really allowed to look but dazzled the entire community with the artistic and architectural genius with which they crossed the lines of delicate taboo. This year, it would be the dark face of the High Priest who ruled the Oggo Oggo night. Scandal rippled through the island as news travelled that one village was daring to cross that holy boundary and bring the ugly side of the hallowed Bali ceremonial hierarchy into full view in the form of their Oggo Oggo monster. It’s an equivalent, perhaps, of Western countries bringing the shadow of their religious leaders and institutions into the light, a crisis we usually play out in the courts and media, with maximum drama, anguish and what amount to rites of exorcism and final justice, disguised as a reasonable application of Western reason. The truth is, as the recent Mushroom Murder trial, and the legend of Azaria Chamberlain and her lost baby exemplify, every culture, and everybody require public rituals for dark forces, and if they don’t receive them symbolically, they will manufacture them in their personal lives and in the streets and courts. Harmony is the most valued of all the virtues in Bali culture, it is brought through collectivity and creativity. In modern cultures, Justice might be said to hold this place, delivered by a war on the unjust. How this is really working out for us is up for serious consideration, given the crime crisis, the bloodlust of celebrity crimes and the increasing use of chemicals to regulate our disturbed and anguished personalities. Despite the massive increase in shows of beauty, especially in dentistry, which is exploding here, even among the poorest, every Balinese knows that outward beauty is a mask – it’s the inner face that must be met and allowed its expression for a person and a culture to progress with health. No matter what a dentist might do to improve your looks, it’s the accumulation of power and its burdens and temptation, and the exchanges of suffering that also shape our worlds. Why celebrating the dark side and letting the demons dance it out is good for you, me and dentistry. Jade Richardson By Jade Richardson
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