Some offerings are lifted up. Others are placed on the ground.
Every Balinese morning has both: a canang raised to the shrine for the gods, and a small segehan set on the earth at the gate for the forces no one can see. One goes up toward the mountain. One stays low, with the ground. Together they keep the house in balance.
CANANG SARI
Flowers, placed in order.
A small tray of young coconut leaf, pinned with bamboo, holding a little betel, lime and areca nut, and flowers arranged by direction: white to the east, red to the south, yellow to the west, dark blue or green to the north, mixed petals at the center.
It is made, offered with incense and holy water, and left. By evening it has wilted. The next morning there is a new one.
What a canang holds
In one priest's reading, canang joins two old Kawi words: ca, beautiful, and nang, purpose. It is an offering made to ask for beauty, before the gods of the nine directions. Each part carries a meaning.
Ceper · the tray
Palm leaf folded into a square. It stands for the body.
Beras · rice
A few grains for the atma, the life that makes the body live.
Porosan · the fold
Betel leaf, lime and gambir folded together: Wisnu, Siwa and Brahma, the Trimurti, in one small bundle.
Bunga · flowers
Peace and a sincere heart. White to the east for Iswara, red to the south for Brahma, yellow to the west for Mahadewa, blue or green to the north for Wisnu, mixed petals at the center.
Sari · the coin
A coin or a small note, placed last. It is said to be the sari, the essence, of the offering.
BHAGAVAD GITA 9.26
“A leaf, a flower, a fruit or water,
offered to me with devotion, I accept.”
The verse is often quoted to explain why the Balinese offer every day. What is given does not need to be large. Balinese teaching asks that it be given sincerely, tulus ikhlas, out of love, and according to one's means, so that it never becomes a burden.
DUPA · THE SMOKE AS WITNESS
No words are spoken,
and still something travels upward.
A stick of incense, dupa, is lit with every prayer. Its smoke is understood as a witness, saksi, carrying the offering to where it needs to go.
Before Galungan, every family raises a penjor at its gate: a tall bamboo pole hung with palm leaf, curving over the road like a mountain ridge.
Incense smoke is also the first step of our own one-minute ritual.
SEGEHAN
On the ground
Rice and petals on a square of banana leaf, placed at the gate for unseen forces.
Our story
PEJATI
At the temple
The basic set of offerings brought to a temple to announce a prayer.
Sacred island
GEBOGAN
Carried in procession
Towers of fruit, cakes and flowers, carried by women into the temple at an odalan, a temple festival.
JournalA NOTE
Offerings belong to those who make them.
We do not make offerings on anyone's behalf, and we do not sell them. The offerings on this page belong to the families, banjar and temples who make them every day.
If you visit Bali, step around the canang on the pavement, and if you would like to learn more, ask quietly at a local market, where the trays and flowers are sold.
Gratitude & Presence
Pieces for a one-minute morning ritual of thanks.
Receive the island letter
We write on the full moon, the new moon and every Tumpek: a reminder to renew your intention.
