Sūrya-Sevana: A Balinese Tantric Practice

Abstract

Every morning the Balinese pedanda siwa, who is usually termed in the Western literature a “high priest” or a “Brahmana priest,” performs a series of rituals known to Balinese and to Western scholars alike as “surya-sevana”. These important rituals, which form the basis of the pedanda’s practice, have been interpreted by Western scholars in widely divergent ways. Some scholars have regarded the rites as constituting a cult of sun worship (e.g. Brunner 1967:409-410). They have been judged to b...