I’ve never set foot on Bali soil, and while I’m sure it’s a lovely place to visit, their customs are beyond strange to a foreigner like myself. 18-year-old Ngurah Alit, a resident of the village of Yeh Embang in Jembrana, was caught by fellow villagers buck naked in the middle of having “relations” with a cow in a rice paddy field.
To his credit Alit owned up to his act of bestiality with the cow, but claims that he believed the sexy bovine was “a young and beautiful woman, had wooed him with flattering compliments.” Apparently moo in Bahasa Indonesian means “you are a handsome and virile young man.” Go figure.
Now here’s where the Bali culture gets all kooky. For his transgression, Alit was forced to marry the cow he was intimate with, as part of a Pecaruan ritual designed to cleanse the village of Alit’s unholy act. Alit though wasn’t ready to tie the knot at such an early age, and ended up passing out during the ceremony. I’m sure the fact that his betrothed was a cow had something to do with his fainting spell.
As if having a wedding ceremony for a man and cow wasn’t strange enough, the poor cow was drowned in teh ocean. Alit was ceremoniously drowned as well, meaning that his clothes were tossed into the sea and he was cleansed on the beach, but he himself was not actually drowned in the ocean, unlike his blushing bride.
So, not only does the cow get violated by an 18-year-old villager against her will, but she gets drowned on her wedding day. The moral of the story? If you’re a sexy cow with clever pick up lines, stay the hell away from Bali.
