Two Balinese psychiatrists and visiting professors at the University of Vermont (UVM) will lead a Balinese Hindu prayer ceremony for peace and lead a discussion to correct misconceptions about their country at noon Friday, Oct. 18, on the university campus. A concurrent prayer vigil at a Hindu temple in Bali will include friends and family of Dr. Cok YaYa, a member of the Balinese royal family, and Dr. Sri Whyuni, whose family owns the Bali Post, the country's largest newspaper, as well as a Bali television station.
The two residents in psychiatry are in Vermont to study Western psychology with Dr. David Osgood, counseling psychologist at the UVM's Center for Health and Wellbeing and professor of integrated professional studies. They also are living with Osgood and his wife, Carla Osgood, a psychologist in private practice.
The bombing at a Kuta nightclub that killed 182 people "was September 11 to the Balinese," said Osgood, who since 1999 has traveled to Bali twice a year to teach a UVM graduate course in counseling. He said the Balinese were quick to note that the bombing occurred one year, one month and one day after the September 11 terrorist attacks in America -- which adds credence to suspicions of Al Qaeda involvement. "There are no coincidences to the Balinese," Osgood said, "and there is great significance in numbers."
After watching a recent broadcast of the CBS Evening News that mistakenly placed Bali somewhere in the South Pacific, and hearing Bali repeatedly described by the press simply as "a resort island," Osgood realized that Western media doesn't know enough about Bali. Although the tiny island lies among 14,000 islands that comprise the predominantly Islamic country of Indonesia, most Balinese practice a unique form of spirituality known as Bali Hindu, he said.
YaYa's mother, Dr. Leh Ketut Suryani, has met with Bali's governor and many members of the press since the Oct. 12 bombing to urge Balinese citizens to find ways to express and honor their grief and to connect with spirituality without immediate action stemming from rage. Suryani, a traditional healer, meditation teacher and chair of psychiatry at Udyana University in Bali, has lectured at UVM twice in the last three years.
For their part, YaYa and Whyuni have been sending articles to the Bali Post describing their work at UVM and their impressions of America, in hopes of helping Balinese people to better understand Americans.
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