Bali: The Gods Speak

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When Java was lost to the Mohammedans 485 years ago, so the legend goes, the disgusted Hindu gods hunted around for a new home. They chose the island of Bali, and since their exalted rank demanded a high dwelling place, they created a chain of mountains. On the most sacred eastern end of the island, the gods erected the highest of Bali's mountains, the 10,308-foot volcano of Gunung Agung, regarded by the Balinese as "The Navel of the World." Halfway up the slope of Agung, the pious Balinese built the huge mother temple of Besakih, and every hundred years they have held a solemn rite there to rid the island of ghosts. Last week, in the midst of the once-a-century festival, Agung erupted with catastrophic fury.

Agung gave fair warning. Only last month, after more than 100 years of inactivity, it burst forth with a shower of smoke and brimstone that killed 17 persons. There was worried talk on Bali that the gods were angry because the people had not asked permission to hold their festival. But the priests and their disciples stayed on to pray. At 7 o'clock one morning, Agung erupted again. The villages of Sebudi, Sorgah, and Sebih were engulfed by a lethal black cloud of searing, 230° ash that roasted hundreds where they knelt. Rivers of grey-black lava boiled over Agung's southern lip and flowed in fiery rivulets down stream beds, raising clouds of steam; heavy rains, possibly caused by the heat of the volcano, mixed with the sulphurous ash to form an acid that killed plant life for five miles around.

For five days Agung belched death. At week's end the death toll stood at close to 1,200, and another 200,000 were left homeless. As survivors streamed into towns at the base of the mountain, many suffering third-degree burns from a trek over beds of smoldering ashes, Indonesia's President Sukarno declared all Bali a disaster area. There was little hope that Agung's fury was over. Experts in Djakarta predicted even more violent eruptions to come and ordered all residents to leave the area for at least two months.