Thread: The Marriage Pictures

Bert, my husband had his tooth filing Ceremony prior to me arriving for our Wedding as his brother married in the June & they had the Ceremony then. Their teeth were definately filed, Maddison & I will have ours done once she is over the age of 16 I think.
I have attended a few Ceremonies including Tooth Filing ones, some of the Westerners had just the symbolic touching with the stone others had quite obviously had their teeth filed & on the odd ocassion I also witnessed the Balinese partner ask the Priest to stop filing the Westerners teeth...
So I guess it is the luck of the draw & if they are in a bad mood or not when the time comes.

By the way NICE PIC'S!!!!!

"So I guess it is the luck of the draw & if they are in a bad mood or not when the time comes."

i belive more that the extent of filing depends on how the persons teeth look like previous to being filed... :)

in my case, if i'll eventually get married and have my teeth filed i'll have to ask him not to file on one of my front-teeth since a third of it is synthetic material due to a bicycleaccident when i was around 10. :roll:

Hey by the time our daughters 15 I will be.... older!
I might be able to hand my teeth over to the priest for filing!!! :lol:
Imagine their faces!!!!

Hi,

The participant can choose for a symbolic, or a real. filing of the canine teeth.

The upper front canine teeth and the four upper incisors in between are filed, six in total. With the filing the socalled 'sad ripu', the six enemies of mankind, are killed, being kama (lust), lobha (greed), krodha (anger), mada (intoxication), moha (confusion) and matsarya (jealousy).

In general it's important to effect an even line of short teeth, as this ceremony also is a beauty-ceremony, with an esthetical purpose. An even line of shorth teeth makes one more appealing for the opposite sex, which is important to find a wedding candidate.

Normally the toothfiling is performed when the age of puberty is reached, but often it is done at the time of a wedding, or even at a cremation ceremony (ngaben), because of lack of money. Often other ceremonies, like hair-cutting, are performed as well, at the same day. Such a day with a series of important ceremonies is called a madudus agung.

The pointed canine teeth are likened to those of savages, demons, or animals, and with the filing one becomes 'human'. The filing 'kills' enemies are symbolically killed, and thus the initiate is symbolically reborn.

The ceremony begins with the pedanda (highpriest) sprinkling holy water and blessing the group with mantras. Offerings are placed in the bale gading (the ivory pavillion; gading means 'ivory' as well as canine tooth), dedicated to the God of Beauty, Sanghyang Semara Ratih, usually called Dewa Kama.

The initiates lie down two by two at a time on a double bed in the richly draped bale gading, while close relatives stand nearby. Incense is lit, mouthwash placed at the ready, files and whetstones blessed to cleanse them and render the operation painless. Magic symbols (aksara) are inscribed on the teeth with a special ring, the bungkung masasoca mirah (or bungkung matama mirah). The "Ang" symbol is inscribed on the right canine, the symbol "Ah" on the left canine, representing 'male' and 'female', respectively.

The "dentist" (sangging) first places a small cylinder of sugarcane ('tebu') in the corners of the mouth to prop the jaws open and prevent gagging. Just like our dentist, he jokes with the initiates to make them feel at ease. The front two upper canines are filed with a special small hammer (palu), a chisel (paet), and a file (kikir) so they're even with the upper incisors.

The actual filing requires about five to 10 minutes. A mirror (meka) is provided to allow the patient to observe the progress of the ritual. Filings are spit into a young yellow coconut (bungkak nyuh gading). The coconut with the filing will be buried near the most important shrine of the family temple.

Regards,
Ringo

I love the way you can explain it, easily for us!!! Well a bit more easily!
My in laws are extremely religious & I want to understand as much as possible about ceremonies & things as I can...
Thank-you, for explaining....X :D

i havn't come by that much information or really looked for it before so it's much apprechiated that you took the time to inform us. suksma. :wink:

The marriage Pictures, I think now a days almost every person has his marriage pictures in his safe because of its importance.Marriage is the Mind blowing moment of life due to which every person trying to capture these moment in the form pictures for future remembrance.