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Story  DPS · Bali

The offerings I kept seeing in Bali

I photographed offerings being prepared, sold, and placed around Bali, including one with french fries on a KFC counter.

Written and photographed by Ethan Ward
Went: 2 trips, 2 weeks and 2 months

Photo of a vendor’s hand dropping red petals into a woven basket of small leaf trays filled with purple, orange and red flowers, seen through an airplane window frame.
Before 8 a.m., at a market Agus took me to.ETHAN WARD

Every morning at the villa I rented in Bali, someone from the family compound came over with a fresh offering. They set it on the step and took away the one from the day before.

After that, I saw them everywhere. On shop counters, at doorways, on the pavement. Agus had them in his car, and sometimes even in his hair.

They’re intricate. What stood out most to me was how diligent everyone was about making them, at home and at work. On special days, the offerings got bigger. I thought there was something really cute about families getting together to make them.

It’s a big deal, and the time it takes to make them is part of what makes them special. In a digital age, it was nice to see something still so analog.

The small trays are called canang sari. Agus took me to the markets where people buy what goes into them, and I bought from every vendor I photographed. I didn’t want to be a vulture who only took pictures.

Photo of a wooden doorway beneath pink bougainvillea and a tiled roof, with banana plants against a pink evening sky.
The entrance to the villa I rented. Someone from the family brought a fresh offering to this step each morning.ETHAN WARD
Photo of market tables under umbrellas with baskets of flowers, long green leaves and shoppers in the aisle.
Most of what was for sale here goes into offerings.ETHAN WARD
Photo of a woman resting one hand on a carved stone gateway beside baskets of flowers and bags of supplies.
She was selling flowers and supplies outside one of the markets Agus took me to.ETHAN WARD
Photo of a woman bending to set a small offering on the pavement beside a round tray of flowers and leaf trays.
At the market, a little after 7:30 in the morning.ETHAN WARD
Photo of a tall arrangement of folded palm leaves and flowers standing outside a mossy doorway beneath a hanging lamp.
Outside a doorway in Ubud, the day before Nyepi, Bali’s Day of Silence.ETHAN WARD
Photo of an offering on a red-and-yellow stand on a KFC counter in front of drink machines and menu screens.Photo of french fries, flowers, rice and a burned-down incense stick in a leaf tray inside a metal bowl on a painted stand.
At a KFC in Denpasar, the offering on the counter included french fries. I’d come for the chicken.ETHAN WARD
Photo of offerings of leaves, flowers and opened coconuts on stone paving, some leaves dried and brown.
I came across these in Ubud the same day.ETHAN WARD

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