An Auspicious Day for Choosing a Name for our Villa - Villa Cengkeh

Today is Kuningan, a very important Balinese holiday when the spirits of ancestors who have been visiting for the past ten days return to their spiritual home.  It is a day of a lot of ceremony and making of offerings at the various temples.

We have been working on finding a name for the new house we are building in Kayuputih village, North Bali.  These seemed like an auspicious time to chose a name which we hope will be enjoyed for a long time and with a lot of happiness.

We chose Villa Cengkeh.  Cengkeh, Indonesian for "clove" has a long and colorful history in Indonesia.  It is not native to Bali, but rather to the Maluku Islands to the far east part of Indonesia.  However, the trees grow extremely well here and have been a source of wealth for at least two centuries.

Cloves are the dried flowers from beautiful tall green trees that grow on the slopes of north Bali.  They are plentiful around our new home and in the photo below you can see them drying on large mats outside of a neighbors home.  The aroma fills the air and is quite heavenly.  The locals tell us that a family with cengkeh trees only has to work two months a year and then relax.