EARTHQUAKE

We were jolted awake by a 5.8 earthquake this morning. According to Indonesia Meteorological andGeophysics Agency, the quake measured 6.4 on the Richter Scale. It was pretty exciting. I watched our bed posts sway back and forth over a width of at least one foot, maybe more, but before we could get out of bed, the shaking ended. Three hours later another one happened, but this one was considerably lighter.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8264335.stm
has some interesting reports of people's reactions.

Apparently some buildings in Denpasar were damaged and seven people suffered injuries. I'm not aware of anything serious here in Ubud. Charlie told how a row of parked motorcycles fell over on their sides like dominoes. He also described how everybody ran out of their homes, banging on pans and buckets, yelling "Hidup! Hidup!" (Live! Live!). Balinese believe that doing that calms the earth down.

Here's an interesting post by Sidarta Wijaya:

Earthquake for Balinese is not merely a disaster; there is a hidden meaning or a prophecy, in every occurrence of earthquake. Armed with the sacred Palelindon (treatise on earthquake) manuscript, for hundreds of years, Balinese decipher every sign or prophecy behind every earthquake that occurred.

In Palelindon (treatise on earthquake), the earthquakes are categorized based on the time of occurrence. An earthquake that occurs in the first month of Balinese Caka calendar (July) has different meaning from the earthquake that occurs in the fifth month (November) and the meaning an earthquake that occurs on Saturday (Saniscara) is different from the one that occurs on Wednesday (Buda).

From: http://blog.baliwww.com/arts-culture/5924