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BALI CULTURE
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Bali is truly a
unique isle; from its timeless traditions, colorful
pageantry to rites of passage. The people possess a
genuine sense inner happiness that is perhaps
attributed to the strong Hindu faith. There is a
fundamental belief in the spiritual world which
should always be in balance and harmonize with the
physical world to attain peace and prosperity.
HISTORY
Although there are no artifacts or records dating
back to the Stone Age, it is believed that the first
settlers on Bali migrated from China around 2500 BC.
By the Bronze era, around 300 B.C. quite an evolved
culture existed in Bali. The complex system of
irrigation and rice production, still in use today,
was established around this time.
History is vague for the first few centuries. A
number of Hindu artifacts have been found dating
back to the 1st century, yet it appears that the
main religion, around 500 AD was predominantly
Buddhist in influence. A Chinese scholar, Yi-Tsing,
in 670 AD reported on a trip to India, that he had
visited a Buddhist country called Bali.
It wasn't until the 11th century that Bali received
the first strong influx of Hindu and Javanese
cultures. With the death of his father around AD
1011, the Balinese Prince, Airlanggha, moved to East
Java and set about uniting it under one
principality. Having succeeded, he then appointed
his brother, Anak Wungsu, as ruler of Bali. During
the ensuing period there was a reciprocation of
political and artistic ideas. The old Javanese
language, Kawi, became the language used by the
aristocracy, one of the many Javanese traits and
customs adopted by the cause.
With the death of Airlanggha, in the middle of the
11th century, Bali enjoyed a period of autonomy.
However, this proved to be short-lived as in 1284,
the East Javanese king Kertanegara, conquered Bali
and ruled over it from Java. In 1292, Kertanegara
was murdered and Bali took the opportunity to
liberate itself once again. However, in 1343, Bali
was brought back under Javanese control by its
defeat at the hands of Gajah Mada, a general in the
last of the great Hindu-Javanese empires, the
Majapahit. With the spread of Islam throughout
Sumatra and Java during the 16th century, the
Majapahit Empire began to collapse and a large
exodus of aristocracy, priests, artists and artisans
to Bali ensued. For a while Bali flourished and the
following centuries were considered the Golden Age
of Bali's cultural history. The principality of
Gelgel, near Klungkung, became a major centre for
the Arts, and Bali became the major power of the
region, taking control of neighboring Lombok and
parts of East Java.
THE EUROPEAN INFLUENCE
The first Dutch seamen set foot on Bali in 1597, yet
it wasn't until the 1800's that the Dutch showed an
interest in colonizing the island. In 1846, having
had large areas of Indonesia under their control
since the 1700's, the Dutch government sent the
troops into northern Bali. In 1894, Dutch forces
sided with the Sasak people of Lombok to defeat
their Balinese rulers. By 1911, all the Balinese
principalities had either been defeated in battle,
or had capitulated, leaving the whole island under
Dutch control. After World War I, Indonesian
Nationalist sentiment was rising and in 1928, Bahasa
Indonesia was declared the official national
language. During World War II, the Dutch were
expelled by the Japanese, who occupied Indonesia
from 1942 to 1945.
After the Japanese defeat, the Dutch tried to regain
control of their former colonies, but on August 17,
1945, Indonesia was declared independent by its
first President, Sukarno. After four years of
fighting and strong criticism from the international
community, the Dutch government finally ceded and,
in 1949, Indonesia was recognized as an independent
country.
THE PEOPLE
Life in Bali is very communal with the organization
of villages, farming and even the creative arts
being decided by the community. The local government
is responsible for schools, clinics, hospitals and
roads, but all other aspects of life are placed in
the hands of two traditional committees, whose roots
in Balinese culture stretch back centuries. The
first, Subak, concerns the production of rice and
organizes the complex irrigation system. Everyone
who owns a sawah, or padi field, must join their
local Subak, which then ensures that every member
gets his fair distribution of irrigation water.
Traditionally, the head of the Subak has his sawah
at the very bottom of the hill, so that the water
has to pass through every other sawah before
reaching his own. The other community organization
is the Banjar, which arranges all village festivals,
marriage ceremonies and cremations, as well as a
form of community service known as Gotong Royong.
Most villages have at least one Banjar and all males
have to join one when they marry. Banjars, on
average, have a membership of between 50 to 100
families and each Banjar has its own meeting place
called the Bale Banjar. As well as being used for
regular meetings, the Bale (pavilion) is where the
local gamelan orchestras and drama groups practice.
Each stage of Balinese life is marked by a series of
ceremonies and rituals known as Manusa Yadnya. They
contribute to the rich, varied and active life the
average Balinese leads.
BIRTH
The first ceremony of Balinese life takes place even
before birth. Another ceremony takes place soon
after the birth, during which the afterbirth is
buried with appropriate offerings. The first major
ceremony takes place halfway through the baby's
first Balinese year of 210 days.
NAMES
Basically the Balinese only have four first names.
The first child is Wayan or Putu, the second child
is Made or Kadek, the third is Nyoman or Komang and
the fourth is Ketut. The fifth, sixth, seventh,
eighth and ninth will be another Wayan, Made, Nyoman,
Ketut and Wayan again.
CHILHOOD
The Balinese certainly love children and they have
plenty of them to prove it. Coping with a large
family is made much easier by the policy of putting
younger children in the care of older ones. After
the ceremonies of babyhood come ceremonies marking
the stages of childhood and puberty, including the
important tooth-filing ceremony.
MARRIAGE
Every Balinese expects to marry and raise a family,
and marriage takes places at a comparatively young
age. Marriages are not, in general, arranged as they
are in many other Asian communities although strict
rules apply to marriages between the castes. There
are two basic forms of marriage in Bali - mapadik
and ngorod. The respectable form, in which the
family of the man visit the family of the woman and
politely propose that the marriage take place, is
mapadik. The Balinese, however, like their fun and
often prefer marriage by elopement (ngorod) as the
most exciting option. Of course, the Balinese are
also a practical people so nobody is too surprised
when the young man spirits away his bride-to-be,
even if she loudly protests about being kidnapped.
The couple go into hiding and somehow the girl's
parents, no matter how assiduously they search,
never manage to find her. Eventually the couple
re-emerge, announce that it is too late to stop them
now, the marriage is officially recognized and
everybody has had a lot of fun and games. Marriage
by elopement has another advantage apart from being
exciting and mildly heroic it's cheaper.
THE HOUSEHOLD
There are many modern Balinese houses, but there are
still a great number of traditional Balinese homes.
The streets of Ubud; nearly every house will follow
the same traditional walled design.
MEN & WOMEN
There are certain tasks clearly to be handled by
women, and others reserved for men. Social life in
Bali is relatively free and easy. In Balinese
leisure activities the roles are also sex
differentiated. Both men and women dance but only
men play the gamelan. Today you do see some women
painters, sculptors, and woodcarvers.
COMMUNITY LIFE
Balinese have an amazingly active and organized
village life. You simply cannot be a faceless
nonentity in Bali. You can't help but get to know
your neighbors as your life is so entwined and
interrelated with theirs.
DEATH & CREMATION
There are ceremonies for every stage of Balinese
life but often the last ceremony-cremation-is the
biggest. A Balinese cremation can be an amazing,
spectacular, colorful, noisy and exciting event. In
fact it often takes so long to organize a cremation
that years have passed since the death. During that
time the body is temporarily buried. Of course an
auspicious day must be chosen for the cremation and
since a big cremation can be very expensive business
many less wealthy people may take the opportunity of
joining in at a larger cremation and sending their
own dead on their way at the same time. Brahmans,
however, must be cremated immediately. Apart from
being yet another occasion for Balinese noise and
confusion it's a fine opportunity to observe the
incredible energy the Balinese put into creating
real works of art which are totally ephemeral. A lot
more than a body gets burnt at the cremation. The
body is carried from the burial ground (or from the
deceased's home if it's an 'immediate' cremation) to
the cremation ground in a high, multi-tiered tower
made of bamboo, paper, string, tinsel, silk, cloth,
mirrors, flowers and anything else bright and
colorful you can think of. The tower is carried on
the shoulders of a group of men, the size of the
group depending on the importance of the deceased
and hence the size of the tower. The funeral of a
former rajah high priest may require hundreds of men
to tote the tower.
A long the way to the cremation ground certain
precautions must be taken to ensure that the
deceased's spirit does not find its way back home.
Loose spirits around the house can be a real
nuisance. To ensure this doesn't happen requires
getting the spirits confused as to their
whereabouts, which you do by shaking the tower,
running it around in circles, spinning it around,
throwing water at it, generally making the trip to
the cremation ground anything but a stately funeral
crawl. Meanwhile, there's likely to be a priest
halfway up to tower, hanging on grimly as it sways
back and forth, and doing his best to soak
bystanders with holy water. A gamelan sprints along
behind, providing a suitably exciting musical
accompaniment. Camera-toting tourists get all but
run down and once again the Balinese prove that
ceremonies and religion are there to be enjoyed. At
the cremation ground the body is transferred to a
funeral sarcophagus, this should be in the shape of
a bull for a Brahmana, a winged lion for a Satria
and a sort of elephant-fish for a Sudra. These days,
however, almost anybody from the higher castes will
use a bull. Finally up it all goes in flames funeral
tower, sarcophagus, body, the lot. The eldest son
does his duty by poking through the ashes to ensure
that there are no bits of body left unburned. And
where does your soul go after your cremation? Why,
to a heaven which is just like Bali!
RELIGION
The Balinese are Hindu yet their religion is very
different from that of the Indian variety. They do
have a caste system, but there are no untouchables
and occupation is not governed by caste. In fact,
the only thing that reflects the caste system is the
language which has three tiers; 95% of all the
Balinese are Hindu Dharma, and speak Low or Everyday
Balinese with each other; Middle Balinese is used
for talking to strangers, at formal occasions or to
people of the higher Ksatriya caste; High Balinese
is used when talking to the highest class, the
Brahmana, or to a pedanda (priest). It may sound
complicated, but most of the words at the low and
medium levels are the same, whereas High Balinese is
a mixture of Middle Balinese and Kawi, the ancient
Javanese language.
The Balinese worship the Hindu trinity Brahma, Shiva
and Vishnu, who are seen as manifestations of the
Supreme God Sanghyang Widhi. Other Indian gods like
Ganesha (the elephant-headed god) also often appear,
but more commonly, one will see shrines to the many
gods and spirits that are uniquely Balinese.
Balinese believe strongly in magic and the power of
spirits and much of their religion is based upon
this. They believe that good spirits dwell in the
mountains and that the seas are home to demons and
ogres. Most villages have at least three main
temples; one, the Pura Puseh or 'temple of origin',
faces the mountains and is dedicated to the village
founders, another, the Pura Desa or village temple,
is normally found in the centre and is dedicated to
the welfare of the village, the last, the Pura Dalem,
is aligned with the sea and is dedicated to the
spirits of the dead. Aside from these 'village'
temples, almost every house has its own shrine and
you can also find monuments dedicated to the spirits
of agriculture, art and all other aspects of life.
Some temples, Pura Besakih for example, on the
slopes of Mount Agung, are considered especially
important and people from all over Bali travel to
worship there.
Offerings play a significant role in Balinese life
as they appease the spirits and thus bring
prosperity and good health to the family. Every day
small offering trays (canang sari) containing
symbolic food, flowers, cigarettes and money, are
placed on shrines, in temples, outside houses and
shops, and even at dangerous crossroads.
Festivals are another great occasion for appeasing
the gods. The women bear huge, beautifully arranged,
pyramids of food, fruit and flowers on their heads
while the men might conduct a blood sacrifice
through a cockfight. There are traditional dances
and music and the gods are invited to come down to
join in the festivities. The festivals are usually
very exciting occasions and well worth observing, if
you are in the area. A crucial thing to remember, if
you wish to join in celebrations or enter a temple,
is that there are a number of rules that have to be
respected. Please see back page "A Word of Advice"
for Rules.
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