Bali: The Online Travel Guide

An island rich in culture.

Religion, and its influences...

According to the legend, a one time King of Java, angry with his disobedient son, banished him into exile. The legend tells us that the King waited until his son had disappeared over the horizon, and then drew a line in the soil with his finger. The seas to the north and south joined at this place, and the island of Bali was born.

It is said that the Great God, Sang Hyang Widi created the first true Balinese couple, from whom descended the nearly three million people of Bali today.

Bali enjoys a rich culture, its history recorded in legends and preserved in its religion and the peoples adherence to the traditions of their ancestors. Temples are everywhere, especially in the mountains, where the Hindu Gods sought refuge from the Islamic invaders of Java. The most revered temple is on Gunung Agung, the tallest mountain, and according to legend, "the navel" of the world.

Hindu Bali is a religion which owes its origins to India, but which has developed independently from its forebear. Hindu Bali celebrates its rituals in a highly dramatised form, which can be witnessed by visitors in the form of dance and performance at traditional festivals, and at secular performances.

Dynamic and agile, Balinese dance is exciting theatre, filled with sharp corner-turnings, intricate coordination of eyeball, finger, neck and shoulder movements. Entertaining, elegant and captivating, the dances are performed according to strict tradition; the players are forbidden to improvise the movements learned and perfected since early childhood.

The crisply percussive gamelan music which accompanies the dancers, shares their dynamism and agility. Each village that can afford it owns their own gamelan orchestra. The ambience of a balmy evening, strolling or sitting on your balcony with the sound of the gamelan orchestra emanating from the village "banjar" (meeting place) in the background is near perfect.

Sound: A Balinese Gamelan orchestra
(5 second .WAV file - 80Kb).

The traditional style of paintings depict aspects of religious life or mystical characters, painted in sombre hues of yellow, red and black, or sometimes in plain charcoal. Contemporary adaptation and external influences have resulted in new themes: often in vibrant colors, featuring people, animals and abstract imagery, that are different yet uniquely Balinese.

Balinese painting style
Above: Traditional Balinese painting.

The Balinese consider art to be a natural activity. Peasants by day, artists by night, they are masters in expressing their religious beliefs and rituals into items of great artistic value; from simple masks, statues and jewellery, to wall sized panels using materials such as wood, stone, coral, bone, silver and gold. Painting and performance complete the picture. It is no exaggeration to say that there are as many artists in Bali as there are people.

Above: A Barong mask.

The Caste System...

Balinese society is founded on the Hindu caste system, although in a somewhat simpler form than that practiced in India. In Bali, there are four castes; Sundras, the peasants who comprise over 90% of the population, Wesias, the warrior caste, which also includes traders and some nobility, Satrias, the caste of kings, and Pedanas, the holy men and priests (brahman).

The caste of a person is indicated by their title; Ida Bagus for brahman, Anak Agung or Dewa for Satrias, and I Gusti for Wesias.

Each caste has its own language, and a separate dialect exists to enable someone to address one of unknown caste to avoid disrespect. The national language of Indonesia (Bahasia Indonesia), which is taught in schools simplifies communication somewhat, although at the expense of cultural diversity.

Stages of Life...

Life on Earth is one stage in the continuity of existence. The cycle begins at birth, an event cherished because the child is considered to be the reincarnation of an ancestor destined to live again in an earthly form. The birth of a child is attended by the entire family, and a holy man who invokes spiritual powers and aids the delivery. The umbilical chord is preserved and kept for life, and the placenta is placed into a coconut shell and buried near the entrance to the family house--to the right if the baby is a boy, to the left if she is a girl.

The different stages of childhood are marked by numerous ceremonies, the most significant of which is carried out when the child reaches 212 days old. Until that moment, the baby was a sacred creature owing to its divine origin, and was not allowed to touch the ground. The baby’s hair is cut, and it is given an official name according to its order in the family; Wayan for the first born, Made for the second, Nyoman for the third and Ketut for the fourth. The names are repeated for more than four children. The baby may now explore its world and play with other children.

Puberty, for girls is marked by ceremonial purification, followed by a period of quarantine, then prior to marriage, her teeth may be filed to remove the points, marking her arrival into the adult world, and removing signs of rough behaviour. The filing itself is carried out using primitive implements, and without anaesthetic.

Marriage is an act which must take place in order to honour one’s ancestors, and to perpetuate the race. To fail to marry and have children would be a willful decision to exclude one’s self from normal society, and will condemn the offender to feed swine in the next world!

Death is a rite of passage, the soul is freed from Earth, and may commence its great journey before being reborn into a future generation. The celebration of death reaches a climax, generally about 42 days after death, when the body may be cremated.

Often, to enable collection of sufficient funds, the cremation may take place much later (although too long a wait may condemn the soul to wander the Earth--bringing ill omens). Collective cremations, where the bodies of several deceased may be incinerated at one time, allow for those with small funds to free the soul of their ancestors at shared cost.

The body of the deceased is unearthed, washed and placed onto a tower, or “wada” to be carried in a procession to the funeral pyre. The bearers of the wada, who may number a hundred or more, march the body, whirling and tilting it to confuse the soul, lest it try to return to its earthly home.

At the pyre, the body is put into a sarcophagas, which has been shaped appropriately for the person’s caste; a bull for brahman, a lion for Satrias, and an elephant-fish Sundras, along with offerings and money. It is blessed and then incinerated. Once consumed by the fire, the ashes are collected into coconut shells to be thrown into the sea or a stream.

Forty days after the funeral, another ceremony, the mukur is held to mark the entry of the person into heaven.

Funeral procession
Above: A funeral sarcophagas being carried through the main street.