In Balinese paintings, trees become the secret abodes of fantastic birds and monkeys, the nights an invitation for mischievous spirits, and the temple ceremony a panorama of offerings, sales stands, stylish dress, mystical figures of the theatre, fighting cocks, lovers’ rendezvous and family worship. The Balinese world is one of sharing. The joys of everyday life merge with social duties and re¬ligious obligations, in the same way that one’s personal fears are projected onto the mysteries of nature. The arts reflect an unconscious in¬tegration of environment, religion and community of which every individual is a part.
This feeling of continuity is the cornerstone of the local society. Every form of work or creativity is given group expression. The organization of villages, the cultivation of farm¬lands, and even the creative arts are a communal effort. Within his village, a man belongs to his family, his clan, his caste, his community, and to the total of the Balinese people who share in his heritage and surroundings. Religion is as essential as his livelihood. Every new occasion, whether it be the first birthday of a child or the completion of a house, receives the priest’s blessing. Every personal calamity is treated as a shared problem among family, friends and divine guardians. Only in rare moments throughout his life would a Balinese feel oppressive solitude. Nor is death a separation, but a journey of the soul to a resting place in heaven where “life is just as in Bali, but devoid of all the trouble and illness,” until it is reborn on earth, possibly in the person of a great¬grandchild.
CHILDREN are privileged Balinese, for the smaller the child the closer his soul is to heaven, and the purer is his spirit. It all began in the tales of legendary times:
Held tenderly by watchful parents and an older brother, a child first touches the ground during the six-month-old ceremony, here taking place in Kerambitan. Artist’s view of life in Bali, contemporary painting by Ida Bagus Rai of Sanur (overt.
After creating the world and mountains, trees, fruits and flowers, the deities made four human beings whom they provided with tools of work and houses to live in. The divine Siwa then made four women as wives for the four men The god of love, Semara. made mating a pleasure so that the women could be fertilized, and eventually, the four couples had many children. (From the ancient Catur Yoga.)
A child born in Bali awakens to a wondrous world of expectation. His father has long cen¬tered his hopes on having children, preferably a male child who will care for him in his old age and, after his death, perform the necessary rites to liberate his soul for reincarnation A new born baby is believed to have just emerged into this life from a spiritual realm, and is respected as holy. As an infant, he is not permitted to touch the impure earth and is carried everywhere, often riding on the hip of an older sister Ceremonies are held for him at prescribed intervals, culminating in his first Balinese birthday at 210 days. Offerings are made by the priest and he is allowed to touch the ground for the first time.
As soon as be can walk, the child is set free to wander all over the village with other chil¬dren his age. sometimes going on excursions that last all day. In this society of his own, he grows to be self-reliant at a very early age. At home he is treated cordially, taken by his parents wherever they go. and coaxed into obedi¬ence as an equal. He is never beaten, for were one to strike a child, it may harm his tender spirit. This manner of raising children with in¬dependence and respect accounts for the ex¬ceptional maturity and sense of responsibility in Balinese children. In the most crowded vil¬lage festivals, seldom do you hear a child cry or see him fight with other children.
During adolescence a child becomes formally initiated into the adult community When a young girl of a high caste family reaches the age of puberty, a ceremony is held » announce her status as a mature woman. First she goes into strict seclusion purification blessing from the priest. Frequent¬ly, a tooth-filing ceremony follows, also a custom of initiation for both boys and girls. By having a specialist, usually a priest, file a small portion of the upper teeth to form a straight line, one diminishes the six evil qualities of human nature: desire, greed, anger, intoxication, irresoluteness, and jealousy. With this ceremony completed, a Balinese looks forward to a life less prone to human frailty and error. Straight teeth make for prettier smiles, too Ferocious snarls, with long canines swerving from the mouth, are reserved for the ghastly grimaces of witches and demons.
MARRIAGE is the final initiation into the community; only a settled married man can become a member of the village association. The Balinese marry at an early age. The average age for a girl is eighteen to twenty, and for a boy between twenty and twenty-five. A young Balinese feels it is his most important duty to marry and to raise a family to perpetuate his family line. To go unmarried is abnormal. It is said that if a male adult dies a bachelor, in the next life he will feed sows, a woman’s chore: and if a woman does not bear any children, she will be suckled by a giant caterpillar.
As with everything in Bali, marriage customs vary from village to village and caste to caste. The two most popular forms of marriage are the mapadik – marriage by request, and ngrorod-marriage by elopement. Mapadik is the respectable form of courtship, in which the boy’s family bearing offerings and presents visits the girl’s family and openly proposes the marriage. Ngrorod is more exciting and clandestine, for here the honeymoon precedes the wedding, and the man is considered to be more heroic, like the romantic lover Prince Arjuna. hero of the Mahabharata epic.
The couple secretly decides to run away, usually to a friend’s house a good distance from the girl’s village. On the appointed (Nowadays, it’s fashionable to kidnap one’s bride in a car.) The girl’s family pretends to be very worried (and sometimes is). The enraged father is supposed to search the surroundings, asking everyone in the household who took his daughter. Of course, even a close friend who may have helped the daughter pack her clothes, innocently denies any knowledge of the affair. Sometimes even a search party is organized Usually an envoy is sent to inform the girl’s parents, who generally know the suitor and realize that if their daughter took some clothes, she willingly eloped.
Most Balinese agree-the advantage of ngrorod is that it is economical. In the formal courtship which precedes a mapadik marriage, the suitor must visit the girl’s home several times-small gifts and bus fares do mount up. On the first night of elopement, a small religious ceremony is held to make the marriage official by customary law. Offerings are presented to Ibu Pertiwi, goddess of the earth, who bears witness to the union. Later the entire village is invited to a formal wedding ceremony when the couple is blessed by the priest, and their union is announced through offerings and prayer to their ancestors and deities of the house temple It is then that the woman for¬mally joins the man’s family and becomes a member of his caste and clan
Divorce is not difficult in Bali A man merely reports to village authorities that his marriage is finished; or, if it is a woman, she simply re¬turns to her home and the children are cared for by the man’s family However, divorce does not occur often. If the situation arises, it is more likely that a man takes a second wife, and the first remains as head of the household.
THE COMMUNITY revolves around family and religion. A man raises a family that worships common ancestors in the family shrine of each household. The various families composing a village all worship at the three village temples Pura Puseh. the temple of origin dedicated toVisnu, where the village founders are honored; Pura Desa honoring Brahma, the temple for official ceremonies involving the living village community; and Siwa’s Pura Dalem, the temple of the dead, for revering the deities of death and the afterlife Together these temples form the core of the community.
For thousands of people, the community is in the crowded neighborhoods of district capi¬tals-towns alive with traffic of bicycles, horse-drawn carriages and motor vehicles, with mar¬ket places and the busy enterprise of merchants who own the innumerable shops that line the avenues. But for the majority of Balinese, whose livelihood is agriculture, the community is near the rice fields in rural villages. It is these quiet hamlets with shaded pathways overhung by vegetation, thatched roofs scattered behind interminable mud walls, herds of farm animals and the children who are their caretakers, that one pictures when remembering Bali.
A village (desa) is made up of family com¬pounds that line either side of several streets and lanes. Where the two main streets cross at right angles in the center of the village, there often is an open space (alun alun). around which are the temples, the town market, the cockfight arena, the home of the descen¬dants of the local prince (pun), a larae tower containing the signal drum (kulkul) to call meetings, announce events or give warnings, and usually a giant banyan tree, the sacred tree of the Hindus. On the outskirts of the villlage are the public baths, often a riverine laundry, and the unadorned cemetery near the temple of the dead.
Although every male citizen with a family generally owns the land he lives upon and labors, theoretically the island is divine property and is leased to the people who cultivate it and live from it.

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