Bali Traditional Villages and Customs

As Bali is becoming increasingly modern, one has to visit its villages and  attend some of its festivals to feel its soul and heart.The Balinese village pays tribute to Man's harmony with nature. Every thirty meters or so, one will see the same proud brick gate with the same lintel decoration. Hidden behind the mud walls will be same red tiles of the family pavilions, located thirty meters away, with their thatched puppet house functioning as the family temple (sanggah/merajan). Under the shade of the tall coconut tree will be the imposing figure of a waringin.The Balinese desa (village)is typically host to a set of three village temples. Instead of being closed, roofed structures, the temple are open spaces, demarcated only by wall and carved gates, with trees alongside thatched shrines in their inside: the gods thus enter the village as Nature itself.

Typically, the Balines village is host to asset of three temples called the kahyangan tiga. Eachis related to a focal aspect pf the village symbolic life: the origin with the pura puseh (navel temple) located mountainward, where the tutelary gods of the village and its founders are worshipped; the territory itself with the pura desa located in the center of the village, where the "Lord of the territory" (sane nruwenang jagat) is worshipped and where the meetings of the village assembly and the rituals of fertility are held; and finally, the temple of the dead (pura dalem), located downward, where the forces of death and the netherworld are worshiped, and near which burials take place. To these temples must be added family and clan temples.

The temples are at the heart of Balinese life. They have their anniversary every 210 days, when the gods come down for visits, during which they are welcome by dance, "feted" with offerings and provided with a symbolic resting place. it is when the village comes to life, and color takes it over.

Besides the temple anniversaries, Bali has two sets of island-wide festivals which correspond to the "new years" of the two Balinese calenders: the Nyepi of the lunar-solar Saka year and the Galungan of the 210-day Pawukon calendar.

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