Bali Culture

More about bali
bali culture is a combination of spirituality, religion, tradition and art. Religion is considered to be art and it seems that almost every on it is a devoted artist, spending 'free time' applying skills and images which have been passed down from generation to generation and grasped from a very young age. Expressed through beautiful and intricate paintings, extraordinary carvings, superb weaving, and even in rice decorations that cover the myriad shrines found in public areas, in paddy fields or in homes, the island is alive with art and religious homage.
Sekala and Niskala

Bali culture is a complex event characterised by diversity and adaptability. A central dictum in Balinese thinking is the concept of Desa - Kala - Patra, (time, place and situation), a dynamic notion holding that traditional thinking will blend in harmony with the new. The Balinese distinguish between Sekala, the material, and Niskala the eternal. Reality is a coincidence of the material and the eternal realms. One does not exist without the other. The world, therefore, is the product of the interaction of Sekala and Niskala.
Temple Festivals

Temple festivals are commonplace. Each village will hold some sort of colourful ceremony for each one of its own temples a couple of times a year. Add to this the rituals and celebrations for each persons' passage from birth, puberty, marriage, childbirth to death and the after-world, and include the major island-wide celebrations like Galungan, Kuningan and Nyepi; the day of silence when the whole island closes down in fear of evil spirits flying in from the sea, and you can begin to understand how important religion in Bali is.
Hindu Dharma

Art, culture and day to day activities for most Balinese are strongly bonded to a unique form of Hinduism called Hindu Dharma, which is widely thought to be the closest example to the religion and social framework that existed in Java during the zenith of its power and is now found nowhere else. Classical dance dramas based on the old Hindu epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabarata which arrived from Java, are like everywhere else in Indonesia, mixed with pre-Hindu animist belief and peculiar local folklore. Not all Balinese adopted the new Hindu religion though. The Bali Aga who now live in isolated groups in the mountains at Trunyan and Tenganan, for example, preferred their ancient animist beliefs, which are still practiced and remain largely intact today.
Balinese belief systems

The very soul of Bali and Balinese belief systems is rooted in religion and is expressed in art forms and skills that have been passionately preserved over the centuries. During the mid sixteenth century Bali reached a cultural climax, which encouraged and developed elaborate arts and customs, which are the foundations of what is practiced today. In a sense they have changed very little since that time, but as has been the case throughout much of the Indonesian archipelago, adaptation of new environments is absolutely essential for survival. It was at this time that the Javanese Hindu and the Balinese calendars were combined and a complex schedule of rituals and ceremonies was defined. Nine great temples, the Pura Agung, were also built, linking the structure of the new calendar with that of the gods. The most sacred being the Mother Temple, Pura Besakih, built high on the slopes of Bali 's most sacred mountain, Gunung Agung and batur mountain.

Alas Kedaton ( Bali Monkey Forest )

The monkey place in Alas Kedaton is a small forest with the width about 6-7ha located in the middle of the rice field in Tabanan regency, west part of Bali. The total size of this forest, temple and its supporter facility is about 12 ha. In this forest, there is a temple called Alas Kedaton Temple and owns the natural environments that is looked green with its fresh air and create the calm, quite and holy atmosphere. The monkeys in Alas Kedaton are very tame and free gallivanting in temple yard, so that the calm atmosphere is sometime solved by noise voice of the monkey, which are playing around and scrambling of food. The monkeys who dwell in this forest, there are jump up and down in temple wall, take a bath in moat or there is also hang out in few leaves representing impression view. The monkey like as custodian of temple, which are always ready to greet all visitor who are paying a visit to this place. Beside monkeys, in Kedaton forest also can be met the bats and some other animals. At least 24 types of grove plant have been identified in Alas Kedaton.

The temple ceremony in alas Kedaton temple is carried out every 210 days a year. It is on Anggarakasih Medangsia (Balinese Hindu Calendar) or on every Tuesday where on that time the society do the worship or pray to request the safety and prosperity. The unique in this ceremony is do not use the fire and do not hence Penjor and also finished before the sunset or before the night is come.

In growth of handling of this tourist destination, Alas Kedaton has several become a training location about tourism nature, environmental handling and agro tourism. Alas Kedaton is many visited by the tourist from local and foreign countries which are generally a lot of paying a visit on August, December until January, while the local tourist generally pay a visit on holiday season and feast day of Ramadan (Moslem holiday) and this place is good to be visited in the day time. In front of Alas Kedaton temple there are quite a lot small shops selling the handicraft as souvenir, for example clothes, pants and other handicrafts. Others, there are some shops booth selling food and beverage, toilet and park area which is wide enough.

Alas Kedaton is Place to Visit in Bali
Alas Kedaton is located in Kukuh countryside, Marga Sub district, Tabanan Regency . The journey go to this place can be done easily by using motor vehicle follow the major roadway from Denpasar to Tabanan. On the way go to this tourist place, we will see the beautiful nature view where in front of us will meet the carpet of rice field and irrigation voice at the side of road to bear the impression/peaceful atmosphere. Alas Kedaton Temple have three yard that are external yard, middle and center yard. In the center and middle yard are encircled by wall and the outside yard is representing a open yard. The interesting point of this temple is the inside yard representing holy yard, its situation lower than the middle yard. This thing is different compare with the general temples in Bali that are more goes to inside the temple, the more higher the place will be. Beside of that another interesting point of this temple owns four entrances.

About balinese

The balinese with smaller islands such as Nusa Penida, Lembongan, Ceningan, and Menjangan covers an area of 5.808,6 square kilometers, with number of population around 4 millions. Almost 95% of the population are Hindu devotees with markedly local traditional rituals. The island is classified one of the densely populated areas of Indonesia. Balinese physically is not different from other people of west Indonesia where Mongoloid character is predominant over Malay characters, only a few people bring the characters of true Malay with small body size and brown skin. In general skin color are ranging from bright to brown, but dark brown is very rare, and very few with curling hairs, mostly straight hairs, with the average height of the body in the past 160 cm, and now around 170 cm. Especially younger generation tend to grow higher by slim body.
Balinese speak Balinese, a dialect of Malay. Due to cast system Balinese dialect itself underwent further variation, as each cast claimed to have their own idiolect which is higher in conjunction with their own cast status. Balinese and Yogyakarta have much in common words only they used the words in different meaning or sometimes in contradictory meaning. Beside Javanese Balinese is one society which has introduced writing since 998 AD. This writing scripts which are supposed to undergone evolution and have now become variations of writing such as in Myanmar, Thailand, Java and Bali. So the art of writing has developed very early both in Java and Bali. Currently Balinese writing is learnt in school and there is an effort to preserve the heritage, since Bali is rich with writing heritages in the form of ethics, stories, myths, songs, chronicles and historical documents written in various style of Bali nese scripts. Historic monuments are also various in Bali, some are originated from 10th century, and these sites are still preserved by local people, and associated to their religious rituals.
With the economic advancement reached by Bali for the last 2 decades it has invited many people from other parts of Indonesia and from the 5 continents to try their luck in Bali. This is now the biggest social problem that can arise in the future due to the limited land. With this situation, Bali has become part of Global world and put Balinese in a dilemmatic position between developing lifestyle as an impact of outside world and their original customary life style has become an object of unending exploitation, as it's very nature giving chance to such a behavior.

Balinese introduce social organization based on area and obligations to preserve and maintain temples and it's rituals. This fact has been able to keep the integrity and security in Bali, but on other space has dragged this organization into unnecessary ritualistic nature. This organization is called " Banjar " This Banjar is the center of power currently when kingdoms and hegemony of traditional ruling class has been changed by the role of economic and expertise groups.

In a wider group, Balinese is tied again by genealogical lineage to maintain clen's temples and as Bali wide they also feel obliged to maintain and preserve temples built by the king in the past such as Besakih, Uluwatu, Tanah Lot, Ulun Danu, Sila Yukti, Gelgel, and many others.
Basic economic activities in Bali is growing rice, coffee, cacao, juices, corn, cassava, and various cereals and vegetables. Home industry is developed very fast such as garment, irons, furniture, ceramics, terracotta, and carving, beside ethnic handicrafts. Balinese art-skill got a place when Bali developed tourism. Tourism development has given multi-flier effect on industries and farming in Bali.
Specially in agriculture Balinese has developed a systematic organization to regulate the irrigation system. This organization has been successful in maintaining the continuity and equality of water supplier for every member, beside maintain the water flowing facilities.
Cattle breeding and poultry growing are already developed for local consumption as well as export to other countries such as pigs and cows. Also fishery development especially shrimps and fish has just been able to fulfill the local demand. Still a great space to develop this products specially fisheries.

Bali has the most varied places of interest for tourists, from western tip to the eastern tip of the island, both in the form of cultural and natural attractions.