Bali history and culture

While there is debate about Bali’s prehistoric history, there is ample evidence for a well-developed megalithic culture. However, good documentation of Balinese culture does not begin to emerge until the 8th or 9th century AD. At this point, the Balinese had already begun to practice various forms of Buddhism imported from India and there is also evidence of Hindu influences. From the 10th to the 11th century, Hinduism continued to merge with local customs. Through intermarriage, Javanese culture began to permeate royal court life and later spread to the villages.

The Hindu Majapahit Empire of Java conquered Bali in the 14th century. (The Majapahit imposed a caste system on Bali with themselves at the top and the original inhabitants of the island at the bottom.) In the early 16th century, Bali became a sanctuary for Hindus expelled from an increasingly Islamized Java. When the Majapahit Empire collapsed, there was a huge influx to Bali of Javanese noblemen and craftsmen.

Indonesia’s wealth of spices, gemstones, gold, and other exotic items has attracted traders for centuries. The islands of the Indonesian archipelago were natural way stations on trade routes between the Middle East, India and China. The Balinese were never an active seafaring people. It was the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Malays, Javanese and Bunganese who doubled the trade routes. Later the Portuguese, English and Dutch arrived.

Bali has no naturally protected harbors and the coastline is notoriously rough. Many coastal towns routinely profited from looting of shipwrecks. One such incident prompted the Dutch invasion in 1906, relatively late in their 300-year colonial rule in Indonesia. Despite the bloody conquest, Balinese culture remained relatively quiet during most of the years of Dutch occupation, in part because Singaraja, in the north of the island, was the only place where boats could anchor in relative safety and travel around the interior of the island. hard. Ships from all over Southeast Asia stopped to trade goods at Singaraja, but for the most part, before the arrival of the planes, only the inhabitants of the far north of the island were directly exposed to foreign influences. However, the Dutch exploited the island vigorously, siphoning off essential resources through an efficient and clever system that used the local aristocracy to do their bidding. After the Dutch, Bali endured an era of Japanese occupation during World War II and later became part of an independent Indonesia. Under Presidents Sukarno and Suharto, political allegiances continued to shift the balance of power. Technically, the aristocracy and the Brahmins (priestly caste) no longer “rule”, but in practice they still enjoy a great deal of power and privilege.

The arrival of tourists, export industries and technology in recent decades has had many easily observable effects. The Balinese often dress in Western clothing, send faxes, ride motorcycles through the streets and watch television. But such changes can be misleading.

Beneath the surface

The Balinese reality is much more inclusive than Western consciousness allows. The Balinese have a word, “sekala,” for things that you can perceive with your sense of sight, hearing, smell, or touch. There is another word, “niskala”, for “that which cannot be felt directly, but can only be felt within.” In the West, we only recognize sekala phenomena as “real”, but in Bali they make no distinction between the two.

Mystical forces, both malevolent and benevolent, occupy a central role in Balinese life. The main Hindu and Balinese rituals and ceremonies are concerned with maintaining the balance between positive and negative forces. Demons and witches, called leyaks, are not fairy tale creatures but dangerous and common threats against which everyone must be on guard at all times. Objects and places that are considered inanimate in the West can be charged with mystical power and therefore very much alive for the Balinese. Therefore, they make offerings of many objects, including the tools used to make silver beads and the building in which the silversmiths work. Addresses, numbers and dates can be loaded with “kasaktian” which means “magic power”. Each activity must be carried out with careful consideration and the Balinese often consult religious authorities for auspicious dates for important events. The Balinese also accept dual realities, something can be true, but not true, and in certain circumstances they reject linear time.

==