Bali: A Travel Adventure. Patrick R. Booz

water down from the high volcanoes to the shimmering emerald-green fields found in most corners of the island. Rice is the most important food in Bali; the crop is the source of life and wealth and is recognized as a gift from the gods. Accord-ing to legend, rice first appeared on Bali when the male God of Water raped Mother Earth to beget rice. Wet-rice farming has been practised on Bali for well over 1,000 years, and today’s amazing contoured landscape is the heritage of 50 generations of farmers.

      The need to tend the rice and care for the fields led to the rise of the desa, or village, the chief social unit in Bali. It is much more than just a village, however, it is community, parish and focal point of all life for the Balinese. Cozy and safe within a lush grove, surrounded by walls and bountiful trees—coconut, banana, papaya, breadfruit—the desa functions to maintain the cosmic balance and harmony within the area of its jurisdiction, thus assuring the wellbeing of all. Every desa, and there are hundreds of them spread throughout the island, is thus seen to be fulfilling its obligation to gods and men.

      Fertile volcanic soil, a copious supply of fresh water and plenty of sunshine provide Bali with ideal conditions for growing crops.

      Balinese women present offerings at a temple festival (left). Temple festivals (opposite) and rituals are an integral part of Balinese life. Some rituals are only held on holy days such as Galungan. Other rituals, such as the tooth filing ceremony, can be organized by anyone who needs them. Balinese rituals are grouped into five ritual categories, or panca yadnya. While each rite has a different meaning, their purpose is the same—to cleanse objects or people and foster a sense of wellbeing and community.

      Bali has often been called the “Land of a thousand Temples”. Hindu temples, from small shrines in the rice fields to sprawling complexes belonging to large towns, are certainly the most important institution on the island, and they can be seen everywhere. By the sea, on desolate promontories, in caves, on the highest mountains, even entangled in the roots of banyan trees, large and small temples appear as a natural component to the island’s geography.

      From earliest times, before the overwhelming influence of Hindu temple building arrived from Java a thousand years ago, there have been plots of consecrated ground, where altars, cairns, and stone enclosures marked a kind of primitive temple. Such temples still can be seen in the eastern part of the island where isolated villages protected these old forms.

      Every Balinese community has at least three main temples: the foundation temple of the original village, often hundreds of years old, a town temple for communal celebrations and the temple of the dead for the gods associated with death and cremation. The reason for this division is to maintain a balance between the innumerable contending forces of the invisible world, which to the Balinese has a trenchant reality.