Lessons on Life - Bali Style

We returned to Singapore on Monday evening after a wonderful 4-day stay in Bali, Indonesia.  Here's a shot of us properly clad inside a temple near the governor's mansion.  It was our first visit to Bali and we came away, not with a golden tan but, a deep appreciation of Balinese culture.  For those who are not familiar with Bali, it is one of the thousands of islands forming the nation of  Indonesia.  It's only 2-1/2 hours by plane from Singapore to Denpasar International Airport and it's similar in climate, but south of the equator.

Unlike the rest of Indonesia which is Muslim, Bali is primarily Hindu, and there are temples everywhere, and offerings even in front of shops, that are refreshed every morning.  We found the people to be peaceable, friendly, and family-oriented.  I was particularly drawn to their traditional home compounds, which you still see once you leave the impersonal cities.  Ancient stone walls provide neighborly yet defining separations between compounds and once you step through the front entry (after soothing the ever-present watch dog) you see small buildings - some with only two walls - spaced around the compound, each devoted to one task - cooking, sleeping, storage, working.  The family is multi-generational and may include a widowed aunt or an unmarried cousin, with all the love, caring, and responsibilities that such an arrangement entails.  Ancestors have a special place in the compound as well, where the family shrine is located at the corner of the compound that faces Mount Agung, the highest spot in Bali and therefore the appropriate place for God, Ida Sanghyang Widhi.  The entire village is close-knit as well, sharing in such activities as the elaborate preparations for a cremation ceremony and maintaining the critical water system of the rice fields that supply the main food source.

There is often only hard-packed dirt between the buildings with chickens and dogs roaming at will.  The central area blends seamlessly into a large gardening area at the back, where the family produces much of their supplemental food needs, such as coconuts, coffee, spices, corn, bananas, pineapple, and yams.  The chickens not only provide eggs, fertilizer, and the occasional dinner, but the roosters are an important part of a ceremony that begins with cock fighting.  The compound we visited also had a pen behind the cooking building that housed two young, very pink pigs.  Later when I asked about clothes washing, I was told the deep concrete canal that runs between the road and the front wall of the compounds filled with fast moving water is usually used to hand wash the clothes!  Not the easiest of lives, but we could learn a bit from Bali's traditional lifestyle in existence long before the "green" movement was ever conceived.