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BALI TRADITION AND RELIGION
According to the legend, a one time King of Java,
angry with his disobedient son, banished him into
exile. The legend tells us that the King waited until
his son had disappeared over the horizon, and then
drew a line in the soil with his finger. The seas to
the north and south joined at this place, and the
island of Bali was born.
It is said that the Great God, Sang Hyang Widi created
the first true Balinese couple, from whom descended the
nearly three million people of Bali today.
Bali enjoys a rich culture, its history recorded in
legends and preserved in its religion and the peoples
adherence to the traditions of their ancestors. Temples
are everywhere, especially in the mountains.
The most revered temple is on Gunung Agung, the
tallest mountain, and according to legend, "the navel"
of the world.
Hindu Bali is a religion which owes its origins to India,
but which has developed independently from its forebear.
Hindu Bali celebrates its rituals in a highly dramatised
form, which can be witnessed by visitors in the form of
dance and performance at traditional festivals, and at
secular performances.
Dynamic and agile, Balinese dance is exciting theatre,
filled with sharp corner-turnings, intricate coordination
of eyeball, finger, neck and shoulder movements. Entertaining,
elegant and captivating, the dances are performed according
to strict tradition; the players are forbidden to improvise
the movements learned and perfected since early childhood.
The crisply percussive gamelan which accompanies the dancers,
shares their dynamism and agility. Each village that can afford
it owns their own gamelan orchestra. The ambience of a balmy
evening, strolling or sitting on your balcony with the sound
of the gamelan orchestra emanating from the village "banjar"
(meeting place) in the background is near perfect.
The traditional style of paintings depict aspects of religious
life or mystical characters, painted in sombre hues of yellow,
red and black, or sometimes in plain charcoal. Contemporary
adaptation and external influences have resulted in new themes:
often in vibrant colors, featuring people, animals and abstract
imagery, that are different yet uniquely Balinese.
The Balinese consider art to be a natural activity. Peasants
by day, artists by night, they are masters in expressing their
religious beliefs and rituals into items of great artistic value;
from simple masks, statues and jewellery, to wall sized panels
using materials such as wood, stone, coral, bone, silver and gold.
Painting and performance complete the picture. It is no exaggeration
to say that there are as many artists in Bali as there are people.
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