Monday June 12th, 1995
Bali: General Overview.


Our guide Gustaaf picks us up at 8:30 am.
First we go to a Balinese dance performance
A couple of Japanese people look at the Barong dance
through the screen of their Sharp video cam.


The higher the character's social status
the stiffer his theatrical representation.


In Japanese temples we saw that
the lowest part of some stone sculptures
and even some not sculpted stones
was covered with a piece of cloth.


In Bali, most stone sculptures of deities
are actually dressed-up.
Yellow is the priest color
white is the good spirit
and black is, guess what, the evil.


Every Indonesian is obliged to have a religion.
83% of Bali's population is Hindu.
Christianism, Islam and Buddhism share the remaining percentage.


Private Hindu properties are surrounded by walls
to keep the bad spirits out.
There are offerings on both sides of the big gates
that even small properties have.


The "candi bentar" or separated temple concept
is central to the idea of protection.
The two columns of the gates mentionned above
are meant to be unified into a temple.
Balinese architecture conveys this idea
by making the facing parts of both columns
totally flat
so the doorway becomes an expanded space.
This concept is extended to all wall extremity
which makes Bali virtually impenetrable by evil spirits.
I'm wondering if this is a good thing.


Bali's nickname is
"the Thousand Temples Island"
but it should be called
"the 10 x n Temples Island."
Religious representations and offerings are omnipresent.
I even saw folded leaves containing flowers and rice
purposefully placed in the midst of a parking lot.


There are actually less temples as it looks
as they are often divided into several structures.
Typical Balinese architecture integrates one or several house temples
into the design of the house.
The village of Sri Batu is a good example
of this integration and proliferation
of religious structures.


At night Alex and Carol passed by to say hi.


yesterday tomorrow
interact with cybertravelers