Life is stranger than fiction. Considerably so. Judge from this: The Javanese develop a feeling towards their afterbirth, wbich is not thrown away at birth in the heathenish Western way, but which gets a decent burial and has the name: ari-ari, younger brother (- sister) . I know of a Javanese schoolgirl who wTote in an essay: "How couldn't I have tender feelings towards the spot where my ari-ari lies buried?" The Balinese are in the happy position of having no less than four elder brothers (sisters). The 'concomitants of physical birth', being the amniotic fluid, the blood, the vernix caseosa and the afterbirth together are the baby's kanda mpat, bis four elder brothers, or her elder ~isters in the case of a girl. Though the first three, due to their liquid state, mostly disappear and receive little care, the ari-ari is carefully buried under a round riverstone of about one foot in diameter, for a boy at the one side of the steps leading to the sleeping house, for a girl at the other side. The innumerable writipgs, partially or completely dealing with the kanda mpat, do not weary from inculcating their readers that the four are helpful as long as one gives them the (material) food and reverential thoughts they are entitled to, in which case they from their side behave as true eIder brothers. U. however, one neglects and ignores them, they punish their younger brother.

More than 1,000 years ago in India there lived five ascetics, Pasupata's, who went around naked, with ungroomed hair. The fame of their holiness spread to Java and Bali, where they became heavenly seers, aspects both of Shiva and Buddha, celestial gods even, and as such connected with the creation. Classificatory thought classes them with a man's four older brothers: amniotic fluid, blood, vernix caseosa, and the placenta, the helpers or enemies par excellence of each and every person, whether layman or priest. This book brings together much material, from old to very modern, which indicates the extent to which these ideas were, and still are, living reality for the Balinese. The most important texts, both prose and poetry, and the comparison of many manuscripts published here for the first time, form the body of this book.

In 1925 the influential Dutch anthropologist W. H. Rassers posed the question of the relationship of myth to ritual, taking as his case study the Javanese myth of the birth of the man-eating demon, Kala. The light shed by this myth, and its re-enactment, on the social morphology of Java was immediately the subject of debate among students of Javanese culture. Stephen C. Headley translates and studies ritual and myth in their variant forms. He expands illuminatingly upon Rasser's general proposition, that the movement from cosmogony to exorcism founds fundamental social forms within which values circulate in Javanese society. Richly detailed descriptions confirm the permanence of these networks of circulating values in modern-day Java, and their persistence in the face of contemporary individualism.

Should a temple be seen as a work of art, its carvers as artists, its worshipers as art critics and patrons? What is a temple (and its art) to the people who make and use it? Noted anthropologist Hildred Geertz attempts to answer these and other questions in this unique look at transformations in material culture and social relations over time in a village temple in Bali. Throughout Geertz offers insightful glimpses into what the statues, structures, and designs of Pura Désa Batuan convey to those who worship there, deepening our understanding of how a village community evaluates workmanship and imagery. Following an introduction to the temple and villagers of Batuan, Geertz explores the problematics of the Western concept of "art" as a guiding framework in research. She goes on to outline the many different kinds of work—ideational as well as physical—undertaken in connection with the temple and the social institutions that enable, constrain, and motivate their creation. Finally, the "art-works" themselves are presented, set within the intricate sociocultural contexts of their making. Using the history of Batuan as the main framework for discussing each piece, Geertz looks at the carvings from the perspective of their makers, each generation occupying a different social situation. She confronts concepts such as "aesthetics," "representation," "sacredness," and "universality" and the dilemmas they create in field research and ethnographic writing. Recent temple carvings from the tumultuous and complex period that followed the expulsion of the Dutch and the increasing globalization and commercialization of Balinese society demonstrate yet again that any anthropology of art must also be historical.

The glossy guide book image of Bali is of a timeless paradise whose people are devoutly religious and artistically gifted. However, a hundred years of colonialism, war and Indonesian independence, and tourism have produced both modernizing changes and created an image of Bali as ‘traditional’. Incorporating up-to-date ethnographic field work the book investigates the myriad of ways in which the Balinese has responded to the influx of outside influence. The book focuses on the fascinating interrelationship between tourism, economy, culture and religion in Bali, painting a twenty-first century picture of the Balinese. In documenting these diverse changes Howe critically assesses some of the work of Bali’s most famous ethnographer, Clifford Geertz and demonstrates the importance of a historically grounded and broadly contextualized approach to the analysis of a complex society.

Balinese style villas and resorts are popping up everywhere--from Ibiza to St Barts to Singapore. But what is Balinese architecture? And why is it so popular today? Traditional Balinese houses, temples and pavilions are designed to allow man to exist in harmony with the natural forces of the universe--reflecting core Balinese beliefs about man's place in relation to the cosmos, the gods, the ancestors, and the world around him. Innovative local and Western architects have been designing resorts and villas on Bali for decades, drawing their inspiration from these local traditions. In this one-of-a-kind book, author Julian Davison provides a comprehensive guide to Balinese architectural forms, the Balinese belief system, the rituals associated with building, the materials and construction techniques, and the intricate ornamentation used. Over 100 watercolor illustrations and photographs provide a clear picture of the island's architecture as well as an eye-opening look at a culture and a people that have captivated the world's imagination.

In Bali in the Early Nineteenth Century, Helen Creese examines the nature of the earliest sustained cross-cultural encounter between the Balinese and the Dutch through the eyewitness accounts of Pierre Dubois, the first colonial official to live in Bali. From 1828 to 1831, Dubois served as Civil Administrator to the Badung court in southern Bali. He later recorded his Balinese experiences for the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences in a series of personal letters to an anonymous correspondent. This first ethnography of Bali provides rich, perceptive descriptions of early nineteenth-century Balinese politics, society, religion and culture. The book includes a complete edition and translation of Dubois’ Légère Idée de Balie en 1830/Sketch of Bali in 1830.