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Balinese
Culture
The culture of Bali is unique. People say that the
Balinese people
have reached self-content. It is not an exaggeration that
when a Balinese is asked what heaven is like, he would say,
just like Bali, without the worries of mundane life. They
want to live in Bali, to be cremated in Bali when they die,
and to reincarnate in Bali.
 It
does not mean that the Balinese resist changes. Instead, they
adapt them to their own system. This goes back far in history.
Prior to the arrival of Hinduism in Bali and in other parts
of Indonesia, people practised animism. When Hinduism arrives,
the practice of Hinduism is adapted to local practices. The
brand of Hinduism practised in Bali is much different from
that in India. Other aspects of life flow this way.
Traditional paintings,
faithfully depicting religious and mythological symbolisms,
met with Western and modern paintings, giving birth to contemporary
paintings, free in its creative topics yet strongly and distinctively
Balinese. Its dance, its music, and its wayang theaters ,
while have been continually enriched by contemporary and external
artistry, are still laden with religious connotations, performed
mostly to appease and to please the gods and the goddesses.
Wood and stone carvings, gold and silver crafts parallel the
development of paintings, gracefully evolving with external
forces to enhance their characters. The
batik of Bali owes its origin to Java, and inspired the
development of ikat and double ikat.
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