Jean Couteau
A Soul in Limbo: The Curious Case of a Converted Balinese
The beautiful Ani, who rented the room next to Kadek, was a beautiful Madurese woman, but more urgently, she was also the victim of Kadek’s frequent peeping. A reputed scoundrel in Bali, but now a migrant in Jakarta, Kadek had few friends and fewer options of a suitor, but beautiful Ani had captured his imagination.
Asta Kosala Kosali: Ordering Space, Mirroring the Cosmos
Asta Kosala-Kosali is the traditional Balinese system of spatial and architectural rules that governs how buildings and compounds are planned, oriented, and proportioned. Though its details vary from village to village, the system provides a coherent grammar for organizing the environment—defining not only where structures stand, but how they are approached, used, and understood. Tripartite
Kaek: The One Who Opens the Threshold
What is it? A seething mass of grotesque, semi-monstrous beings—still clinging to the last fragments of human familiarity. They writhe, jolted by colour, as if ruptured from the womb of non-being. There is no urge to describe, confess, or purge. Instead, one senses a pulsing energy—feral, alien, perhaps malevolent. These entities do not merely intrude.
The Childhood Rites of the Balinese Life Cycle
To fully understand the life cycle rites in Bali, one must first recognise the unique character of Balinese religion–a local system rooted in ancestor worship and the veneration of natural forces, onto which a Hindu belief structure has, since independence, been layered in a largely syncretic manner. While formal Hinduism is increasingly visible in ritual
The Continuous Transformation of Balinese Dance: I Made Sidia’s Colossal Show
In Bali, dance and theatre are, at their core, acts of devotion. Central is the veneration of ancestral and divine spirits, ritually invited to inhabit a wide array of temples: kinship-based, territorial, royal, and more. Each temple marks its anniversary either every 210 days, following the Balinese pawukon calendar, or every Saka lunar year, especially
Decoding the Pawukon Calendar: Cycles and Symbolism
The Balinese Pawukon calendar is one of two calendar systems used on the island, but by far the Pawukon calendar dictates much of ritual life on Bali. The pawukon cycle consists of 210 days (30 seven-day weeks), whilst the Saka Calendar follows 12 cycles of the moon (roughly 355 days) The Pawukon calendar is incredibly
Nyungsung Betara: The Balinese and Their Gods
The Balinese have a very special relationship with the gods and the unseen world. To truly understand it, put aside for a while all the fantasies you have heard about the One and Only, and be ready for other fantasies—fantasies that, for the Balinese, have the allure of reality. The Hindu Gods In their “system”—which,
The Philosophy of Day and Night in Bali
For most ordinary people, which is in the world out there, it goes without saying that there are 24 hours a day and sixty minutes in an hour. To them, thus, time is a tool, repetitive and familiar. However, that is a far cry from how traditional Balinese circles perceive the same period of time.
Want to Get Rich in Bali? Buy a Bererong
Westerners and modern people have a bad habit when it comes to making money: they have a rational approach to economics. You work, save and invest, and then you will earn X% or more, if lucky, in one or five years. There is little pleasure to be had, and no fear. Many people think that
Lobangkara: The Balinese Ikarus
Once upon a time, there lived in the village of Kamasan, just on the outskirts of Klungkung, a talented painter by the name of Lobangkara. Painting was his whole life, and so he spent all his time at it, heedless of what people said and of the way the world went around him. The world
The Origin of Uluwatu and Why Fishermen Cannot Become Rich
Once upon a time there lived a man by the name of Kama Jaya in the village of Kelam, by the beach of Bali Dwipa, now better known as the island of the gods. Nature endowed him generously with wide, well-built shoulders and a good, strong chest. He sported a luxurious moustache and his seemingly
MaSutasoma: A Balinese Theatre Performance of Epic Proportions Unfolds in Budakeling
An extraordinary event took place on 6 April 2024 in the village of Budakeling, the core village of the brahmana Buda of Bali: the performance, under the name of MaSutasoma, was a gambuh dance telling the Javanese story of Sutasoma, the most famous of the Javanese Boddhisatwas, which expounds the path toward Buddhist “Release” of the brahmana Budas
Siwa Ratri, The Ritual Wake For The Longest Night of the Year
The longest night of the year is a important ritual moment in the life of the Balinese. In the local lunar-solar Saka calendar, it falls on the 14th panglong lunar day of the seventh (Kapitu) month. Fully dedicated to the cult of Siwa, this night is called the Night of Siwa, or Siwa Ratri. The
