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Life in Bali is very communal with the organization of villages, farming and
even the creative arts being decided by the community. The population of Bali is
estimated 3,500,000 people who live mostly at southern part of the island. Every
village (desa) has its temple of origin (puseh) , its temple of dead (pura
dalem) its temple for irrigation system (subak) .
The basis of this
community structure is the Subak and the Banjar. Everyone who owns a rice paddy
must join the Subak in their village. The Subak controls who will plant rice and
when (plantings are staggered so that pestilence is minimized).
As well
and more importantly the Subak ensures that all farmers receive their fair share
of irrigation water since traditionally the head the Subak was the farmer whose
field was at the bottom of the hill and water first had to pass through
everybody else's field before it was allowed to irrigate his own.
The
other community organization is the Banjar which, organizes all other aspects of
Balinese life (i.e. marriages, cremations, community service, festivals and the
like) as well as a form of community service known as Gotong Royong. When a man
marries he is expected to join the village Banjar and must participate in
community affairs.
Most villages have at least one banjar and a
membership of between 50 to 100 families, and each banjar has its own meeting
place called the Bale Banjar
The Balinese do have a caste system but there
are no untouchables. The caste system is most evident in the language which has
three levels: a low level for commoners, a mid level to address strangers and a
high level only used when addressing aristocracy
Balinese are always
pious and they constantly remember where they come from. For that reason, this
creates strata of groups in the society nowadays it is commonly called wangsa or
soroh. The society order is based on this soroh so strong that it encompasses
all kinds of balinese people's' activities. They persistently maintain and
preserve their own genealogy. They cherish and keep their family line age
inscriptions carefully and meticulously
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