We decided to have the local village artists recreate the quintessential Balinese elements into our new house. Our Balinese partner calls these elements “Bali Style”, and since he is also our landlord for the land we leased (for 20 years). So for 8 weeks, we took photos of what we liked best.

The set of elements we come up with was:

• Vaulted ceilings that revealed the beautiful woods, gave a feeling of a large volume, and gave a place for the hot air to rise to.
• Carved wood beams around the veranda, supporting the tile roof.
• Carved stone motives surrounding the carved and painted Palace Doors, off of the veranda.
• Brick walls with carved limestone decorations.
• Carved Stone statuary in the garden.
• Large veranda for outdoor activities and sleeping.
• Carved stone around the base of the veranda.
• Ceiling fans to circulate the cold air from the floor.
• Large CANDI for cars to enter the driveway.
• Raised Bales with grass roofs for lounging.
• Lights pointed up inside the ceilings, and up to the canopy of the coconut trees.
• CANDI for people to enter the front of the property.

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Our 15 Are (about 1/3 acre) of land, and building site lies behind the owners older compound, in the middle of 24 coconut trees. So we had to build a 200 foot long (60 meter) driveway and wall past the existing buildings, and make the driveway entrance attractive (as seen from the street).

The location of land, for sale or lease, is often behind a Balinese family compound. When the front (street facing) compound was originally built, the access to back lot was not a priority. Of course, the back lot has little value to another family if you cannot get to it.

Our negotiations for the back lot land, hung on the question of street access. We compromised with the landlord, in that we would pay for the relocation of his parking area to the rear, and we would build the new driveway and side wall. We decided to also upgrade his front street wall and entrance to a more attractive “Bali Style” unified design. So, now we both can access a parking area in between our two lots (family compounds) and still have privacy for each family.

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Over the last seventy years, writers of travel books, books on Bali and the writers for the internet’s pages have given a great contribution to shape the image of Bali, and until now the process of shaping the image of Bali is still on the way.

flickr.com/photos/cosioj/

During the period of 1920s and 1930s, the image of Bali as a paradise was first created. On that time, the Dutch government began promoting Bali as a tourism destination. The pioneers of tourism in Bali such as Hickman Powell, Collin McPhee, etc, bolstered the image of Bali as a paradise. For Hickman Powell Bali was a vast wonderland, embodied the dream of pastoral poets. For Collin McPhee, each part of the day in Bali had a quality, which revealed a particular aspect of the island. The morning was “a golden freshness” when the island ‘dripped and shone with moisture like a garden in a florist’s window’. In the middle of the day, Bali ‘had become hard and matter-of-fact. In the afternoon and in the evening its qualities shone through, as “it grew unreal, lavish and theatrical like old-fashioned opera scenery.
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In accordance with the celebration of Valentine day, today’s article will talk nothing but love and to ensure that this article will talk nothing but love, I will not write anything, instead, I invite you to enjoy the most popular love story in Bali, The story of Jayaprana and Layonsari.

Jayaprana dance by Lila Bhawa dance troupe on Bali Arts Festival 2006

A long time ago in the kingdom of Kalianget, a small village in North Bali, there lived a powerful king, whose name has long been forgotten. It happened that an epidemic struck the whole village, killing most of the villagers. One of the few survivors was a little boy called I Nyoman Jayaprana, the only person in his family to have been spared from the disease.

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Balinese believe that good and evil, right and left, gods and demons are banded into two opposing faction, constantly at war but depend on each other as a unity. To counterbalance the healthy influence of the gods who produce cleanliness, luck and fertility, there are evil spirits responsible for all illness and misfortune. If there is no demon, the god will also ceased to exist; there is nothing that can be called ‘good’ if there is no ‘evil’. This concept of duality in unity (rwa bhineda) is applied in almost every part of Balinese daily life, man and woman, day and night, happy and sad, etc.

Balinese believe that their action will be reciprocated, an eye for an eye. When a Balinese help someone he believes that someday someone will help him. Another example is the cremation ceremony. There is a compulsion to help other in the time of death since some day our turn and of that our family members will come and we want other to help us in a same compulsion. A breech in this reciprocated cycle is heavily punished by the society. The worst punishment for this breech is expelled from society, for Balinese this punishment is a living hell, worst than dead.

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The sharpest weapon in Bali is not for human, or used by human. Taji, the sharpest and deadliest weapon in Bali is used by a rooster in a cockfighting arena. A taji is a tiny, razor-sharp dagger; 11-15 centimeters (4-6 in.) from tip to tip. The blade is thin, sometimes wavy and diamond-shaped in cross section, and terminates in an unsharpened, rounds handle, which is attached to the rooster strongest leg below the spur with twine. This weapon is usually carried in leather or wooden case called a kupak, that contains half a dozen or so different sizes of the taji.

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