Bale Banjar: Hamlet Meeting Hall
Hamlet, or Banjar in Balinese language, is the center of Balinese social and political life. Every Balinese is member of a banjar community, he has an obligation to attend all banjar activities, failure to attend these activities will be punished with fine and constants failure will result exclusion or banishment from the banjar, it means no body will help him when he holds a religious ceremony, especially the big one.
All the banjar’s activities are conducted in the public meeting hall of the banjar, known as bale banjar. The bale banjar is the social center of the hamlet, when there is a temple ceremony has to prepared, the Bale banjar is very much alive with the preparation of the ceremony. Men are busy preparing foods for the feast, women are frantic preparing the offering for the ceremony. Everybody is busy, and the Bale banjar is rock from the bottom to the top. But when there is no banjar activities conducted, the bale banjar is the best place for chatting and resting; people can play ping-pong or chess, watching TV, discuss the village or hamlet affairs while caressing the fighting cock; The bale banjar is like a clubhouse, and people can be seen loitering in the shade there almost any time of the day.
How is bale banjar look like? The bale banjar is usually a large, open structure with a raised concrete floor, and a roof supported by pillars. Some bale banjars is equipped with a stage for performances. Some are large and fancy decorated with carved stone, other are modest but functional. Some bale banjar have conical roofs but most bale banjar in urban area has flat concrete roof that be used as additional space for various activities. The bale banjar normally has a kitchen, where the food is cooked for large feast. There may be a storage room for dance costumes or musical instruments.
The bale banjar always has a signal drum (kulkul) tower; it may be a tower on the bale banjar or in separate structure; it is the used to summon members for various purposes depends on the cadences and rhythms that are beaten out on the drum. The bale banjar also has a temple, it is usually with two or three shrines dedicated to the God and Bhagawan Penyarikan, the secretary of God and the deities of the community welfare.
The bale banjar is easy to recognize; it is usually the biggest structure in the neighborhood; a white board with the name of the banjar written on it is erected in front of the bale banjar, minimize the effort needed to recognize it.
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