The Balinese are just one of Indonesia’s 250 ethnic groups. Like most Indonesians they are a blend of races, with the accent on the deutero-malayan race of Central and East Java, with traces, of Polynesian and Melanesian blood, as well as Indian and Chinese. This genetic back ground explains the variety of radical types seen on the island most Balinese are small hand some people with round delicate features thick black hair long sweeping eyelashes heart shaped lips and warm brown complexions others are darker skinned and straight haired like pacific islanders, or curly haired with flat noses like Papuans.

Çudamani Gamelan troupe

The Balinese are an extraordinarily creative people with a highly sensual theatrical culture. Culturally, the Javanese lean more toward refinement and modesty, keeping themselves in check in life and art, while the Balinese prefer the headier, flashier sensations – laugh, terror, spicier and sweeter foods. Balinese are more lavish and baroque in their colors and decorations, with more explosive music and fast, jerky dancing.

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Makare-karean or war by using thorny pandanous leaves is an indigenous war dance of Tenganan Pagringsingan village. Tenganan Pegeringsingan is a traditional Bali Aga (Proto Bali) village is situated at Manggis district, regency of Karangasem approximately 65 km from Denpasar (the International Airport of Bali). It is near Candidasa and can be easily reached by public or private vehicles.

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This is an original pre-Hindu Balinese settlement, long a stronghold of native traditions, about halfway between Padangbai and Amlapura (67 km northeast of Denpasar). At the end of an asphalt country road up a narrow valley, Tenganan is far removed from the Javano-Balinese regions of Bali. Like Trunyan on Lake Batur to the northwest, this small village is inhabited by the Bali Aga, aboriginal Balinese who settled the island long before the influx of immigrants from the decaying 16^th- century Majapahit Empire. It might appear to be a stage managed tourist site but is actually a living, breathing village-the home of farmers, artists, and craftspeople.

The lowland people of Tenganan have preserved their culture and way life through the conviction they’re descended from gods. They practice a religion based on tenets dating from the kingdom of Bedulu, established before the Hindus arrived. Tenganan origins can be traced back to the holy text Usana Bali, which states they must tend their consecrated land to honor the royal descendants of their creator, Batara Indra. Though Tenganan is today Hindu, it is also unmistakably Polynesian.

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At one time the island was populated by pure Indonesians, an ancient people who filed and blackened their teeth. They lived in small communities, family clans ruled by a council of elders who acted as the priests of their religion. Their cult centred in the worship of the powerful spirits of nature, and especially those of their ancestors, with whom they continued to live, a great family of both the dead and the living. Occasionally, by means of mediums and sacrifices, they brought their ancestral spirits down to this earth to protect them. They buried their dead or simply abandoned them in the jungle to be carried away by the spirits, and it is possible that they even ate parts of the bodies in order to absorb the magic power inherent in their ancient headmen.

The pure descendants of these people, calling themselves Bali Aga or Bali Mula, the “ original “ Balinese, still live, isolated and independent, in the mountains where they found refuge from imperialistic strangers. Hidden in the hills of east Bali, near Karangasem, lies the village of Tenganan, where the most conservative of the Bali Aga preserve the old traditions with the greatest zeal. Tenganan is a rabidly isolated community, socially and economically separate from the rest of Bali, almost a republic in itself. It is shut off from the world by a solid wall that surrounds the entire village, which is meant to keep outsider away, and is broken only by four gates, each facing one of the cardinal points. Of these gates, three open to the gardens and plantations of the village, but the main gate is so narrow that a stout person has difficulty in squeezing through. Such is the obsession for in Tenganan that there is an official specially appointed to sweep the village after the visits of strangers, to obliterate their footprints.

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One of Bali’s oldest traditional villages, Sembiran lies 30 km east of Singaraja. Like many of Bali Aga villages, Sembiran is located high in the hills off the main coastal road. From Terminal Penarukan take a bemo to Desa Pacung, then catch a ride on motorcycle the rest of the way. The winding four-km-long asphalt road to Sembiran is surfaced but extremely steep. This lovely country road, passes beautiful hills, valley, and gnarly 20-meter-high sonokeling trees (rosewood). As you approach the village, there’s a giant kemit tree, the base said to have been a place where corpses were laid out in ancient times. From the top, look down on the Java Sea.

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