Paying homage and praying to a temple is not just an act of devotion to God for Balinese, it is more than just a religious activity. In socio-political context praying in a temple for a Balinese is also an act to justify his positions in the society, his position in a clan, his position in a village, etc in short praying to the temple is an act of justifying his identity.

Taman Ayun Temple

Justifying identity through worshipping in a temple is possible since most temple membership in Bali is exclusive, that is, only those who are member may worship there. One cannot as in Islam and Christianity, stop in at any temple and pray; for this privilege, in Bali someone must in some sense regular member of the congregation of the temple. From more 20,000 temples in Bali not more than five percents are public temple, where everybody can pray and pay homage and the rest of them are members only. (There are five types of temple in Bali: public temple, territorial temple, functional temple and clan temple).

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Thousands of temples that scattered all over the island of Bali are not just built for a single purpose. The function of a temple can be determined by the characteristics of the temple that totally depend on the bond that bind the temple congregations to the temple. The bond may be a social, political, economical, or genealogical bond.

The social bond can be in the form of territorial bond, and teacher – student bond. The political bond is created base on the need of the king to unite his people and territory. The economical bond is created based on the similarity of the profession, for example farmer, trader, fisherman, etc. Genealogical bond is established based on kinship or clan.

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As all things Balinese, Balinese villages are peculiar, complicated, and extraordinarily diverse. There is no simple uniformity of social structure to be found over the whole of the small, crowded countryside, no straightforward form of village organization easily pictured in terms of single typological construction, no “average” village, a description of which may well stand for the whole.

Rather, there is a set of marvelously complex social systems, no one of which is quite like any other, no one of which fails to show some marked peculiarity of form. Even contiguous villages may be quite differently organized; formal elements–such as caste or kinship–of central importance in one village may be of marginal significance in another; neither simplicity nor uniformity is Balinese virtue.

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To give a better idea on the inconformity of Hinduism in Bali, the Pegatuakan ceremony that fortunately, happen today will serve as a good example.

Today, Balinese celebrate Pegatuakan ceremony, this ceremony mark the end of Galungan bigger period (the smaller period ends on Kuningan Holiday). Today the hallmark of Galungan, Penjor (a long bamboo pole about eight meter high with curved end, and decorated with palm leaves, rice paddies, corn on the cob, coconut, cakes, a piece of white or yellow cloth, etc) will be uninstalled, and a great festivity will accompany this ceremony.

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When rainy season finally comes, there should be rain everyday in Bali. The service of a rain man (tukang terang) is in high demand, since many traditional or secular events are held outdoor and a sudden down pour of rain will be a great problem.

The traditional rain man of Bali is someone who has strong magical powers that enable him to move the rain from one place to another. The magical power is obtained by observing a strict self-purification and adherence to spiritual processes. Talent and a family line of rain man are also important requirements for obtaining this magical power.
The ability of the rain man is not just moving the rain from one place to another but also in making the rain.

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