Bali, Indonesia

I just spent a couple of days in Bali, a beautiful island filled with temples and rice paddies.  It’s a spiritual place where offerings to the gods are to be found everywhere and where traditions of music, dance and the arts continue to be passed down through the generations.    

One of the things I found to be interesting was that it seemed that there was a temple about every hundred feet in some places.   As it turns out, while each community has a shared temple (or temples), many families have their own private ones as well.  What we were seeing were family compounds within which are multiple buildings for the extended family along with a small, private temple.  Here’s one example of a 'family compound'; I think you can see why one would think it’s simply another temple at first glance.

This is one we were able to visit.  The buildings where contained within a pretty wall with outdoor (covered) seating, a shared kitchen, gardens, birds in pretty cages and a front room, used as a store, that opened to the street.

Just off the kitchen women were preparing offerings for an upcoming festival (of which there are many).

We stopped at a couple of temples, a shop where traditional instruments are made, a woodcarving shop and saw lots of rice paddies. 

By far my favorite stop was at a school for children to learn traditional dance.  The dance master explained the traditions and the training process before the children danced for us.  It was wonderful and I loved the way they came around to shake hands afterwards and the way they practice their English with us.  Really sweet.  By the way, the dance master charges the equivalent of 30 cents per 2-hour class. 

 

 

As I mentioned, offerings are everywhere – along the streets, in the stores, in front of (and in) homes.  This was the inside of the van I was driving around in.

 

It was rainy here, so I’ll end with the best of nature’s umbrellas!