Never Alone with the Balinese

Bali people are famous as a warm-hearted person. A person in Bali cannot exist in solitude. Balinese society is very community oriented. The first invitation to attend the next village meeting is delivered to you practically as a wedding present. If ignored, it will result in a warning; if three invitations ignored, then the village may take actions against you. Since the community usually owns land, the village may revoke your privilege to till the land. Much of the rituals require massive effort, which usually the village shoulders in cooperatively. You will have to shoulder it yourself, should you decide to be an outcast. Along with other families in the village, you participate in meetings. You may play an instrument in the orchestra, or dance in the ceremonies. The women prepare the offerings, for their little shrines or for the village's offering to the Mother Temple of Besakih. If a child in a family is having his tooth filed, the rest of the village's women will help cook and prepare, and the men help erect a stage and decorate the house. In short, life in Bali is never alone. You can observe this even in little children. As their parents go to plant rice, the children - all seem to be in their best behavior - play with their age group.

The older ones will care for the younger ones. Fights rarely occur, and loud screams or cries are even scarcer. As if they have been taught to be at harmony with their surroundings. The Balinese are brought up in a close family circle of relatives, and a Balinese family traditionally consist of two parents and four siblings, hence the typically Balinese names Wayan, Made, Nyoman and Ketut. Then throughout the modern course of life, a Balinese person may pursue higher education overseas or perhaps even work there. Despite their being exposed to Western ways and thinking, they still have the conscience to return to their homeland and look after their seniors as well as to raise their own family, which at all times is attached to their ancestral integrity through the family temple. (from visit-mybali.blogspot.com and Nyoman Dana article with editing and additions)