Bali is an Indonesian island located at 8�25'23?S, 115�14'55?E Coordinates : 8�25'23?S, 115�14'55?E , the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands , lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island.

With a population recorded as 3,151,000 in 2005, the island is home to the vast majority of Indonesia's small Hindu minority. 93.18% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism , while most of the remainder follow Islam. It is also the largest tourist destination in the country and is renowned for its highly developed arts, including dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking and music .

Religion

Unlike most of Muslim -majority Indonesia, about 93.18% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism , formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia . Minority religions include Islam (4.79%), Christianity (1.38%), and Buddhism (0.64%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

Bali consists of about three million people, nearly all of whom practice the Balinese Hindu religion, a heterogeneous amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, with the spirits of ancestors and with indigenous deities associated with agriculture and with places considered sacred. Religion as it is practiced in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It is supposed to pervade every aspect of traditional life.

Bali Hinduism, which has roots in Indian Hinduism and in Buddhism, adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people, which inhabited the island around the first millennium BCE. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual, and is less closely preoccupied with scripture, law, and belief than Islam in Indonesia. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behavior. [12]

Language

Balinese and Bahasa Indonesia are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and like most Indonesians, the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual . There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing.

English is a common third language (and the primary foreign language) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the large tourism industry . Staff working in Bali's tourist centres are often, by necessity, multilingual to some degree, speaking as many as 8 or 9 different languages to an often surprising level of competence.

Culture

Ogoh-ogoh monster in Ubud

Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan , is highly developed and varied. Balinese dances portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet , legong , baris , topeng , barong , and kecak (the monkey dance).

The Hindu New Year, Nyepi , is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the preceding day large, colorful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.

National education programs, mass media and tourism continue to change Balinese culture. Immigration from other parts of Indonesia, especially Java, is changing the ethnic composition of Bali's population.

The Balinese eat with their right hand, as the left is impure, a common belief throughout Indonesia. The Balinese do not hand or receive things with their left hand and would not wave at anyone with their left hand.

• Miguel Covarrubias , Island of Bali , 1946. ISBN 962-593-060-4
• Friend, T. (2003). Indonesian Destinies . Harvard University Press . ISBN 0-674-01137-6 .
• Greenway, Paul; Lyon, James. Wheeler, Tony (1999). Bali and Lombok . Melbourne: Lonely Planet. ISBN ISBN-0-86442-606-2.
• Hinzler, Heidi (1995) Artifacts and Early Foreign Influences . From Oey, Eric (Editor) (1995). Bali . Singapore: Periplus Editions, pp. 24-25. ISBN 962-593-028-0 .
• Ricklefs, M. C. (1991). A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1300, Second Edition . MacMillan. ISBN 0-333-57689-X .
• Taylor, Jean Gelman (2003). Indonesia: Peoples and Histories . New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10518-5 .
• Vickers, Adrian (1995), From Oey, Eric (Editor) (1995). Bali . Singapore: Periplus Editions, pp. 26-35. ISBN 962-593-028-0 .