Finally, we should note that spatial lore
is an important concern even when not commemorated in a particular
temple. The social reputation of individuals or groups is often meshed
with the legendary attributes of their localities. In fact, one could
include space as an eighth mode of social classification that combines
with the seven previously viewed in Chapter 3. Consider again Tabanan
town: site of the old royal palaces, district governmental headquarters,
and commercial center for Chinese and Islamic merchants - but in purely
Balinese terms, merely a very enlarged village-area (desa). As an
official administrative unit, Tabanan includes sixteen governmental
hamlets (banjar dinas). Many are coterminous with customary hamlets
(banjar adat) whose members support the three-temple-cluster of desa-adat
Tabanan. (And sonic of the hamlets with adat affiliations here also
fall into neighboring administrative
units.) However, some of these banjar adat include members from distinct
localities with special place-nanics and lore. For example, the governmental
hamlet Malkangin includes members of two adat hamlets, Malkangin and
Pande; the latter named for its traditional metal smiths. But Malkangin
includes as well a separate, isolated residential complex called Darigin
Charik where the reputed descendants of the three
Braliniana families who first settled there live. Dangin Charik is
a unit not circumscribed by any of the seven formal modes in our social
matrix. It is not usefully considered as a sub-banjar-adat unit, since
riot all banjar contain such units; nor do the Balinese consider it
this way. Dangin Charik is rather a differentiated sacred spot next
to a supernatural forest - with a Brahmana pedanda much in demand
as a
ceremonial officiant. Other residents from here are viewed across
the mystique of their locale.
Dangin Charik contains vestiges of the precolonial pachatu system;
its Brahmana residents, once supported by a royal or noble line, possibly
affiliated with banjar
|
