As an organic unit, the structure,
significance, and function of the home is dictated by the same
fundamental principles of belief that rule the village: blood-relation
through the worship of the ancestors; rank, indicated by higher
and lower levels; and orientation by the cardinal directions,
the mountain and the sea, right and left. The Balinese say that
a house, like a human being, has a bead - the family shrine; arms
- the sleeping-quarters and the, social parlor; a navel - the
courtyard; sexual organs - the gate; legs and feet - the kitchen
and the granary; and anus - the pit in the backyard where the
refuse is disposed of.
Magic rules control -not only the structure but also the building
and occupation of the house; only on an auspicious day specified
in the religious calendar can they begin to build or occupy a
house.
A Balinese home (kuren) consists of a family or a number of related
families living within one enclosure, praying at a common family
temple, with one gate and one kitchen. The square plot of land
(pekarangan) in which the various units of the house stand is
entirely surrounded by a wall of whitewashed mud, protected from
rain erosion by a crude roofing of thatch. The Balinese feel uneasy
when they sleep without a wall, as, for instance, the servants
must in the unwalled Western-style houses. The gate of a well-to-do
family can be an imposing affair of brick and carved stone, but
more often it consists of two simple pillars of mud supporting
a thick roof of thatch. In front of the gate on either side are
two small shrines (apit lawang) for offerings, of brick and stone,
or merely two little niches excavated in the mud of the gate,
while the simplest are made of split bamboo. Directly behind the
doorway is a small wall (aling aling) that screens off the interior,
and stops evil spirits. In China we could find similar screens
erected for the same purpose to the Balinese the aling aling are
to keep the devils from entering; be replied, with tongue in his
cheek, that unlike humans, they turned corners with difficulty.
The pavilions of the house are distributed around a Well-kept
yard of hardened earth free of vegetation except for some flowers
and a decorative frangipani or hibiscus tree. But the land between
the houses and the wall is planted with coconut trees, breadfruit,
bananas, papayas, and so forth, with a corner reserved as a pigsty.
This is the garden, the orchard, and the corral of the house and
is often so exuberant that the old platitude that in the tropics
one has only to reach up to pluck food from the trees almost comes
true in Bali.
Curiously, bamboo is not grown within the house. If it sprouts
by itself it is allowed to remain, but its growth is discouraged
by indirect means. Such is the magic of bamboo that only old people
may tackle, the dangerous job of planting it or digging it out,
and the first lump of earth dug must be thrown as far away as
possible. It is said that if this earth touches someone, he will
surely die, and it is only on certain days that work concerning
bamboo may be safely undertaken. Yet life in Bali would have developed
along different lines had bamboo not existed on the island. Out
of bamboo they make the great majority of their artifact, houses,
beds, bridges, water-pipes, altars, and so forth. It is woven
into light movable screens for walls, sun-bats, and baskets of
every conceivable purpose. The young shoots are excellent to eat,
while other parts are used as medicine. Ii was told that the tiny
hairs in the wrapping of the new leaves are a slow and undetectable
poison like ground glass and tiger's whiskers. Bamboo combines
the strength with qualities of the lightest wood. It grows rapidly
and without care to enormous size.
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