Balinese culture explained: religion, offerings, names and customs

Bali is the only province in Indonesia where most people are Hindu, and religion here is not kept for special occasions. It shapes the layout of houses, the names people carry, the way neighbourhoods are run and the rhythm of the week. You see it in the small offerings on every doorstep, the bamboo poles arching over the roads before big holy days and the gamelan drifting from a temple at night.

Here are the customs visitors notice most, and what they mean.

Agama Hindu Dharma: Bali's own Hinduism

Hinduism is one of the six religions officially recognised in Indonesia, and its Balinese form is called Agama Hindu Dharma. It centres on one supreme God, Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, worshipped through many manifestations, above all Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Deified ancestors and the spirits of places are honoured too. It grew from Hindu and Buddhist traditions that reached Bali via Java, layered over older ancestor and nature worship, which is why it looks different from Hinduism in India.

Five core beliefs (Panca Sradha) underpin it: God, the soul, karma, rebirth and final liberation. Day to day, though, it is lived mainly through ritual. Ceremonies are grouped into five kinds of offering (Panca Yadnya): to the gods, to the ancestors, to priests and teachers, for the stages of human life, and to the unseen forces of the lower world.

A key idea is rwa bhineda, the balance of opposites such as good and bad, mountain and sea, expressed in the black and white chequered cloth (poleng) on sacred trees and statues. Darker forces are kept in balance, not destroyed.

Offerings: canang sari and segehan

The small trays of palm leaf filled with flowers that you see everywhere are canang sari, the everyday offering. Each holds petals arranged by colour to face the cardinal directions and their gods, a small core of betel leaf and lime (porosan), and often a coin, a sweet or a pinch of rice, finished with a stick of incense. They are placed at shrines, doorways, shop counters, dashboards and junctions, usually in the morning, as thanks and devotion.

On the ground you will see a different offering: segehan, usually a small leaf tray of rice (white or in five colours) with salt and onion or ginger, sometimes sprinkled with rice wine or water. Segehan is for the bhuta kala, the forces of the lower world, to keep them content and in balance, which is why it belongs on the ground at gates and crossroads. Families put out more of them on Kajeng Kliwon, a day that comes round every 15 days.

Why you never step on offerings: once made, an offering is sacred, and kicking it, stepping on it or stepping over it is disrespectful. Walk around offerings on pavements and in doorways, do not move them for a photo, and never take one as a souvenir. If you tread on one by accident, do not panic or try to fix it; step off, and a quiet apology is enough. Later in the day offerings are swept away as a matter of course, because their essence is believed to have been received.

Tri Hita Karana

Tri Hita Karana, "three causes of wellbeing", is the philosophy you will hear mentioned most. It holds that a good life comes from harmony in three relationships: with God (parahyangan), with other people (pawongan) and with nature (palemahan).

You can see it in the layout of a village, with temples, homes and fields each in their proper place, and in the subak, the centuries-old cooperative system that shares irrigation water between rice farmers through a network of water temples. In 2012 UNESCO added the Cultural Landscape of Bali Province, the subak system as a manifestation of Tri Hita Karana, to its World Heritage list. It includes the rice terraces around Mount Batukaru, Jatiluwih among them, the royal temple of Taman Ayun and Lake Batur.

The banjar and the customary village

Bali has two kinds of village side by side. The desa dinas is the administrative village that deals with ID cards and government programmes. The desa adat is the customary village that looks after temples, ceremonies and customary law (awig-awig). The province recognises around 1,493 customary villages under its 2019 regulation on desa adat.

Each customary village is made up of banjar, neighbourhood associations that are the backbone of community life. Every banjar has a bale banjar, an open hall with a kulkul (wooden slit drum) struck to call meetings. Married households are members. For cremations, temple festivals, weddings and the ogoh-ogoh effigies built before Nyepi, the banjar organises the shared voluntary work, called ngayah. The pecalang, customary village guards in black and white chequered sarongs, manage traffic at ceremonies and keep order on Nyepi.

If you live in Bali: the 2019 regulation distinguishes between village members, Hindu residents from elsewhere and non-Hindu residents. Newcomers renting a house are usually expected to register locally and may be asked for a modest community contribution. Your landlord or the head of the banjar (kelian banjar) can explain how it works locally.

Birth-order names

Meet a few Balinese people and you will hear the same names again and again, because most Balinese are named by birth order:

• First child: Wayan, Putu or Gede (girls are often also called Luh)
• Second child: Made, Kadek or Nengah
• Third child: Nyoman or Komang
• Fourth child: Ketut

A fifth child starts the cycle again, sometimes as Wayan Balik ("Wayan again"). Names often begin with I for males and Ni for females, so a full name might be I Made Sudarsana or Ni Ketut Sari. The last part is the personal name, and it is worth asking for, since "Wayan" alone may describe half the room. Customs vary by region and family.

Caste titles in names

Balinese society keeps an inherited caste system (wangsa), passed down through the father. Most Balinese are commoners (Sudra, also called jaba) and use only birth-order and personal names. The other groups carry titles:

• Brahmana (priestly families): Ida Bagus for men, Ida Ayu (often shortened to Dayu) for women.
• Ksatria (former ruling families): titles such as Cokorda, Anak Agung, Dewa and Desak, I Gusti Ngurah and I Gusti Ayu.
• Wesia: titles such as Ngakan or Sang were used historically, though many families no longer use them.

Today caste does not decide anyone's job or income. It shows up mainly in titles, in some ritual roles and in which level of the Balinese language people use with each other. As a visitor, use names the way people introduce themselves. Bli (older brother) and Mbok (older sister) are friendly, polite ways to address someone about your age or older.

Odalan: temple anniversaries

Every temple celebrates its anniversary, the odalan. Most follow the 210-day Pawukon calendar, so they come round about every seven months, just like each person's otonan (Balinese birthday); others follow the lunar calendar and fall once a year, often on a full moon. With thousands of temples, there is an odalan somewhere almost every day.

You will recognise one by the decorations: bamboo poles and banners, ceremonial umbrellas, shrines dressed in cloth, women carrying tall offerings of fruit and cakes (gebogan) on their heads, and the sound of a gamelan. Festivities last from a day to several days, with prayers, sacred dances and sometimes evening performances. You may watch quietly from the outer courtyard, dressed in sarong and sash.

Ngaben: cremation

For Balinese Hindus, cremation releases the soul from the body and returns the body's five elements to their source, so the soul can move on towards rebirth or liberation. A ngaben is a family duty but an expensive one, so the dead are often buried first and cremated later. Many banjar hold mass cremations every few years so families can share the cost. A priest chooses an auspicious day.

On the day, the remains are carried in a tall tiered tower (bade or wadah) by dozens of men from the banjar, with gamelan playing. At crossroads the tower is spun around to confuse spirits so the soul cannot find its way back. At the cremation ground, usually near the Pura Dalem, the remains are placed in a sarcophagus often shaped like a bull and burned. The ashes are later taken to the sea or a river. The mood is often calm, even festive, because too much grief is believed to hold the soul back.

You can watch a public procession from the roadside. Wear a sarong and sash, keep clear of the bearers, do not use flash or fly drones, and follow the pecalang. Go to a cremation ground only if you are invited or clearly welcome, and stay at the edges.

Traditional dress

Balinese ceremonial dress is called pakaian adat. Men wear an udeng (head cloth), a shirt (white for temple), a kamen (wrap) and often a saput (over-wrap). Women wear a kebaya (fitted blouse), a kamen and a sash at the waist, often with their hair in a bun.

Under a 2018 governor's regulation, government employees, teachers, students and private-sector employees wear Balinese traditional dress on Thursdays, on full moon (Purnama) and new moon (Tilem) days, and on the province's anniversary on 14 August. A later circular added endek, Bali's woven ikat cloth, for Tuesdays.

Gamelan and dance

Gamelan is the percussion orchestra at the heart of every ceremony: bronze metallophones, gongs, cymbals and drums. Musicians play fast interlocking parts, and paired instruments are tuned slightly apart so the sound shimmers. The bold gong kebyar style emerged in north Bali in the early 20th century; processions use the marching beleganjur.

Balinese dance falls into three groups, recognised together by UNESCO in 2015 as intangible cultural heritage: sacred dances performed only in temples, such as Rejang and Baris Upacara; semi-sacred dances such as Topeng and Gambuh; and dances for entertainment, such as Legong, Joged Bumbung and Barong. Kecak, the chanting circle of men, took its modern form in the 1930s, when Balinese performers led by I Wayan Limbak developed it from a trance ritual, with input from the German artist Walter Spies.

You can see dance most evenings in Ubud, Kecak at sunset at Uluwatu and Tanah Lot, and much more at the annual Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar, usually from June into July. Sacred dances at a ceremony are offerings, not shows, so watch quietly.

Family compounds

A traditional Balinese home is a walled compound of separate pavilions, laid out by the traditional architecture code Asta Kosala Kosali. The most sacred corner faces the mountain (kaja) and the sunrise, and that is where the family temple (sanggah or merajan) stands. Around the courtyard are a ceremonial pavilion (bale dangin) used for rites from tooth filing to laying out the dead, sleeping pavilions, a kitchen (paon) and sometimes a rice barn. A narrow gate (angkul-angkul) leads in, often with a wall (aling-aling) just behind it, said to stop spirits, which are believed to travel in straight lines.

Families are usually patrilineal: sons stay in the compound with their wives and children, so three or four generations may live together, and a woman who marries joins her husband's family temple. Staying at a homestay inside a compound is a good way to see daily life.

If you are invited in, greet the elders first, take off your shoes before stepping onto a pavilion floor, sit lower than older people where you can, accept food and drink with your right hand, and do not enter the family temple unless asked.

Simple habits that show respect

• Walk around offerings, never over them.
• Give way to processions and follow the pecalang.
• Ask before photographing people, especially at ceremonies.
• Learn a few words: "suksma" is Balinese for thank you.