A Balinese Home

While we were in Bali we got to visit several family homes, which traditionally are compounds that follow a rather complex set of rules. They contain several buildings, which open onto a central courtyard.
As we discovered, a lot of Balinese life surrounds around being actively Hindu. In which praying and offerings are the centerpiece of daily life. This is reflected by having the family temple in the North-East corner. This is the most holy part. Its floor is higher than any other building, because of its spiritual significance. There will be alters to many different gods and family, as felt necessary by the family. Each Balinese village contains three main public temples, representing the three main gods of Hinduism: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the maintainer), and Shiva (the destroyer). There is therefore an alter which provides three doors, to a mini-temple of each one of these three gods. This way, when needing to do the appropriate prayers to these gods, the supplicant needs to only visit the family temple.

The next most important building are the rooms for the most senior couple in the compound, usually the elderly parents. When the oldest couple pass on, the next most senior in the family will take on these rooms. Great expense is put into these rooms, with polished marble floors, ornately carved wood doors and shutters and carved stone sills and frames.

The next most important building is in the East, where no one sleeps. Usually there are two beds, side by side, open to the air. This building is for special occasions, like weddings and funerals. The rest of the time, this building goes unoccupied, though we saw all sorts of creative uses for them, like temporary storage of items.
In the west is the main family building, and usually the kitchen. Occupied by a family of child rearing years, the next in line for the North house, they live and sleep with their children until they reach 17 years of age.
Once they reach that age, they then occupy beds in the Southern rooms. Until they get married or the circle of life raises their parents to the North house.

It was interesting to see that even with the modern world, the clear majority of average people seemed to be still living in some sort of traditional housing like this. It doesn’t mean they have ignored all the modern conveniences, they simply have integrated them into their traditional lifestyles.