People

• The native Balinese are an amalgamation of the Chinese, Indians, Arabs and other groups who came to Bali directly or by way of Java, according to the website Indo. In addition, in some villages, where fraternization with outsiders is restricted, a more ancient way of life has been preserved by the people referred to as Bali Aga (Old Bali) by the Balinese.
  
  

Social Organization

• People in Bali who do not live in tourism or downtown areas work in agriculture, according to the website Pande Bali. The family is the basic unit of Balinese society and a society of neighboring village families is called a Banjar. In each Banjar is a Banjar hall where the members meet and activities take place. If the village is managed by some integrated Banjar, it is called Desa Adat (meaning “village” and “traditional ethic” respectively). Routine meetings attended by family heads are held in a public pavilion. Each Banjar has one or more Subaks, an organization of farmers that controls and manages village life, especially the rice fields and irrigation, or members of different small Banjars can be members of one Subak.
  
  

Religion

• The brand of Hinduism practiced in Bali is fully integrated into the daily life of the people, according to Indo. Stone and wood carvings, trance dances and music are all religious in nature.There are three village temples: the pura puseh, dedicated to the ancestors of the village; the pura desa, used for official celebrations; and the pura dalem, the temple dedicated to the deities of death. In addition, each house has a small shrine, usually dedicated to the owners' ancestors, and the rice field has a shrine dedicated to the goddess of rice, Dewi Sri.
  
  

Considerations

• The rituals of the cycles of planting, maintaining, irrigating and harvesting rice are central to native life in Bali, according to Indo. In the article "Rice Island: Bali and the Cultivation of Tradition," Colin Donahue suggests that the daily offerings of rice in thanks, the family and village ceremonies related to rice and the annual large festivals at Kintamani and Lake Batur, the source of water irrigation, provide the social cohesion necessary for such the islanders' intensive rice production. The complex traditional Subak irrigation system is based around a water temple and water allocation is determined by the priest, providing agricultural, social and religious stability and consistency.
  
  

Other Practices

• Unlike the rest of Bali, Old Bali people do not believe in cremation, according to Indo. In the Old Bali village of Trunyan, a huge, centuries-old banyan tree is used as the laying ground of the dead. The arboreal smell of the sacred tree masks the corpses' odor.