Balinese Body Language Part II – ‘stare’ clear of the white pointer!
A general ‘rule of thumb’ when it comes to Balinese body language is not to use the sticking-out bits when referring to something or someone. Most Westerners are accustomed to using their index fingers to point but this is not the norm in Bali. Balinese (as with many ethnicities in Indonesia) use the thumb of the right hand to point. If the object or person they’re pointing at is particularly revered, important or holy, they will support the elbow of their pointing arm by cupping it with their left hand. Learn this and you’ll fit in at any ceremony.
One big no-no is to point with your feet – something that many of us actually do make a habit of, perhaps without realising it. In fact, it wasn’t until my wife visited my own country that I noticed we actually do this. The feet, for the Balinese, are considered a icky dirty part of the body (which you can understand if you take a look at the state of the footpaths in Bali) and are definitely not for pointing. People even say sorry when talking about their own feet.
While pointing is rude to the Balinese, staring isn’t. Having lived here for more than a decade now, I have to admit that it still bugs me when someone stares at me. I guess that as people get more used to the monster that is capitalist globalisation, less people will be inclined to stare. It’s clear that while Dutch colonialism brought a few white faces to the archipelago, tourism, TV and the Internet brought a lot more in a much shorter period. But don’t let the stares jade you too much – they’re probably not staring at your pointy nose, red hair or pasty white complexion after all – you may simply remind them of some TV star (or porn star, if you’re really lucky!).
