In Bali’s not so distant past, no one ever seemed to mention the weather. In fact, I’ve never heard a Balinese term for the concept of ‘weather’; people just say it’s hot or cold, without getting into any more details. Heralding from a country where with literally ‘four seasons in one day’, it sometimes felt like something was missing from the vocabulary. Not that I was missing crap, unpredictable weather of course.
This seeming lack of interest in weather patterns made sense: weather was something that was predictable—there were two seasons, wet and dry, and not much planning was needed to cope with this change. If you staged an event, you made sure it would fall between March and September, and if you had to do something outdoors in other months (particularly for cremations), you engaged tukang terang: a rain stopper.
Today, just like everywhere else in the world the weather patterns are up the shoot. ‘Ekstrem brow!’ a Balinese friend of mine cried last night as he peeled off his drenched t-shirt, muttering and shivering simultaneously…he then went on to wonder at the hail that fell in the middle of Denpasar last week. First it was an ice rink in Kuta; they’ll be skiing in Legian next…
Now, even local newspapers include a weather forecast, which, in spite of only covering a measly 2 x 4cm, it still makes the front page. I googled weather in Bali and found a load of sites which feature long and short and long range forecasts, and even one with a history function (which didn’t seem to work, but nice thought anyway). Information means there must be a demand, so someone’s reading it.
There may not yet be a Balinese word for weather, but, linguistic borrowing is sure to catch on: Don’t be surprised to hear Bali’s metro-kids of tomorrow anglicizing to each other, “Ekstrem wedda brow o?”
Vaughan Hatch has immersed himself with Balinese culture, living with locals in Bali since 1997. He speaks fluent Indonesian and Balinese, and is unashamedly addicted to playing gamelan. A linguistic, archaeology and publishing graduate, he works for indOKiwi ‘linguistic and cultural solutions’ in Sanur. Email him on contact@indokiwibali.com or call (0361) 464201 for further queries.
