Category: Kulture Kid

When you look at Balinese society today compared to even twenty or thirty years ago, there have been many developments in terms of how people practice religion, both in terms of spirituality and customs. A turning point I believe was the first Bali bomb in 2002 – rather than retaliate against the extremist elements in […]

When we see a living cultural tradition it’s easy to assume that things stand still but in fact in Bali this is not the case at all. The list of change at the spiritual, religious and ceremonial level is pretty much endless in fact. The most glaring example is a general disregard for the philosophy […]

  Like other cultures and traditions across the world, Balinese culture is by no means immune to change. In the West, we only have to look at a tradition / belief as massive as Christmas, which is not only quite possibly on the wrong date for someone who may not have even historically existed, but […]

An acronym, ‘gagap teknologi’ means technologically inept. While there are record numbers of Indonesians on social media, in particular Facebook, shockingly few people here actually have a command of basic computer skills or programs. Essentially, the only reason most young people here have an email address these days is because they have to have one […]

So often I come across this comment by Indonesian “pesbukers”. Meaning “May I share?” (this post/photo/video), it not only shows to me (and millions of people who are watching them across the planet on social media) several things about Indonesians and the culture they live in. Indonesians are both polite and like to pretend they’re […]

‘Consumption’ here refers to the literal translation of the Indonesian word, konsumsi: food or drink provided for participants or guests at any given occasion. Every and any occasion in Bali is an excuse for konsumsi, in fact no one would even dare suggest having the smallest meeting, gathering or even music practice without addressing konsumsi. […]

As I stated in my last article, many kids in Bali these days learn traditional music simply because their parents want them to. Yes, pushy parents are not a monopoly of America or China – they in fact exist in Indonesia too. The motivation is slightly different though – the parents who actively coerce their […]

  Outside of Bali, a child who starts playing music at a kindergarten age is often considered naturally gifted, sometimes labeled a genius, a prodigy or similar. In Bali, however, this is not always so; and in fact it’s expected that children play music (and dance) from a very young age, basically as soon as […]

If you’ve ever been to a tooth filing ceremony in Bali, you would have heard the music of gamelan gender wayang. Instruments played by either by two or four musicians in pairs, a gender wayang ensemble is Bali’s most intimate gamelan ensemble. This is not just because the group is relatively small compared to the commonly seen large […]

  Some of the most “charming” Indonesian expressions are ones that use the word cuci which means ‘to wash’. Perhaps this is because Indonesians always ask each other (even people they’ve just met) if one has washed yet or not (“Sudah mandi?”). Perhaps not. Nonetheless, the word is part of some pretty funky expressions. For example, cuci mata that literally means ‘wash eyes’ means […]