Perhaps one of the most interesting civilizations
Alright, I'm going to try to only post once today because I have a sneaking suspicion that if I post more than once in a day, no one reads the stuff that is pushed to the bottm.
Today in my anthropology class I got to watch a movie and it was on the Balinese (people from Bali, which is located in Indonesia). I was really tempted (and I mean really) to not go to class at all today but because I got to see the film, I'm glad I did.
I got to class a little late, what with the random like 15 centimetres of snow we got (which reminds me... on the way home, walking with Sarah and her friend Jessica, I totally went sliding on ice and fell on my ass in front of I don't even know how many people. I laughed, they laughed, and some dude picked me up) and I sat down just as the movie was starting , at least I think it had just just started. Not many people were taking notes so i figured I didn't have to but after watching the film for like 2 minutes, I wanted to take notes! It was sooo interesting. Finally... i think the first real real thing that interested me all semester. Anthropology is one of my favorites subjects ever... so ya. Back to the Balinese... I took some notes just because the culture seemed sooo unique and I'm gonna share some stuff. If you may be interested, keep reading and I'll try to pass some knowledge along, if not well stop here.
So the Balinese civilization just may be the only one that came about on the basis of art rather than economy. Everything they did, and the way they structured their whole society was based on art. The Balinese people centered their lives around scriptures and poetry.They were peaceful and properous until, of course, people had to come and attempt to colonize them... the Dutch in this case. (until the japanese got rid of the dutch and gave the balinese their independence umm around ww2 i think. )
So.. some of the things unique to the balinese are their calendars and their temples. Their calendars are extremely different than ours because they measure time in a completely different way. For us, time is linear and always moving forward, for them time is measured in cycles. Their calendars are all about cycles, some being 10 000 years long. Depending what day of the week falls on which date, it will mean something different. The only example we have of this in our calendars are if a friday happens to fall on a 13. Temples are central to their life and somehow, they had this really kool system, where they would know when to plant or harvest their crops depending on which festival was taking place at the temple. AND all the temples also acted like water gates to irrigate the fields. The technology is pretty astounding and it allowed for two crops of rice to be produced per year. I won't really go into it but they had this whole system involving algea (sp?) and ducks so that the soil never ever got depleted and the guided the water so the land would be flooded when it needed to be or dry when it needed to be.
The Balinese had really groovy (i dont' want to over use the word interesting and I can't think of a better word than groovy, ok?) views on life. Priests were not supposed to ever be sad if someone died, even if it was their son, wife or daughter. I thought this was a little harsh but it is because they believe that if you can let go of a person and not want them back, then you will not hold them back from finding the path to .. umm well whereever they are supposed to be going. Death to them is a mere moment in dozens of cycles that will bring them back to the village.
OH YA, the Bali also had this idea that reminded me so much of Plato and his cave. I'm not sure who was there first, the Balinese or Plato... but it's kind of a similar idea. The Balinese have what is called Shadow Poetry and it is supposed to bring out Y-ang (not sure if that is correct spelling , probably not) which means reflection. So it's like we are in the middle earth (reminded me of lord of the rings also), which is a world of illusion and in Y-ang, it is through the shadows that the truth can appear. I'm not exactly sure how this works, but there is a puppeteer who is making all these shadows on the wall and because of these actions and thoughts, supposedely they can get closed to what is real. Divine power lives in everything.
When the Bali make things for ceremonies "what is important is how close to perfection something is (not how long it lasts) because perfection does not last". I thought that was pretty kool.
OK well there was more but I'm really getting tired and I want to go sleep. I hope that at least one person kind of enjoyed that or else it was a waste of time to rewrite it all down.
Alright, I'm going to try to only post once today because I have a sneaking suspicion that if I post more than once in a day, no one reads the stuff that is pushed to the bottm.
Today in my anthropology class I got to watch a movie and it was on the Balinese (people from Bali, which is located in Indonesia). I was really tempted (and I mean really) to not go to class at all today but because I got to see the film, I'm glad I did.
I got to class a little late, what with the random like 15 centimetres of snow we got (which reminds me... on the way home, walking with Sarah and her friend Jessica, I totally went sliding on ice and fell on my ass in front of I don't even know how many people. I laughed, they laughed, and some dude picked me up) and I sat down just as the movie was starting , at least I think it had just just started. Not many people were taking notes so i figured I didn't have to but after watching the film for like 2 minutes, I wanted to take notes! It was sooo interesting. Finally... i think the first real real thing that interested me all semester. Anthropology is one of my favorites subjects ever... so ya. Back to the Balinese... I took some notes just because the culture seemed sooo unique and I'm gonna share some stuff. If you may be interested, keep reading and I'll try to pass some knowledge along, if not well stop here.
So the Balinese civilization just may be the only one that came about on the basis of art rather than economy. Everything they did, and the way they structured their whole society was based on art. The Balinese people centered their lives around scriptures and poetry.They were peaceful and properous until, of course, people had to come and attempt to colonize them... the Dutch in this case. (until the japanese got rid of the dutch and gave the balinese their independence umm around ww2 i think. )
So.. some of the things unique to the balinese are their calendars and their temples. Their calendars are extremely different than ours because they measure time in a completely different way. For us, time is linear and always moving forward, for them time is measured in cycles. Their calendars are all about cycles, some being 10 000 years long. Depending what day of the week falls on which date, it will mean something different. The only example we have of this in our calendars are if a friday happens to fall on a 13. Temples are central to their life and somehow, they had this really kool system, where they would know when to plant or harvest their crops depending on which festival was taking place at the temple. AND all the temples also acted like water gates to irrigate the fields. The technology is pretty astounding and it allowed for two crops of rice to be produced per year. I won't really go into it but they had this whole system involving algea (sp?) and ducks so that the soil never ever got depleted and the guided the water so the land would be flooded when it needed to be or dry when it needed to be.
The Balinese had really groovy (i dont' want to over use the word interesting and I can't think of a better word than groovy, ok?) views on life. Priests were not supposed to ever be sad if someone died, even if it was their son, wife or daughter. I thought this was a little harsh but it is because they believe that if you can let go of a person and not want them back, then you will not hold them back from finding the path to .. umm well whereever they are supposed to be going. Death to them is a mere moment in dozens of cycles that will bring them back to the village.
OH YA, the Bali also had this idea that reminded me so much of Plato and his cave. I'm not sure who was there first, the Balinese or Plato... but it's kind of a similar idea. The Balinese have what is called Shadow Poetry and it is supposed to bring out Y-ang (not sure if that is correct spelling , probably not) which means reflection. So it's like we are in the middle earth (reminded me of lord of the rings also), which is a world of illusion and in Y-ang, it is through the shadows that the truth can appear. I'm not exactly sure how this works, but there is a puppeteer who is making all these shadows on the wall and because of these actions and thoughts, supposedely they can get closed to what is real. Divine power lives in everything.
When the Bali make things for ceremonies "what is important is how close to perfection something is (not how long it lasts) because perfection does not last". I thought that was pretty kool.
OK well there was more but I'm really getting tired and I want to go sleep. I hope that at least one person kind of enjoyed that or else it was a waste of time to rewrite it all down.
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