Bali Tour

Bali and Tour
Bali is a 90% Hindu island that is a part of an 80% Muslim nation. I never got a good answer as to why Bali remained Hindu (or became Hindu) while the island directly to its east, Lombok, became Muslim. Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as local versions of Animism were here long before Islam and I imagine that in a series of conflicts Hindus from Java crossed to Bali for protection and blended with the local culture. This all makes sense but why the Indonesian islands east of Bali became Muslim is harder to explain. How did Bali hold out? Why was it skipped over?

You know Bali is different the second you walk into the airport. There is incense burning and the people dress differently – more color, more what you might expect in India. There are also offerings everywhere – the first one I saw was to a small Frog statue on top of the Urinal in the mens room – next to a flat fish tank mounted on the wall. There are temples and statues all over – in the oddest, most unlikely spots – and every day some small dish with flowers and food (maybe food – I didn’t pick one apart so I couldn’t say exactly what was in the dish) appear. You can see the previous days offerings collected in trash pits. I can’t exaggerate how many offerings there are. When I spoke at University of Genesha in Singaraja, Bali, I was walking around giving my talk – I can’t sit still – and there was a little offering right in the middle of the floor. I tried to avoid stepping on it.

My good friend good friend Ratna Haris picked me up at my hotel at 10:00 on Saturday the 23rd and, along with her husband and two friends they made at their hotel, took me on a tour of Bali. This was incredibly nice of them. They rented a driver, (and they had flown their from their home city of Makassar), and took me to a large Hindu temple, a beautiful mountain lake, and a local market.