In the year 1679, on a bright day with its clear skies and soft blowing winds, there was a dutch commercial fleet sailing to the eastern java sea, led by its commander Admiral Cornellius de Houtman. Several miles fter passing the east coast of java island they saw another small island with its green peaks high above sea level, massive, like a giant turtle floating on the water. Attracted by the fertility of the land, Houtman thought that possibly this could be the land of spices, the valuable commodity for which they sailed months there were no spices at all but many unique inhabitants with a completely different life style from those of any other island they had ever seen.
Finally Houtman sailed back to his base-port of Batavia, in Java, with nothing but a bundle of reports about a “new” island he had found, the island which was called by its inhabitants : “Bali !” and from then on the name of Bali spread rapidly throughout Europe, and the world.
Today, Bali, which is still called Bali, Lives in the 20th century along with other parts of the world. Nearly there centuries after it was “found” by houtman its requirements probably are not too much different from the needs pf any other region.
Well, suppose , Houtman is still alive today and, suppose, he is invited to see the island he had “found”, how would Bali affect him?
Bali today is not the same as the Bali Houtman had seen three centuries ago, there have been improvements made by the progress of modern technology for the comport of Bali’s guests. However, what so called changes have been made are not more than an outward appearance, just gratifications to comport the guests outward life, while inwardly the culture of Bali itself is still yhe Bali of centuries ago. The ceremonies the people perform for their deities, and the customs the people retain, or the traditions they protect among the fast stream of technological developments, all are kept up as is the life still itself. If one day there is an inaugural flight ceremony for the jumbojet service, there ar offerings made at the same time. A jumbo-plane, for the Balinese, is merely an implement for the expediency af daily life. It is not something to be denied. Offering is part of life itself, so it is something that could not be left behind. If both of them are compatible why throw one away?.
So life goes on in its natural wy in Bali. It’s natural for a number of bus passengers to patiently await the driver while he is presenting an offering on a shrine beside the road. And it’s natural too if a row of devotees in a procession are joined by the luxurious cars, and taxis, and air-conditioned buses, and dispersing tourists, at the same time and on the same road. So why do people feel strange if a group of villagers who walk patiently in a funeral procession are accompanied by the gamelan music from a tape recorder made in Japan?
