Bali

Bali was originally an animist culture that became Hindu when it was incorporated into the Majapahit Empire in the 14th century. The Balinese are amazingly skillful artists, craftsmen and musicians. They create brilliant masks and woodcarvings. Visitors to Bali are surprised by the decorative and beautiful details they create using perishable materials such as fruit, banana leaves, rattan, rice, flowers, plants, and other readily available tropical materials to decorate temples, shrines, paths, rice fields and more. Balinese crafting skills have been handed down through generations for centuries and are taught to children at an early age. Their music and dance are world famous, very complicated and seamlessly accompanies a large variety of dramas, mask dances and other dance performances. Balinese dance masks called topeng (literally, pressed against the face) are considered to be “tenget”(endowed with magic). Every Balinese village has a collection of dance masks used in performances as offerings to please the gods and require prayers and rituals with a priest.