THE ANCIENT SURVIVAL: THE BALI AGA

The aristocratic communists of Tenganan go to the plantation only to make tuak, beer from sugar palms.

On the way down the hill, I was allowed a glimpse of the sacred temple of Tenganan, of which we had heard mysterious reports. It was a small enclosure under a great banyan tree surrounded by a low wall of uncut stones roughly piled up. Inside were a few mounds of the same stones, reminiscent of altars, and in one of them there was a larger stone with what appeared to be a natural cavity.

I could not go into the enclosure because no outsider is ever permitted to enter it. I-Tanggu could not divulge the purpose of such a primitive "temple" and could not even name the deities worshipped there, but he added mysteriously that there were three of them! It seems extraordinary that this pile of stones is the only sacred, "essential" place of worship for the Tenganans, who are expert carvers and fine artists.

Just outside the village I had seen a regular Balinese-style temple with fine roofs and elaborate carvings, but this, I-Tanggu said with contempt, did not mean much to them and was more for the use of their Balinese guests and coolies, perhaps as a concession to the official cult of the island, so that they would not be considered as savages, people without a " proper " temple.

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