THE COMMUNITY

The Banjar

As the desa Government lost control over the social and economic organization and as the village grew, simultaneously with the power of the local prince, it became divided into smaller communities within the desa, quarters or, wards, the bandjars: cooperative societies of people bound , to assist each other inmarriages, home festivals, and especially during the expensive cremations. The various bandjars of a village take part in the desa activities, assisting in the repair and improvement of the temples and contributing to the. Village festivals. The bandjars have recaptured a great deal of the administrative power that the desa lost to the princes, although they are subject to the present-day Government (that of the Dutch through the princes), but they remain socially independent within their territory, with their boundaries generally established by the main road on one side, the lesser streets on another, and the rivers and ravines on the outskirts of the village. They have often rice fields worked communally to provide for their banquets and to enlarge their income, which is mainly derived from fines and entrance fees, kept in a communal bank that lends money to needy members. Everyone enjoys absolute equality and all are compelled to help one another with labour and materials, often assisting a member to build his house, to prepare his son's wedding, or to cremate a relative.

Membership is compulsory; after marriage a man receives a summons to join the bandjar. He is given ample time, but if after the third summons he has not joined, it is considered that he deliberately refuses to comply and he is declared. morally " dead," is denied even the right to be buried in the cemetery, and is boycotted from all communal activity.

Like the desa, the bandjar. is ruled by a klian - bandjar, elected by the members, with the choice approved by the gods through consultations with mediums. The klian of the bandjar is not remunerated for his difficult work, except for the honour attached to his position and certain insignificant concessions like extra rice at banquets, a small percentage of the fines collected, and presents from members who receive special services, like part of the reward offered for lost cattle, for surveys, for assistance in marriages, and so forth. He cannot decline to -serve and can be deposed if found unsatisfactory.

The bandjar has considerable property: It owns its meetinghalls, the bale bandjar, a club-house without special religious significance, with its drum-tower to call to meetings. The bale bandjar is provided with a kitchen and with all sorts of cooking implements: pots and pans, chopping-blocks, knives, etc., which are lent to members who require them. The bandjars also own the village orchestras and the dancing-properties costumes, masks, and head-dresses - which are stored in a gedong, a brick building where they are safe from theft or fire.

The men spend most of their spare time in the bale bandjar, gossiping, trying out their fighting cocks, watching a rehearsal of a play or of the orchestra, or just sitting. If the bandjar is prosperous, it takes great pride in giving elaborate banquets with music and entertainment. These may happen at the great national festivals, at the anniversary of their little bandjar temple, or at the inauguration of a new roof, a new orchestra or dancing-group.

But also the private festivals of the members become bandjar affairs, and bandjars like Belaluan, where we lived, celebrated feasts with staggering frequency. Only the men may prepare banquet food, and often we were awakened in the middle of the night by the kulkuls calling them to kill the turtles and the pigs for a feast. Banquet food takes long to prepare and the animals have to be slaughtered in the middle of the night to ensure the freshness of the meat and of the sauces in the difficult climate of Bali. After two in the morning before a feast everybody was busy; the men chopping meat, cooking, scraping coconuts, building sheds and altars; the women carrying water, making offerings, cutting out ornaments of palm-leaf or wrapping individual packages of sirih and betel for the guests.

By noon the banquet took place, the men sitting in the bale bandjar in two long rows facing each other with their individual mountains of rice, pig, and turtle meats served in large squares of banana leaf, drinking tuak and making loud jokes. When the meal was over, kendis of water were passed so that the guests could wash their hands and mouths. The rest of the day and most of the night was spent watching cockfights, plays, and dances.

Most important of bandjar property is a little communal temple (pamaksan) . If the bridjar grows beyond the function of village quarters, or ward," its Pamaksan temple may become a temple of " origin then they will build their formal village temple (pura desa) , their temple of the dead, out in the cemetery, and, having the three reglemeritary temples (kahyangan tiga) that every complete community needs, they will ask for independence from the village and will become a full-fledged free desa.

In the old mountain villages t1he desa system has remained -untouched by the influence of the prizices. Before the advent of the Dutch, they controlled their states through district landlords, the Pungawas, usually members of the prince's family, who appointed lesser tax-collectors, the Perbekel, one in every village. A Perbekel ruled only with the interest of his master in mind, often disregarding the local adat, with the result that he was regarded as an intruder and revained a complete outsider in the affairs of the village. Thus the system was saved because these agents bad to be content with collection of taxes and the enforcement of princely orders. But the Balinese could always find regulations to curtail the power of the princes, and if their demands interfered too much with traditional institutions, the people simply boycotted them and refused to obey.

Following the conquest of bali, the Dutch found the desas divided into many small spheres of influence: the princes, the desa chiefs, bandjar heads, and so forth. In the hasty reorganization of the political system they centralized the Government for control of the complex conglomerate of desas, logically enough, following the system of the princes, creating Government districts beaded by Dutch officials assisted by the former landlords. They preserved the prince (Regent), the Pungawa, and the Perbekel to see that the taxes were paid. Finding the desa-bandjar relationship incompatible with Western management, they redivided the villages, often in an arbitry way, and renamed the towns and banjar, ignoring their traditional connection, the desa desa become simply any " big " village, and the bandjar was ply "halmet" or "quarter of the village." What was close by was joined together, and what was separated by distance off, forming, the so-called Government desas and Goverment bandjars There are cases of bandjars merged into one and small desas deggraded into bandjars or joined with other small make a large desa worthy of the name, despite the fact that it might have more than one ba1e agung. These new villa in official documents, but not in the Balinese mind, forci people tr:)o make a strong distinction between the "Adat desa" and "the Gouvermen Desa."

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