"Ketut and the Balinese Caste System"

Our English speaking taxi driver Ketut has taught us a lot about Baslinese castes and culture and the lessons are fascinating. Each Balinese person is born into a caste which is his/hers for life and is reflected by their birth name, with Wayan as Son no. 1 followed by Made (No. 2) and Nohman as No. 3. Our driver is the fourth son so his name is Ketut. For girls, the names are the same but prefixed by "Nee" as in Nee Wayan for No. 1 daughter. Therefore, when meeting a Balinese, one knows immediately their caste and birth order by hearing their name. This position determines how you address and speak with that person, using different terms of respect. Everyone here must know his/her place in the universe at all times.

Because of his position in his village, Ketut proudly plays the gamelon, a wooden xylophone, each Tuesday in his village orchestra while the women do Baliinese traditional dances. His wife, like all Balinese women, daily arranges and places floral and fruit offerings for the protection of their home and his taxi by the many Hindu gods. Although he works in a Japanese SUV for Western tourists, Ketut fully practices his Balinese heritage along with all other Balinese people. Yesterday, he proudly showed us his evenly filed front teeth, resulting from a "coming of age" practice at age l7. A "holy man" arrives at home and evenly files the front 6 teeth with a large metal file, interrupting eating for three days due to soreness. Yikes! As a dentist's daughter, this one custom seems ignorant and destructive to me regardless of its symbolism or meaning.

How refreshing to find a country which welcomes tourists warmly, embraces technology and modernity yet keeps a rich, indigenous culture alive and unspoiled. However barbaric some
practices may seem one cannot help but admire a culture which provides such a sense of unchanging belonging, beauty, and roots for its people. We can hope these people will preserve this mostly beautiful way of life in the face of progress.