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Also, it is necessary to bathe the kids at the Kalibuk shore or make them swim there. Because these waters hold the most plentiful fleshy fish in the region, bathing there is thought to help with children's growth and intelligence.

The north holds a collage of memories:

At Lovina, the first shore I reached on the north of the island, getting aboard one of those "creatures" right at the moment of sunrise, and, at sea, racing with the dolphins: not one, not three or five, but with hundreds…

Going fishing in coastal villages named Tukadmungga Anturan ( "happy shore"), Temukas, Kalibubuk…

Admiring the rice fields, slopes full, descending from the mountains to the shore, far superior to "design" masterpieces or conceptions…

Watching the coral gardens underneath the sea, swimming with colorful fishes, diving with or without a snorkel tube…

Following the trails of lost splendor in Chinese, Muslim or Hindu neighborhoods in the Singaraja, the capital of Bali while it was a colony of the Netherlands…

Visiting the temples in the middle of the rice fields or in between fishing villages that prepare for festivals every three days…

And, at last, reaching Amed village, my last stop in north, maybe the prettiest of all fishing villages…

These were the blessings of north…

But, at the same time, the impressions I had while wandering in the countless villages amongst the lakes, mountains, and shores brought to me the real face of Bali, the realities that can't endure the onslaught of shameless urbanization behind savage tourism…

It is an endless effort to bless the spirits, gods and nature in different forms. It could be a lotus flower now, a wooden carved mask a little later, or a tree's appearance in a rice field… And it is not only nature the people try hard to please but also the spirits and gods…

Each village has a village temple; almost every house has a private, personal temple. The magnificence of the temples, stone bas-relief and statue decorations, differs according to the economic situation in each area. Feeding these temples with fancy offerings of flowers and fruits is the people's biggest duty, biggest endeavor…

The caste system is still dominant in these villages. There are four classes: Brahmans, who are organizers of the belief world, arranging the festivals for births, weddings, deaths, filing men's teeth, children's teething… Katriyas are nobles as whole families… Wesyas are professionals… Sudras are workers and villagers… It is forbidden (but not unheard of) to marry another class. If a couple inter-marries, the woman will go down to man's class but cannot move to an upper class.

In these villages, two principles, goton (solidarity) and royon (helping one another), are dominant in life. The entire village, regardless of its class, makes decisions and acts accordingly, from forming farming cooperatives to solving family problems, from cremation ceremonies to sending children to school and undertaking the treatment of the sick.

Each child born in these villages is first his/her family's, then part of a wide family and neighborhood cooperative, banjar's, and last, desa's, that is the village's child.

Each village has a gathering area called bale. It is a meeting place, mostly on the road, covered with bulrushes on the top, four sides open. When the kul kul, that is the bell in the temple or bell tower rings, people stop whatever they are occupied with and assemble there.

In these villages, even when the kul kul does not ring, the bales are full. Women gather there and prepare offerings.

If the women are not working in the rice fields, they are sitting in the bale preparing offerings with their superior hand skills… They call these offerings lamak. They are formed with palm leaves cut in strips and, like a mosaic, arranged in different styles. These may be the first art works of Bali Island. They get richer as the flowers and fruits are placed on top of each other and rise in layers. However a lamak's life is very short. It has a night's dominance. Women make these again every day. When the flowers wilt, lamaks die.

In the wilderness or shore villages I saw the women mostly on the roads carrying these offerings on their heads to the temples.

In the mountain villages in the North, women, especially elderly women, are naked from waist up. Nobody hides from anyone. Only when I wanted to take pictures would they put something on.

To prepare the temples for ceremonies, festivals, for special days, to decorate them, to "dress up" the spirits and gods was again women's duty. The sides of the temples facing south would be dressed with pieces of red cloth, the north sides black, the east sides white and the west sides yellow… If you understand that every Wednesday, every first and fifteenth day of the month, each third and seventh day are sacred, each temple has a separate celebration calendar, each person who is born and dies in the village has a few days of ritual rights, then you will understand how much time it takes and how much labor is needed…

Women carry out all these beliefs and traditions. But the thing I got angry and upset with was that none of the women opposed those bans written on the assorted signs on each temple door!

Which bans? Let me list a few of them:

-Pregnant women can't enter the temples or the sacred places.
-Women having their period can't enter the temples or sacred places.
-Women whose husbands have died in less than three months ago can't enter the temples or sacred places.
-Women whose children do not have a first tooth yet can't enter the temples or sacred places.

These bans continued on like this all over.

As you see, whatever your class is, there is a situation in which you can be far behind that too!

I understand why the little girls do not want to grow up…

Children are the most valuable beings all over the island. They are treated with great respect and honor. That is because they are the beings closest to heaven. But when the girls grow up…