The villages are a study in order. Hidden behind the same mud walls, there will be the same red tiles of the same family pavilions with, again thirty meters apart, the same thatched puppet houses: the family temples (sanggah/merajan). Then, there will be a big tree, two slit logs hanging from its branches, with a couple of shrines under its shade and a nearby hall: the banjar (neighbourhood) community hall. An atmosphere of calm, order and collective belonging prevails.
The basic Balinese territorial unit is desa (village), whose surface covers both the wet land of the ricefields, and the dry land of the compounds and related gardens, temples and roads. To the wet land, correspond the irrigation units or subak, and to the dry and inhabited land, the community wards or banjar, each with their temples and organisations.
The village is typically host to a set of three village temples, the kahyangan tiga, each related to a focal aspect of the village's symbolic life: the origin with pura puseh (navel temple) located mountainward, where the tutelary gods of the village and its founders are worshipped; the territory itself with the pura desa, located in the centre of the village, where meetings of the village assembly and the rituals of fertility are held; the temple of the ded (pura dalem), located down ward, where the forces of death and the netherworld are worshipped, and near which burials take place. Besides these territorial temples, there is also a temple for each banjar (bedogol or pura banjar), a temple for each subak, and the various temples of the local sub - clans (pura dadia or pura panti), each of which with its own calendar of festivals.
All temples of the kahyangan tiga are of paramount importance in the local rituals. Most ceremonies, at the level of the household or of other local temples, cannot take place before a "notification offering" (pejati) of the kahyangan tiga. The most important though, is arguably the pura desa, or village territorial temple, as evidenced by the honor shown to its god, the Batara Desa, who is usually given the forefront position during the village processions of gods. The village community (desa pekraman) corresponds in practise to the congregation of the pura desa, whatever the other affiliations. It is headed by the bendesa adat.
Much of the ritual work at the village level is shared among the various banjar, for example, one banjar may look after the pura desa for the upcoming festival and another banjar for the next one. Each banjar redistributes the work entrusted to it to its vision of the kelian banjar or neighbourhood headman. No ritual activity can normally take place without the latter's involvement and participation.
The banjar is a grouping of anything between fifty and two hundred individual compounds. The word banjar originally referred to a row of houses, thus to the physical clustering of compounds into a neighborhood, with a temple and a community. Nowadays, most of these banjars have split, and the banjar community is no more strictly territorial. Two banjars can occupy the same territory, and banjar members sometimes live kilometres away from the core of community.
In villages, there are no suitable arrangement for treatment of the sick. Often there is no qualified doctor. The village Vaids and Hakims are mere quacks who kill more patients than they cure. The villages are highly in sanitary and many infectious disease breakout from time to time. Thousands of people die every year, uncared for an without any medical aid. However, now things are fast changing. Good hospitals have been constructed near each village. Good, qualified doctors are now there in most villages.
Such is the life in an Indian village. In spite of its various drawbacks, it is a better life than that of the city. If I were given the choice, I would prefer to live in the village. The Government has already taken in hand various measures to improve the conditions of th villages. "Jawahar Rozgar Yojana" and "Panchayati Raj" are two of the important steps taken in this direction. Let us hope, in the near feature, their poverty and illiteracy shall be eradicated. A village will then really by a paradise on earth, as God intended it to be.
The villagers are socially knit together. Their life is co-operate and interdependent. They depend on each other for the supply of their daily wants. They share in the joys and sorrow of each other. They help each other in time of need. Their social sense is so strong that the guest of one is considered as the guest of all. In a town or city, one does not care to know even one's neighbour. But each villages is familiar with the family history of other villagers. In the evening they assemble in the village "panchayat sabha/ Thakura Pindha" with there 'bidi/ Pana, Dukthas' and chatting and talking goes on till late the night. This is their simple recreation.
The villagers are deeply religious. They worship a number of gods and goddesses. They devote regular time to player and worship. The village priest enjoys great respect. But they are highly orthodox and any change is dislike and opposed. Many kinds of superstitions flourish among them. They live in constant fear of ghost. They believe in a number of omens.
They are generally cut off from the cities and have a different kind of life.
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