Bali

BALINESE RELIGION

Bali is the only Hindu island on Indonesia. About 93 percent of Balinese are Hindu. There are some churches and mosques on Bali but they are mainly hidden away. Bali and Nepal are the only places outside India, where Hindus dominate. There are few enclaves of Hindus left on Java, notably the Tengger people living around Mt. Bromo.

The Balinese call their religion Agama Tirta ("Science of the Holy Water"), which is actually an interpretation of religious ideas from China, India, and Java. Agama Tirta is much closer to the earth and more animist than Hinduism proper; the two sects as different from each other as Ethiopian Christianity from Episcopalian Christianity. If an ultra orthodox Hindu Brahman from Varanasi ever visited Bali, he'd think them savages.

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