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Banjar Property and Duties
The 'banjar' often owns its own rice fields, which are worked communally to provide food for banquets and to bring in cash revenues for the communal treasury. The family house is built upon 'banjar' land. The 'banjar' also maintains its own temple (pemaksan), spiritually its most important piece of property. The banjar's meeting hall or clubhouse (bale banjar) is an open pavilion with a large porch. Men often gather here during the evenings to fondle their fighting cocks, drink 'tuak', chat, gamble, and play cards. Each member takes a turn as cook or waiter. At night the bamboo platforms become long beds where villagers sleep, sardine-like, safe in the company of their fellows. Male villagers may spend more time in the 'banjar' pavilion than at home. With its own orchestra and dance troupe, 'banjar' members practice 'gamelan' or watch play rehearsals. The banjar's dancing properties-headdresses, masks, luxurious costumes-are stored in a nearby fireproof building called the 'gedong'. The bale is provided with a kitchen fully stocked with pots, pans, knives, axes, and chopping blocks all available on loan to members who require them. The 'banjar' runs its own communal bank from which the villagers may borrow to buy farm equipment, cattle, or other necessities. All members are required to help one another with materials and labor. All labor is shared and work usually performed in pairs or groups. If members don't sign up for work assignments, a fine is imposed. The 'banjar' supports and maintains village temples, ditches, markets, roads, and bathing places; handles taxation, cockfighting, divorces, and duck-herding; and helps to arrange and finance weddings, family celebrations, temple festivals, cremations, and community feasts. The 'banjar' advises villagers on matters of religion, marriage, and morals, all regulated carefully by elected members. It's also responsible for the village graveyard, guaranteeing that the correct funerary rites are carried out, that corpses are disposed of properly. The 'banjar' can function as a vigilante committee to forcibly expel undesirables from a village. Its role as village police force accounts for Bali's extremely low crime rate; the island averages only one-armed robbery per year. The 'banjar' operates its own school for the arts, training new generations in a line that extends back through the centuries. No other political system has yet broken through the patriarchal shield of the 'banjar', though increasingly its cohesiveness is weakened by consumerism, modern lifestyles, and the tourist industry. Many members now send a monetary contribution in lieu of their presence. The 'banjar' has religious and cultural functions, but it is also the most accessible government unit. The leaders of the 'banjar' are in communication with the civil head of government, the local village head, kepala desa, or 'lurah', a kind of mayor. |
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