The Balinese believe that the individual soul is reincarnated into many lifetimes until, through numerous struggles and stages, it achieves union with the divine.
It is the duty of every Balinese to have children as vessels for ancestors’ spirits to be reincarnated. A man does not become a full member of his banjar until he is a father. Children are loved and highly prized in Bali, especially male children, as they carry the blood line of the family and also look after the burial and cremation of their parents.
As each lifetime is regarded as a passage from one state to another, so also there are critical stages during life where an important passage occurs leading toward adulthood. It is the duty of family and friends to help each child through these passages. The rites of passage begin while the baby is still in the womb. After a safe delivery, the afterbirth is ritually buried under a stone in the family compound. At 210 days (one Balinese year), the child is given its name. A Balinese child is never allowed to crawl, as this is regarded as animalistic. He is carried everywhere until he learns to stand and walk.
The passage into puberty is celebrated for both males and females. A girl’s first menstruation is celebrated, and there is a rite of tooth filing for both girl and boys. The canine teeth, which the Balinese regard as animalistic fangs, are filed flat. This represents the ‘leveling’ of the more extreme aspects of one’s personality as one enters adulthood. After the tooth-filing, a father’s duties to his daughters are complete.
For a son, the father must finance and conduct the marriage ceremony, welcoming the bride as a new daughter into the family. The new bride leaves her old ties behind and takes her place in her new family.
