Towards
the end of day, when it's cooler and the younger men have returned
from the fields, they may all gather to watch a cockfight. Although
gambling is forbidden throughout Indonesia, there's always a corner
of every village where this traditional sport goes on, with scant
regard for the law.
Young girls
learn the tasks of a woman in the same way they learn to dance-by
imitating their elders from a very early age and perfecting technique
over time. The bale gede is usually where women gather
to prepare temple offerings, including weaving young coconut palm
leaves into trays, baskets, or complex hangings.
This pavilion
is also where utensils and other objects involved in worship are stored
(generally in the rafters) and where ceremonies involving rites of
passage, such as weddings and tooth filings, take place. (The Balinese
abhor pointed canine teeth, which they say makes them look like animals,
and they are filed down by priests usually when youths reach puberty.)
Culinary skills are passed on from mother to daughter down the generations.
Girls frequently undertake the daily task of peeling shallots and
garlic, slicing and chopping seasonings, and grinding spice pastes
with a mortar and pestle. They are also entrusted with cutting banana
leaves and trimming them into shape so that they can be filled with
food, folded and secured with a sliver of bamboo.
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