Health aspects of traditional housing in Bali

Abstract

Man is made in the image of his creator, and in his turn becomes the creator of his immediate environment, again in his own image. Thus do the Balinese view their own existence and their role in shaping the tiny morsel of the physical world allotted to their care. Their success as caretakers will affect their crops, their families1 safety and well-being, wealth, happiness, state of mind, and their physical health. The guidelines and consequences of alternative methods in manipulation of the living environment are detailed in ancient texts in the classical Xtiwi language, which have been preserved and recopied from the times of the Hindu Javanese Kingdoms until the present. These texts allow us to see the insights which the Balinese have into the interrelationships between themselves as physical and spiritual beings, their surroundings, and the physiology of the perceivable universe.