The culture of Bali is unique. People say that the Balinese people have reached self-content. It is not an exaggeration that when the Balinese is asked what heaven is like, they would say, just like Bali, without the worries of mundane life. They want to live in Bali, to be cremated in Bali when they die, and to reincarnate in Bali.

It does not mean that the Balinese resist changes. Instead, they adapt it to their own system. This goes back far in history. Before the arrival of Hinduism in Bali and in other parts of Indonesia, people practice animism. When Hinduism arrives, the practice of Hinduism is adapted to local practices. The brand of Hinduism practiced in Bali is different from that in India. Other aspects of life flow this way.

Traditional paintings, faithfully depicting religious, and mythological symbolisms, met the Western and modBali Culture, People, Culture in Baliern paintings, giving birth to contemporary paintings,free in its creative topics yet strongly and distinctively Balinese. Its dance, music, and wayang theaters, while have been continually enriched by contemporary and external artistry, are still laden with religious connotations, performed mostly to appease and to please the gods and the goddesses.

Wood and stone carvings, gold and silver crafts parallel the development of paintings, gracefully evolving with external forces to enhance their characters. The batik of Bali owes its origin to Java, and inspired the development of ikat and double ikat.

In religion, the prehistoric influences, especially those of the megalithic periods were still quite strong. Beliefs at that time were focused on worship of the spirit of the ancestors which was symbolized in the form of temples which was called pyramid terraces or terraced buildings. Sometimes at the top of the building a menhir was placed, i.e. a monolith column as the symbol of their ancestor's spirit.

Based on that, the religion that developed at the time was the Siwa religion. Only during the period of King Udayana and his queen, there were two large religions practiced by the people, i.e. the Siwa religion and the Buddha religion. This information was obtained from the charters which mentioned mpungku Sewasogata (Siwa-Buddha) as the king's assistant.