ABSTRACT
From the time of the early Hinduized kingdoms in Bali, i.e. from the ninth century, until Bali's integration into the Indonesian Republic, there was no formal religious education for the common people. Instead, they were socialized in the practices and values of their religious tradition in a way that can best be described as a kind of informal education that consisted of learning by doing. Numerous rituals have structured the daily life of the Balinese and have been highly effective in instilling religious, moral, and ethical values in people. Formal education in the Hindu religion, on the other hand, implies regular, systematic and continuous instruction which takes place either in a pasraman, an ashram, a school, or any other formal institution. The modern informal religious education known in Bali as dharma wacana (‘religious discourse’ consisting of a sermon and a subsequent discussion), the Hindu equivalent to the Muslim or Christian Friday or Sunday sermons, did not exist prior to the 1960s. But even then, the Balinese were not poorer in terms of śraddha (confidence) and bhakti (devotion) than the adherents of other religions. Since religion in Bali was and still is largely considered to be a way of life, it is very difficult to differentiate between tradition, culture, and religion as they form a unity.
