A “Traditional” Balinese Martial Art, Part 1

He was sitting in his jungle camp with table and chairs made from polished tree stumps, in front of the thatched bamboo hut where his wife was preparing coffee with lemon-grass stirrers. She was boiling the water in a cast-iron pot on a bamboo fire, between the refrigerator and an unused microwave.

“But I won’t practice those black-magic arts,” Putu said, shaking his head with disgust. “Many problems with those arts. When you practice black magic, you have a demon and an angel living inside of you. And each time you eat, you have to eat for three.”