If, instead of walking, we look at Balinese village from above the impression of order is no less extraordinary. House are all identical and strikingly parallel in lay-out; with family temples, kitchens and room occupying the same relative position in the walled compound. Large temples, likewise, all have the same structure with their main shrines occupying the same kaja kangin (east-mountain ward) corner and village, all with the same banyan tree, in the vicinity of the similarly located princely mansion. And, all around this orderly world , the greenness of the trees and the glitter of rice fields. More than any of the so-called tourism “objects” vaunted by the industrys, it is in this harmonious integration of Man and Nature that the genuine charm of Bali can be found

Religion and Architecture
This Balinese sense of order and harmony, beside the peculiar constraints of an agrarian tradition, are based on principles of the Hindu-Balinese religion, and in particular its emphasis on balance between Man, God and Nature. Depicted as a micro­cosm -Bhwana Alit or " Small World"-, Man is expected to exist in his natural environment in a way which conforms to the macrocosmic order of things - the Bhwana Agung or literally Larger World. In other words he reshapes his environment on the dual model of himself and the Macrocosm. As formulated in the Asta Kosala Kosali manuscripts all architectural structures or elements of urban planning should reproduce the tripar­tite order of both the world and the human body, which are each divided into upper (utama), middle (madia) and lower (nista) parts. Every building, compound and territorial unit should thus have a head, a body and a lower body, respectively corresponding to the upper world of the gods (Swah), the middle world of humans (Bhwah) and the lower world of demons (Bhur). To practically apply these cosmological principles, a system of orientation is also needed. It is determined by the crossing of two natural axis, that of the rising and setting sun on the one hand, and that of kaja-kelod mountain-sea or, more precisely, that defined by the upstream-downstream axis (ulu-teben) on the other.

The Balinese Compound
Let's take a look at the typical Balinese commoner's "house" or compound. First, it should be emphasised that the Balinese do not live in a "house" in the Western sense of the word, Their living quarters are large compounds of 600 to 900 m2 comprising a number of separate buildings, most of them with verandahs, that are the counterpart of rooms in the Western house. Outward rather than inward-ori­ented, this architectural concept is devised so as to blend Man within his environment: people spend most of their time "outside", in the yard (natah), or on the open verandahs of the main buildings. The only closed spaces are the parent's room in the bale dauh - to the west (daub) of the central part of the compound -, at the youth and children's sleeping quarters, the bale daja, to the upstream-west part of the compound. The kitchen (paon) is located downstream and west of the com­pound, with the granary (jineng) to its east. Old people usually spend their days in the dangin pavilion, located in the central-eastern part of the house, while, just "above" it, the gods "reside" in a smaller walled yar located in the eastern mountainward part of the com­pound called the sanggah or merajan .
The occupation of the various buildings by the members of the family corresponds to the phases o incarnated life: the young live in the bale daja, the build­ing nearest to the mountain from which they "recently" incarnated; with adulthood, they move to the middle western pavilion (bale dauh); then, with old age, to the eastern bale dangin, the pavilion nearest to the family temple (sanggah or merajan) where their soul will 6 enshrined after death.
As explained above, the structure of the compound is tripartite and based on cosmic concepts: "houses" an seen as duplicates, both of the world and of the hum body. Corresponding to the abode of the gods, the com pound has a head: the family temple; corresponding t the middle world, it has a torso: the yard, complete wit its arms: the various buildings of residence, and i navel: the Indra shrine in the centre of the yard; and finally, corresponding to the lower world, it has respectively bowels, here the kitchen, genitals, here the gat and even an anus, here the backyard refuse, situate "downstream" from the kitchen.