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The four castes of Bali are:
  • Sudras - Peasant s making up more than 90% of Bali's population

  • Wesias - the caste of merchants

  • Satrias - the Warrior caste, it also included some nobility and Kings

  • Brahmans - holy men and Priest s


The members of the four castes use different dialects of the Balinese Language to address members of a different caste. Middle Balinese is generally used to speak to people whose caste is unknown in an encounter. Once the caste status of the participants are established, the proper language is used to address each other.

Nowadays, the caste system is used more in religious settings where the members of the lower caste would ask the members of the Brahman caste (the Pedandas) to conduct ceremonies. Since the Dutch colonial years and more recently after the Indonesian independence, the differences in the economic roles of the members the caste system are slowly eroding as the government prohibits treatments based on the caste system.


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