Bali and Hinduism

Unlike the rest of Indonesia where the predominant religion is Islam, over 90% of Balinese are Hindus, although very particular practice a form of Hinduism called "Hindu Balinese" which blends a belief in gods and Hindu doctrines next animistic beliefs and worship of Buddhist saints.

Bali is a giant of Hindu mythology who, having been defeated by Vishnu, acknowledged him as supreme god.Bali threatened to destroy the gods and tried to proclaim himself ruler of the world.
Given this threat, Vishnu took the form of a Brahmin dwarf named Vamana-avatar, and asked the giant all land that could cover with his three steps, at which agreed Bali.

Thus, Vishnu suddenly becoming a colossal size, covered the earth with only one of its steps, in another step covered the distance between earth and sky. With the third and last of his steps would arrive at twenty hell and was at the time when Bali was recognized as the supreme God and worshiped him.Vishnu let him be ruler of the subterranean regions of hell or "kingdom of potatoes."In Hindu mythology, Bali represents the evil spirit cast into the abyss by Vishnu comes to earth once a year to exercise their evil power over men.

Until the fifteenth century, the Hindu kingdom of Majapahit ruled the territories of Southeast Asia, even to Madagascar. They maintained trade relations with Cambodia. The Hindu Kingdom was, in economic terms, very prosperous. The great known Gajahmada was then Prime Minister of the Kingdom.Hinduism quickly spread to the lands of the Kingdom, including Bali.

The Balinese Hinduism practiced thus continuing their traditions and culture. It is for this reason that Balinese Hinduism is not exactly the same as Hinduism in India despite the religion comes from this country. In Bali is called The Agama Hindu Dharma (meaning literally, Hinduism Dharma, universal law governing the order of beings and things) which means in fact a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism. Mahayanna rudiments of Buddhism came to Japan, China and Korea.