Each region certainly has a folklore that characterizes the area. Folklore contains entertaining stories and also has a moral message that can be learned at the end of each story. In Bali, there is fairly well-known folklore, namely Pan Balang Tamak. Because it contains a wise message, it is not surprising if the values contained are also applied to the elements of religious life.

Pan Balang Tamak 

Long ago in a village in Bali, there lived a man named Pan Balang Tamak with his wife. He is known as a clever man, even though his personality is known to be closed, and rarely socializes. One day, the village head ordered all of his citizens to work together as soon as the chickens began to go out of the cage. When all residents have started working, only Pan Balang Tamak is still at home. Once he was reproved by the village head for not attending the mutual cooperation work, Pan Balang Tamak delivered his reason. It was because his chicken didn’t go out of the cage, since he only had some hens who were incubating their eggs. Hearing his statement, the village head didn’t become angry because his reasons made sense.

A few days after the mutual assistance activities, the village head held a monthly meeting that must be attended by all residents. Now, with his cleverness, Pan Balang Tamak asked his wife to make a sticky rice cake with a shape resembling a dog's feces and then put it on the village bale pole. When the meeting took place, Pan Balang Tamak bet, the one who could eat the feces (which turned out to be cake), he would be given some money. Instead, villagers challenged Pan Balang Tamak to eat it. Without hesitation, he immediately finished the meal and received a large sum of money from each citizen present at the meeting. 

Because he was too clever, the king also intended to poison Pan Balang because he was considered dangerous. Hearing this, Pan Balang told his wife to put his body to sit cross-legged in the bale, and then lean it on one of the poles in the bale. Then, hang his hair above the bale, and put a tamulilingan (some kind of music instrument) next to his body for a day. After that, put his property in a chest and cover it with white gauze, then place it in the bale delod (southern part of the house). After his body is placed for a day in the bale, put it in a coffin and cover it with gauze. Then it’s placed in the bale daja (northern part of the house). 

After a while, Pan Balang Tamak died. To ensure this, the king's emissary came to inspect. He thought, Pan Balang Tamak was still alive and was drying his hair on bale. Though it is the body of Pan Balang Tamak. He was surprised because he thought that the poison didn’t work. The king then drank it to ensure the efficacy of the poison. The king died from drinking his own poison. 

After a few days, the body of Pan Balang Tamak was moved by his wife according to the place previously planned. News of the death of Pan Balang Tamak was already spread throughout the village. But there are still some bad people who want to do evil things. These persons wanted to steal Pan Balang Tamak’s property because he was famous for being rich. With his own greed, the person came to Pan Balang Tamak's house and walked straight to the bale daja where everyone believed that the place of his treasure. In fact, Bale Daja is a place where the body of Pan Balang Tamak is placed. 

That person also took away the chest which was thought to contain treasure. But they stopped in the middle of the road because they smelled an unpleasant odor. When they arrived at the Village Temple to open the chest, how surprised they were to see the body of Pan Balang Tamak. The people ran away scared and left the body in the Village Temple. 

That is why, in the village temple, there is a place of worship or bale called Pan Balang Tamak. From this folk story, the village’s pemangku also always remind people who will come to the Village Temple to eliminate their greed for worldly treasures. Especially if the property they want belongs to someone else. This story also teaches us to think cleverly and critically in life. So that later, no one can do any arbitrarily things to us.