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The first thing one notices in the shadows of the dimly-lit temple is the mysterious mumbling of human voices, which is not quite that of a chant, but not quite that of normal conversation either. If one approaches the bale (open pavilion), one sees a small group of men sitting in the lotus position around a short table, on which lies a book or a long palm-leaf manuscript (Lontar). Ail are dressed in Balinese fashion with a sarong and

On the low table in front of them, a stick of incense can be seen burning inside a "basket" or canang offering near a betelnut- chewing set. One of the men, leaning forward over the text to decipher its words, launches into a long recitative (mewirama). He stops, and the man next to him starts speaking out, slightly emphasising the last words of his sentences while looking around for approval  from the other men. He has barely stopped when a third man starts what looks like a speech. These three men have performed the three phases of the reading of the kekawin, the famed poetry in the Kawi language handed down through the ages from the golden days of Hindu-java. The first one was singing the Kawi text, the second was translating it into Balinese (ngartiang), while the third one was commenting on it (maosin).
These men are the village participants of a reading session of kakawin. They are arnong the last bearers of the threatened Kawi language.

The Kawi language was brought to Bali from Java in the course of the centuries-long contact between the two islands, and particularly after the Javanese invasion of 1343 which turned Bali into a stronghold of Hindu-Javanese culture. Adopted as the language of Balinese courts, this language survived until modern times. Balinese men of letters were still writing in Kawi until the
beginning of the 20th century, while it disappeared in Java following the influx of Islarn to the island during the 16th century. 

Kawi illustrates the resilient influences of Indian culture in ancient Java and in Bali. Half the vocabulary of Kawi is of Sanskrit origin and the characters are derived from a South-Indian form of writing. As well as this, most stories have directly or indirectly evolved from Indian myths and epics. 
Until recently, Kawi literature was exclusively written on, and read from, palm-leaf lontar manuscripts. Few people nowadays use this mediurn which is deemed to be too fragile and too difficult to read. 

Characters sometimes look alike on the palm-leaf and thus are often confused with each other. It adds to the intrinsic difficulty of
the writing, which doesn't separate words one from another and which has very little punctuation. Most Balinese can only read their own famnily manuscripts, which have a distinctive handwriting and which they have practised reading over and over again. 

Nowadays, however, manuscripts have been substituted with books, written in standardised characters that considerably facilitate reading. 

The rhythm and pitch of kekawin reading, called mekekawin, is determined by a metric system that consists of combinations of long guru and short lagu syllables, which are identifiable by their Balinese writing.
The reading of kekawin poetry is not the only  time that the Balinese use the Kawi language. Kawi is also frequently used in ritual mantras and in the theatre, particularly in the puppet theatre (wayang). Typically, the noble protagonists speak Kawi and their courtiers and servants translate their words into the Balinese language. 

This system provides a popular way of teaching the language, but it also accounts for its; alterations, as the "theatre-Kawi " is strongly enmeshed with Balinese words and structures. As a matter of fact, few Balinese have knowledge of Kawi beyond a few theatrical sentences.

The reading sessions of Kawi poetry are a good illustration of the traditional teaching techniques. There is no such thing as compelled rote learning, or an analytical approach. The newcomer to kekawin poetry, who usually has a basic knowledge of Kawi  as it is used in the theatre, begins his "lessons" by attending the reading sessions.
Listening to the same repeated texts and sentences, he "learns" thern, little by little, with no apparent effort.

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