Dare to Reject Cement

That morning, Ni Ketut Kiyeng was busy in her kitchen. "I wanted to make sambal," the 63-year-old woman said, referring to chili paste. The 4 x 5 square meter bamboo kitchen is where Kiyeng cooks and sleeps so she furnished the space with mats and a TV set. She said it was more convenient to sleep in the space located five meters from her house. "It is warm over here, even at night or during the rainy season," she said.

Kiyeng is not the only Penglipuran resident who sleeps in the paon, the local word for the kitchen. Going along the houses in Penglipuran village, Tempo saw many elderly residents sleep in the kitchen. By the end of the 1970s, most of the houses in the village were made of bamboo. As time went by, most houses became more modern.