**Bali Aga** atau **Bali Mula** adalah sub-suku Bali yang dianggap sebagai penduduk asli Bali. Dari sisi linguistik mereka adalah orang Austronesia, sama seperti kelompok etnis lainnya di Kepulauan Sunda Kecil bagian barat. Saat ini, sebagian besar dari mereka mendiami bagian timur pulau Bali, terutama di Bangli, Buleleng, dan Karangasem. Mereka juga dapat ditemukan di wilayah barat laut dan tengah. Masyarakat Bali Aga yang disebut sebagai *Bali Pergunungan* adalah mereka yang bertempat tinggal di desa Terunyan. Bagi masyarakat Terunyan, istilah *Bali Aga* (Bali Pegunungan) dianggap sebagai penghinaan dengan tambahan arti "orang gunung yang bodoh"; oleh karena itu, mereka lebih memilih istilah *Bali Mula* (secara harfiah 'penduduk asli Bali') sebagai gantinya.

Origin
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The original inhabitants of Bali are said to have come from Bedulu village long before the Hindu-Javanese immigration wave. The legend is, there lived the last king of the Pejeng (an old Balinese kingdom), Sri Aji Asura Bumibanten, who had supernatural powers. He could cut off his head without feeling pain and put it back on again. One day, though, his head accidentally fell into a river and was swept away. One of his servants panicked and decided to quickly decapitate a pig and replace the king's head with the animal's head. Embarrassed, the king hid in a tall tower, denying any visitors. A small child discovered the secret and since then, the king has become known as Dalem Bedulu, or *He-who-changed-head*. Another explanation is that the name comes from *Badahulu* or "the village upstream". After the Pejeng kingdom, the Majapahit Empire rose to power.

Culture
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A grave in Trunyan Village
The Bali Aga live in isolated areas in the mountains. Compared to the lowland Balinese, their relative isolation preserved some of the original Austronesian elements, apparent in the Bali Aga architecture. Tourists wishing to visit certain villages must be careful due to the area's geography. While visiting, it is also important to be respectful and quietly observe the preserved way of life the Bali Aga have.

In Tenganan, where tourism is more easily embraced and the people are said to be more friendly, a three-day festival called *Udaba Sambah* is held during June or July. Tenganan prohibits divorce and polygamy, unlike other villages.

Language
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Bali Aga is a Multilingual people majority of them speak Their mother tongue (Bali Aga languages or Baliagaese), But minority also can speak standard Balinese because they are surrounded by the Balinese speakers, the dialect is slightly different from common Balinese language. It dates back thousands of years and varies from village to village; the version spoken in the Tenganan village is different from the Trunyan village. Bali Aga people also speak Language As a language of communication between ethnicities, They Also Fluent to speaks English for Tourists and Kawi/Old Javanese is for religious rituals.

Craftwork
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An important part of Bali Aga culture is the complex tie-dye technique used to make Bali's traditional *geringsing* double ikat. Bali's Tenganan village is the only village that today still produces *geringsing*.

In *geringsing*, both the cotton warp and weft threads are carefully dyed and cross-dyed before weaving; the finished pattern only emerges as the cloth is woven. According to textile expert John Guy, "the ancestry of Balinese *geringsing* is far from clear, although some cloths display the unmistakable influence of *patola*", the silk double ikats produced in Gujarat during the height of the Spice Trade (16-17C). Many of these imported cloths became inspiration for later locally-made textiles, but one theory is that the Balinese-made cloths were exported to India and copied there for production to Asian markets. Many have unique Hindu motifs such as a bird's eye view of a mandala with a sacred center from which everything radiates. Others feature designs clearly inspired by *patola*, for example a design known as the frangipani flower (*jepun*). The palette of *geringsing* is typically red, neutral, and black. *Geringsing* are regarded as sacred cloths, "ascribed supernatural properties, especially to assist in forms of healing, including exorcism." *Gering* means decease and *sing* means no.