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[VIDEO] The “Deaf Village” Where Everyone Knows Sign Language

03-12-2015 | 08:05

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[VIDEO] The “Deaf Village” Where Everyone Knows Sign Language

2^min

In the remote Balinese village of Bengkala every one of the 3,000-odd residents can fluently communicate in kata kolok, a centuries-old sign language, and people with speech and hearing difficulties are always treated with respect.

There is a good reason behind this tradition – the number of hearing and speech impaired in Bengkala is about 15 times higher than the world average and it’s believed to have been even higher in the past.

The high rate of deafness is apparently caused by the geographically-centric recessive gene DFNB3, existing in the village for over seven generations. Parents with normal hearing may have a deaf child, and deaf parents are known to have children who can hear perfectly well.

Some in the Balinese village don’t even consider deafness as an abnormality, but as a gift from Dewa Kolok, the god of the deaf. He is believed to reside in a local graveyard, watching over and protecting his people. However, according to another local legend, the deafness is a curse.

“The famous story is that two people with magic powers fought each other and then cursed each other to be deaf,” said Ida Mardana, mayor of Bengkala village. “The meaning of Bengkala is ‘a place for someone to hide.’”

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