Those who visit Bali tend to rely on English, which many locals can speak. Fewer visitors have mastered Indonesian, the official language. Balinese is hardly spoken among those who aren’t natives. But up in the jungle of northern Bali, there’s an even more elusive, geographically-consolidated language, foreign to even the native Balinese: kata kolok, a language that’s never even been spoken.

Kata kolok, known as “the talk of the deaf,” is a unique, rural sign language, independent of international or Indonesian sign language. It’s been the primary mode of communication in the northern Bali jungle village of Bengkala for generations, where a high percentage of residents are deaf. In Balinese, Bengkala is sometimes called “Desa Kolok”—the deaf village. More.

See: VICE

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