He explained if the colossal dance created by ISI Denpasar artist but the idea is coming from Governor Made Mangku Pastika. “The dance project has begun since two months ago and we hoped it can be performed for its trial process on May,” said him. According to him, Denpasar city had had dance mascot of Sekar Jempiring, Badung Regency has coined Sekar Jepun dance then Bali Dwipa Jaya dance chose for provincial grade. “Mostly this dance is drawing about the greatness of Bali Island,” said Suastika. The dance curator, added him, now is reviewing the possibility to including the element of Pendet Dance which has been one of the characteristic of Bali.

News by Antaranews

Tomorrow (23/1) Tionghoa people believed world is entering Chinese New Year 2563. This year is Water Dragon year as it is convinced to bring prosperity for us. The coming of Chinese New Year (CNY) 2563 is welcoming happily by Chinese people. Any kinds of preparation had done like one in Griya Kongco Dwipayana Tanah Kilap Denpasar yesterday.

Some people looked preparing offerings to pray together to welcome New Year ’s Eve (22/1). Big candles and large lantern also had set up. Some Buddhists also was cleaning some Gods and Goddess statues. Surrounding environment of this temple also looks clean. The leader of Griya Kongco Dwipayana I.B. Adnyana said the preparation of welcoming CNY had almost done. According to him, massive pray will hold on Sunday’s midnight and it will accommodate barongsai show.

Barongsai is the sign of bad luck repellent and a pray for prosperity and a better life. Further CNY is coming with Siwaratri night as it is a great moment to contemplate. He also said Barongsai is a sign to repel bad luck and begging for prosperity. Furthermore it is a great moment to change ourselves to be better. It can start by our leaders so they can be a good example for their people.

CNY also hoped to tight solidarity between other religions to create peaceful life. In the other side same activities also appeared in Cao Fuk Mio Temple on Kargo Taman Street, Denpasar. The huge lanterns had set up while old lanterns also had replaced with the new ones to give a new hope and illuminate the Buddhists. Gods and Goddess statues also had cleaned up. In front of the temple gate, there are a couple of sugarcane bar with Bali cultural style to sign peaceful family relationship. When Imlek day arrives, children are usually using red clothes with dragon or hong bird pictures. Besides clothes, your houses will decorated by lanterns and candles. The one of great tradition is sharing angpao. Angpao signed energy transfer or lucky transfer from married people to the children. “The most important is not the money but also its meaning,” said him.

News by Bali Post

Member of RI Council from Bali, Nyoman Dhamantra stated that as an area able to give high foreign exchange, it deserves revenue-sharing such as fund balance usually given to mineral producing areas.

It has been acknowledged that from 8 million foreign exchange received by the government, 70 to 80 percent of them comes from Bali. “It becomes an immediate issue to preserve art and culture in Bali,” Nyoman Dhamantra said.

Dhmantra asserted that all this time Bali preserve its art, culture and environment using self-generated fund. The central government only asked Balinese to protect their tradition without giving any contribution. For instance is Ngaben and Subak.

News by Berita Bali

Though the independence celebration is not bright like others, but this event was not only attending by local teachers but also foreign teachers and students. “We had prepared this independence ceremony. The preparation is short due to we have not much time,” said Kristianti, one of teacher in this school. Though it held short preparation, but the most important thing is the meaning of the celebration. It should give them nationalism feeling to the students though they got international curriculum in this school.

In this ceremony, all of teacher had to use batik uniform. The rule is also valid for foreign teachers. The unique facts pointed to some teachers from India who are fluently speaking Indonesian language were also singing Indonesia Raya. The head of the choir group was a music teacher from Philippine also looked gladly singing Indonesia Raya song. However Kristianti added annually Independence day celebration was not hold any traditional games like panjat pinang, eat crackers, and marble games. It is causing by the absence of the most students, further the students usually are back home after flag ceremony.

News by Antaranews

One of Cultural Professor said that Bali culture will not be cracked by age and will keep growing since it was imbues by its people religiosity.

“Bali culture would not faded since it always stick with their Balinese religious life,” said this Professor at Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI) – Indonesia Art Institute – of Surakarta, Prof. Dr. T. Slamet Suparno in a seminary and workshop at ISI Denpasar campus, on Thursday.

In a seminary themed “Art as the People product or People as the Product of art?” Prof. Slamet delivered his paper concerning life of art before the old order, the new order and afterward.

He confessed his proud toward culture in Bali as well as its people who never worried about who are their next leader on the island.

In that seminary and workshop there is also another spoke person, Prof. Pande Made Sukerta from ISI Surakarta.

This one day seminar attended by hundreds of student and ISI Denpasar teachers of Performance Art Faculty. It hoped could give new concept for artisans in raising their spirit to produce artwork, as it will become part of national cultural wealth.

Meanwhile, Prof. Sukerta in this workshop invite students and teachers at Art Performance Faculty not to afraid producing such reformation through their artwork as long as it still on ethic and aesthetic track.

He emphasized to the artisans in ISI Denpasar to innovate but should keep their tradition dearly so the works would not going out of control.

Attend also in that event was Rector ISI Denpasar, Prof. Dr. I Wayan Rai S, M.A., who also the head of BKS PTSI (Badan Kerjasama Perguruan Tinggi Seni Indonesia) – Cooperation Bureau of Indonesia Art Institute) was opened officially that seminar and workshop.

Rai accompanied by Dean of Art Performance Faculty, I Ketut Garwa, S.Sn., M.Sn., welcomed positively that seminar as a scientific forum to raise their perception and knowledge.

Rai also expressed his gratitude to the two speak persons who both are professor at ISI Surakarta and hope that the same kind of sharing between art institute will maintained in the future. This can raise the value of education and hoped could give born to new scholars and intellectuals as they could become the pride of this nation.

News by Antara Bali

The Chairman of the committee, Mrs. Neeta Maholtra was explained if this association had found to strength the relationship between Balinese and India citizen. “ The founding of BIFA makes Balinese and India citizen could be realized their friendship in the form of religion, culture, art, education or economy’ network. These will be strengthen the national relationship between us” said Mrs. Neeta who owned the network of Queens of India Restaurant accompany with Mr. Deepak Idnani (President of BIFA).

The same proclamation also said by Governor of Bali represented by The Head of Cultural Official. He expected the friendship of Balinese and India citizen in Bali could give contribution to the build of Bali.

One of the trusted Bali’s figure who became the patron of BIFA is Abhiseka Abhiseka Raja Majapahit Bali Dr. Shri I Gst. Ngrh. Arya Wedakarna MWS. He supports the build of Siwa Mandir Pura. “ We will support the build of Siwa Mandir for the community of Hindu India in Bali. If Bali owned Jagatnatha Pura in Orissa, India, there’s no reason for India citizen could not owned Mandir in Bali. This will be the unity symbol of Hindu Bali and Hindu India,” said Wedakarna.

The proclamation of BIFA was bright up with the performance of dance collaboration of Bali and India by ICCB and the Movement of Hindu Indonesia Student, also the India Food Festival.

It leapt out of a tree on to my wife’s shoulder and grabbed at her shiny earring. She screamed. I was a few steps behind, so I rushed forward and punched ineffectually at the hairy pest. I am only 5ft 7in (1.70m) tall but the monkey was only about a foot high. The size differential counted in my favor and the monkey tumbled over a nearby temple wall overlooking a steep slope leading down to the sea.

The monkey’s fate remains unknown, but I would put money on his survival and recidivist criminal tendencies.

Unforgettable

The monkeys in the temple gardens of Pura Luhur Uluwatu are famous for their annoying and often aggressive behaviour towards the tourists who flock there. But they are an integral part of the island’s Hindu and Buddhist beliefs and are, ultimately, part of the temple’s charm.

The temple itself is famously one of Bali’s holiest sites. It is a beautiful place, standing on a series of rocky cliffs nearly 328ft (100m) above the white surf of the Indian Ocean. Uluwatu is a guardian temple, dedicated to the spirits of the sea and keeping the island safe from any demons that might inhabit the south-west.

Going to Uluwatu in the late afternoon is an unforgettable experience. The sunset is exquisite and as dusk gathers you can watch a Kecak dance. The men sit cross-legged in concentric circles, naked from the waist up around an ornate oil lamp carved with dragons.

They begin a rhythmic chant of “Chak, chak, chak,” which induces a trance-like state, while their arms move in unison like flames, or the wind blowing. Two young women wearing dresses of silk and gold weave their way through the chanting men as they perform a complex dance telling the story of Prince Rama and Princess Sita.

Princess Sita is kidnapped by an evil king and Rama engages Hanoman, the magic white monkey god, to rescue her. The final scene, well after the sun has finally set, where Hanoman breaks out of a ring of fire and destroys the evildoers is pure dance magic.

Gods and monkeys aside, there is plenty to beguile and fascinate any visitor to Bali. The seas are warm, the beaches white, or charcoal black. The gardens and fields are a riot of emerald and scarlet and bright yellow.

Exquisite Food

One of the most beautiful sights in Asia, I think, are the green and silver contours of the Jati Luwih rice terraces. Rice, the Balinese people believe, is a gift of the gods. In keeping with this, their food is exquisite.

Whether it is the simple delights like nasi goreng – fried rice done with many seasonings – grilled satay or a variety of noodle dishes served by street vendors, coconut, garlic, ginger, pepper, coriander, tamarind, lemon grass are just some of the spices used, and the results are spectacular.

More exotic dishes such as bebek betutu, duck steamed and roasted in banana leaf, or guling celeng, roast suckling pig, are like nothing you have ever tasted before. The seafood grills at Jimbaran Bay are prepared on open charcoal fires and you sit at a table on the beach with the surf gleaming in the darkness just behind you while the lights of planes taking off and landing at Denpasar Airport float through the distant night sky.

Food is a blessing never taken for granted by the Balinese. All over the island one sees little woven baskets called banten jotan containing tiny colourful offerings of rice, fruit and flowers to the gods.

A taxi driver even had one on his dashboard. “Every six months we have a ceremony,” he said. “For a car, for a knife, for anything metal. Also for a building, a house, animals. “Everything has a ceremony. That is our tradition.”

Perhaps the most peaceful place on the whole island is the temple of Pura Taman Ayun, built in the 17th Century. The name means Garden Temple in the Water and it is built on an island in a peaceful river. The gardens of frangipani, hibiscus and bougainvillea tumble over the canals and ancient stones while birds and butterflies float through the courtyards and a large fountain dedicated to the gods of the underworld sprays cool water through the humid air.

Pagoda-like towers called meru rise into the blue sky. The number of tiered roofs is always an odd number, from three to 11. The tallest represent the mountains in Bali above which the gods are said to live. Strolling through its beautiful gardens, it is easy to see how so many have come to believe this island is the meeting place for gods and humans, and of course, monkeys too.

Written by  Hamilton Wende
Published on news.bbc.co.uk

When I pass him in the hall with my suitcase, he always asks where I’m going — then interrupts to wax euphoric about how much better my destination was back in his day. Evidently, food and sex were not only free, but better and unlimited.
When I told Richard I was going to Bali, I braced myself for the worst. Few places provoke baby-boomer rhapsody like this Indonesian island. It makes them so sad: hundreds if not thousands of years of cultural evolution undone by a few decades of modern, Western-style development, much of it of the globalized luxury persuasion. But this has always struck me as a naïve, not to mention selfish, point of view. Yes, of course, Bali was a different place before it had a Four Seasons, a Hard Rock Hotel, two million tourists a year, terrorist bombings and so on. And, of course, at some level I — like all travelers — want every quaint corner of the world to remain untouched. Yet whom does that serve? Certainly not the people of the world’s great untouched places.

I remember a friend telling me a few years ago that he was upset with himself because he had been trying to learn to meditate, but only seemed to allow himself time when he was waiting for elevators. In a similar way, I wanted to see, on Bali, how the culture’s famed “spirituality” manages to exist between and in spite of — or even because of — modern development. What happens when the precise, unfakeable genius of a place, derived from inner meanings and personal habits, becomes an offering to and for the tourist?

The prince of Ubud is a heavyset man in a robe with a bushy mustache. He emerged from the innermost courtyard of his palace, greeted me, fired up a cigarette, kicked off his slippers and squirmed into a chair. Above him were two paintings, one of his father, who was also a prince, and the other of his grandfather, the last king of Ubud. My host’s name is Tjokorda Gde Putra A. A. Sukawati, tjokorda being an honorific like raja or prince used by members of the royal caste. “But please,” he insisted, “call me Mr. Putra!”

Ubud was once part of a larger kingdom, ruled by the Sukawati family. Although today Bali is a democratic society, the royals are still respected as community leaders. I’d assumed being the symbolic prince of a small town was no big deal. Oops. To enter Ubud’s palace, a visitor steps through an arched, 20-foot-high gilded and carved wooden gateway, rounds a brace of bamboo, then enters one, two, three, four, five courtyards, each with gilt-festooned pavilions, waiting rooms and antechambers guarded by lion- and monkey-god statues wrapped in checkerboard sarongs. Orchids, pandanus, gold plumerias, bougainvillea and gardenias glow along mossy passageways in the morning sunlight as servants flutter, placing offerings of food and wafting incense in every statue nook. Certainly, the prince is keeping the whole royalty thing well grounded in past ways.

Tourism levels in Bali have now exceeded pre-2002 levels (before the first terrorist bombings) and were up 20 percent last year. Did the prince feel that Bali’s culture was in danger of being overrun? “Tourism,” answered my host, who happens to own three of Ubud’s most upscale hotels, “is one of the most important things in Bali. We thank God when we look at ourselves in the mirror. How did we get such an interesting place? God bless us!” Lighting another cigarette, he said tourism, which provides the island with its primary source of income, is an unmitigated boon. “It’s life,” he mused. “There’s change in a positive way, or negative way. So far, I think Bali has the positive way.” Bali could adapt and innovate, he said. “I believe Bali always picks the good things that suit Bali.”

For seekers of the “real Bali,” as opposed to the party Bali or the surfy Bali, the inland town of Ubud remains the acme of Balinese culture. As quotidian as it is to describe a place as spiritual, there’s no place I’ve ever visited where religion plays a greater (or prettier) role in daily life — visually, culturally and, yes, spiritually, even to an outsider. Virtually every corner and tree branch of Ubud is adorned daily with offerings of incense and banana-leaf parcels with rice and yellow ginger shavings, set out for a dazzling array of gods. Penjor, bent offerings of incense and banana-leaf parcels with rice and yellow ginger shavings, set out for a dazzling array of gods. Penjor, bent bamboo stalks 40 feet high, dangle with tassels and colored banners over the roadsides. Ceremonies are held in public and private for full moons, new moons, days akin to Friday the 13th, for different aspects of daily, social and everyday life. Neighbors, kitchens, animals, trees, waters and motorbikes all have their day, commanding more offerings, parades, banners, incense.
Of course, Ubud is also the kind of place where every satay stand fronts a spa or “wellness center.” Which means that here you sometimes get spiritual jibber-jabber like this choice bit, which I saw on a brochure for a spa, describing a Mr. Gede Sujadi, the Ubud Sari Health Resort’s sports masseur: “He understands exactly where to go, how deep and for how long. Mr. Sujadi knows because his ability incorporates the spiritual dimension where all is related and interconnected. He simply synchronizes his being with your’s and, voila; the obstructions are clear, the solutions obvious.” But hey: every culture has a few shrill mangosteens. And as it happens, Mr. Sujadi gives a topping good massage.

Nyoman Purwa Sumantra is 51 years old. He began life in the family rice paddy, farming alongside his father. In his 20s, he became a waiter, then a hotel worker, and in 1986 he started a money-changing business. Profits were enormous before the competition overheated and he segued into car rentals. From there, he became a representative for American and European developers, and since then he’s worked as a point man for manufacturers and exporters of Balinese and Javanese furniture.
Sumantra invited me to his family compound, a peaceful complex of houses built just outside Ubud following the traditional asta kosala kosali, which dictates the siting of buildings in relation to one another and to the environment. The family temple, for example, is built on the highest point of ground. The kitchen must have certain sightlines. One house is reserved for visiting elders. Sumantra detailed the observances his family makes daily with flowers, coins, incense, offerings, prayers and myriad ceremonies. It was clear that his religious and spiritual life takes up a large portion of his time and income. “Every day, I must do it. Like take and keep” — give and take — “from the gods.” People in neighboring Java, for example, have floods and earthquakes. No such things on Bali. “We don’t have accidents and many things,” he said, because the laws of karma are strictly observed. The living and the dead take care of each other, and the dead intercede with the gods.
Sure, progress had a downside. “A long time ago,” he said, indicating the stream rushing behind his house, “we took showers in the river. We would swim there. But now the river is a little bit dirty.” No more showers there. Rising income meant Indonesians from other islands — non-Hindus, he seemed to mean — came to Bali hoping to get rich quickly, through crime, if necessary. Young Balinese were more inclined to drunkenness and laziness. You could tell by their adoption of tattoos, formerly reserved for lowly inmates. At the same time, he said, the Balinese had a tremendous capacity to absorb change. Planning and decision making happen at the level of local councils, which meet to handle disputes and discuss strategies for cultural adaptation. Between the mediation of councils and the spirits, change will be absorbed in the best way possible.

When he was a kid, he said, he used to grind sandstone into powder and brush his teeth with a leaf. Now he uses toothbrush and toothpaste. Before it was all natural, and now it’s supposedly better for the teeth. Likewise, in his day, his parents never gave him money. Now his kids have cellphones. One’s been to Australia, another to Singapore and Java. Which way is better, I asked? Neither, he answered. It’s globalization. And it’s O.K.: “They never forget about their religion, the culture.” During dinner, Pewee, Nyoman’s youngest daughter, brought up Kimora Lee Simmons. Nyoman explained: “We have CNN, MTV and many things like that.” I tried desperately to remember who Kimora is. Pewee reminded me of her clothing line, Baby Phat. Oh, yes. We looked at her picture. Nyoman said with a smile, “She looks like a very healthy woman.”

Despite the presence of some of the world’s most luxurious resorts, and all the internationally familiar creature comforts they enshrine, Bali can still be a deeply weird, exotic place to visit. It’s a society where 17-year-old file down their canines to “get rid of the animal spirit,” where pickpockets discovered in the marketplace can be beaten by the crowd, where adulterers are still rumored to be occasionally stoned. During my 10 days there, I heard a story about a German man and his Balinese wife who went to Java and paid $55 to adopt a child. A Balinese laughed at the man: “You foreigners. You always get ripped off. In Bali, you could have paid $40!” During my visit, I had occasion to ask the officially nonviolent Hindus who form the majority of the island’s population what they thought of the Muslim terrorists responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings who were executed while I was there. To a one they smiled and said it was “very good” that justice had been served. Were they happy, I asked, to see yet more human life taken in pursuit of justice? Yes. “Very happy.”

Sumantra took me on a hike leading away from Ubud, an hour’s stroll along little paths that meandered through rice paddies, across streams and canals. We passed by two young men, smoking and eating coconuts by a pair of palms. Nyoman asked one to get him a coconut. Without the slightest hint of attitude, the boy shimmied up the tree in bare feet, cigarette dangling from his mouth. He twisted off a pair of coconuts, shimmied down and handed them to Nyoman. We passed a group of women cutting and thrashing rice to separate the grain from the stalks before arriving at a meeting spot beneath a cluster of banana trees. Scarecrows — sticks with white and blue coconut. Without the slightest hint of attitude, the boy shimmied up the tree in bare feet, cigarette dangling from his mouth. He twisted off a pair of coconuts, shimmied down and handed them to Nyoman. We passed a group of women cutting and thrashing rice to separate the grain from the stalks before arriving at a meeting spot beneath a cluster of banana trees. Scarecrows — sticks with white and blue pieces of fabric — wafted in the breeze over the green of the paddies. Nyoman dialed on his cellphone.

A rice farmer arrived. His first name, like Sumantra’s, is also Nyoman. (Almost all Balinese are named according to a pattern: firstborns are Wayan, second children Made, third in line Nyoman and fourth Ketut.) Nyoman No. 2 arrived in a blue sleeveless tee, sports shorts and rubber boots of a style that’s become fashionable among hot girls around the world.

Nyoman No. 2 has three daughters. His family has farmed two are (about 240 square yards) of land for seven generations. He grows two crops a year. He squatted during our talk, removing his knife from his belt and cracking open our coconuts. Sure, he worried that farmers like him might get chased off their land by foreigners buying land for hotels and villas (which, paradoxically, boast of their rice-paddy views). He pointed to a plot of land that just sold for 500 million rupiahs (about $42,000). And yes, he said, the water in the irrigation canals between paddies is too polluted with farm chemicals for drinking.

On the other hand, in the past he barely had any rice to eat. When he was young, crop yields were terrible, and of what grew, birds, mice and insects got more than his family, who lived primarily on corn, taro, sweet potato and bits of eel. Now, he said, beaming, there was plenty of rice, and even meat. All this, he said without irony, “thanks to chemicals!” He passed the coconuts for us to drink and eat. Custardy and sweet. Perfect. When I asked what he thought made so many travelers come to Bali, why they didn’t just go to some other warm place, he answered: “Because of Bali’s unique culture. No other country has the dancing, the religion, the people making offerings.” He wasn’t worried about Bali withstanding the tourists. “If the parents teach the young generation, the culture will be strong. If not, the culture will be gone.”

All of his older brothers, he said, were poor sharecroppers. If not for his youngest brother, he said, the family would be poor. This brother happened to get a job many years ago at one of Bali’s two Four Seasons resorts. There, he met an Australian man who took a shine to him and helped him finish school. Today he owns an antiques business with three stores, which sell pieces for thousands of dollars. He’s now in a position to help all his older siblings’ children go to school. Thus, said Nyoman No. 2, it’s a mixed bag, tourism. If too many come, it will be Nyoman No. 2, it’s a mixed bag, tourism. If too many come, it will be bad for farmers, but his brother’s stores will prosper, and the money will still flow back to the family. “Either way,” he said, “it’s O.K. People in Bali, they’re happy. They still laugh.”

At sunset one night, I sat on the balcony of my hotel (which boasted of its rice-paddy view), watching the ducks. Ducks and their behavior aren’t the kind of thing I would usually notice until I’m well weaned from New York time.

Each section of paddy had a gaggle of perhaps 40 ducks, each with a leader, a mainstream and a few outliers. A typical group, at any moment, is either paddling around and feeding or resting on the levee, a little foot-wide strip of earth between the paddies. There, they clean themselves and chat, shaking off the last bath. Perhaps two or three of the outliers paddle about, pecking below the surface or chasing one another. Inevitably, one of the outliers begins quacking apropos of nothing but with measured urgency. The other ducks take notice. What’s up? What’s wrong? Waak Waak! The word spreads: Waaak! What? Waaak! Suddenly the entire gaggle bursts into a run. Forty ducks in a row lean forward like cartoon ducks and race down the levee, cutting across the corner, across the next levee, into the next pond, and then just as abruptly, pause to catch their breath. It’s absolutely pointless, and hard to suppress Deep Thoughts about tourists racing from one country to the next, chasing whatever they think is worth chasing.

I found myself thinking of the boy I saw outside a high school here, wearing his uniform like the other kids, but with pants way down low on his butt and undies jacked out, rapper-style. And of Mozaic Restaurant, an absolutely trumped-up Wine Spectator/Grandes Tables du Monde affair where tabs can run up to $100 or more that served food far less interesting and tasty than the $1.50 plates of nasi campur at the local restaurants called warungs. And then I noticed the construction worker erecting a concrete addition to the hotel. As he went about his business, he was humming a traditional Balinese tune, marked by a repetitive five-tone melody. It’s as ancient and foreign as anything you could hear. I was pleased. As long as he’s not humming “Single Ladies,” I thought, Bali will probably be fine.

Written by John Bowe
Published on The New York Times – nytimes.com

The forum was one of many organizations that had declared their opposition to allowing private investors to develop Lake Buyan. Anantara had offered to develop Lake Buyan into a site dubbed the “Buyan eco-tourism heaven,” promising to restore the lake’s depth – which had become shallower due to sedimentation and the construction of villas on its edges – while adding a theater stage able to host up to 600 dancers in the middle of the lake.

Pastika said his decision to reject this offer was made after consulting with NGOs and community groups. “Their offer was not in line with our philosophical and social rules,” he said. He was referring to several claims by the community that Lake Buyan is a sacred area and that any construction in the area would destroy its purity.

In Hindu-majority Bali, residents believe that several lakes, seabeds and mountains are sacred areas. Lakes, in particular, are revered as the throne of Bhatari Danu, the goddess of water and fertility. For a religious culture that has been built upon water and agriculture, huge water reservoirs like lakes are an important and sacred cultural landmark. This belief has been bolstered by a regional bylaw prohibiting construction at sacred sites.

“This lake is a sacred site that we must preserve for our grandchildren. I will protect Bali with my body and soul,” Pastika said. Located in Sukasada district, Lake Buyan is one of the three lakes situated within a large caldera. A vast wild forest separates Lake Buyan from Lake Tamblingan to its west, while to its east lies Lake Beratan.

So far only the area around Lake Beratan has been developed as a tourist destination. Its close proximity with Eka Karya, the island’s largest botanical garden, has made Lake Beratan a favorite weekend getaway for the residents of Bali’s southern urban areas. Lake Beratan also hosts Ulun Danu, one of the most important water temples on the island. Lake Buyan’s original area of 478.33 hectares has shrunk by 60 hectares due to sedimentation.

“That’s 10 hectares every year. If we allow this to continue, Lake Buyan will cease to be a lake within 10 years,” Pastika said. He said he planned to gather a number of experts to find the best way to restore the lake, adding that damage to the lake had reached a critical point. “We’ll see what they’ve come up with. What’s certain is that we have to move fast to save Lake Buyan,” he said.

Si Ketut Mandiranatha, coordinator of the Forum for Protection of Sacred Sites and Bali High Priests, said he was happy about the governor’s decision, adding that the forum expected all projects on sacred sites in Bali to be stopped. “We want the exploitation of our sacred sites to stop because it is an insult to our religion, culture and traditions,” he said.

Written by Ni Komang Erviani
Published on The Jakarta Post – thejakartapost.com

Now just a regular man like any other, Pak Cok as he is familiarly known, is witty, insightful and deeply spiritual, but can be blunt when required – the very qualities that characterize great leaders whatever the political system. Cok has no desire for a return to monarchy any return to the past, except to learn from history, is a “dangerous fantasy”: “The system we have now is right for this time it’s a system for the people.” Rather, he believes, the legacy of Bali’s ancient monarchy endures through the social and cultural obligations placed on members of royal families.

He fulfills his own obligations in a cultural and social context, through his involvement in politics, his religious and cultural activism, and his roles as president of The Bali Heritage Trust, patron of the Ubud Writer’s and Reader’s Festival, and Rotarian. “I’m descended from that ancient way of life. To be born into the palace is to follow social structures; one of these is to preserve, maintain and innovate the physical and nonphysical – or the material and spiritual – culture of our society,” Cok says. “Keep to those obligations and they earn the respect from the community – a title alone is not enough to earn that respect; respect comes rather from what you do.” Thus speaks the writer, philosopher, artist, and defender of culture and religion.

Cok stepped outside the confines of his Balinese upbringing early, shocking his family by marrying an Australian girl, Asri, in 1978. His family quickly grew to love his bride, who is now mother to his three children and grandmother to their six-year-old grandson. The young couple moved to Sydney, where they lived for 12 years. Cok studied art and helped with the Australian Museum’s Pacific and Asian collection as a volunteer,bridges of culture between Bali and Australia”.

“We had [Balinese] dance and music the instruments are now with the University of Sydney and still being used by the Balinese community there and students of Indonesian.” His work with the Australian Museum sat well with his lifelong dedication to conserving traditional Balinese culture, a dedication now manifest in his role with The Bali Heritage Trust, an organization established in 2003 by former Bali governor Dewa Beratha.

Cok says that while it may appear that little is happening to achieve heritage goals, a mass movement taking place at the grassroots, the very place where Balinese culture lives and breathes. “Understanding the protection of our heritage needs to be spread,” Cok says. “[That] protection can only come with awareness and consciousness; that comes from knowledge and experience.”

Trips to the United States and Britain under the Trust reinforced Cok’s belief that laws on cultural preservation need to be strong and supported by direct action – laws in Indonesia being hampered by lack of people to implement and enforce them. “Those countries have very strong laws to protect historic buildings, their sites and views. But here the difficulty is that we have many ancient buildings. However, they are not monuments, but functioning buildings.”

Equally important is Bali’s literary history, says Cok, which is being supported by the writing of village and family histories. “A lot of our literature has been lost due to volcanic eruptions and colonization, so many villages are rewriting those histories from sources that are still here. These are combined with legends and facts from archaeologists to give the stories of the past.” Another vital source of Bali’s history lies in personal diaries. “A lot of family books are still kept. These can be important references too – they are sacred and personal.”

Cok agrees that as Bali develops – tourism is flourishing, building is feverish, farmland is swallowed it can become difficult to see tradition as a living, breathing expression of the island’s society, particularly in the southern regions. “The original people and their culture can’t be seen today [in places like Kuta] as readily as in Ubud, but it is still there. Culture is maintained in those areas and if you look for it you will find he says. “The difficulty is in how to maintain a cultural system with the outside influence of many different cultures and religions.”

Heavily tourist-oriented regions therefore need help maintaining that culture. “That’s something you have to actively do. Make a political commitment to that, especially when Bali is promoted as a tourist area because of that culture.” When that culture is threatened – such as by the nation’s pornography law – Cok’s rare bluntness comes into play, as he flatly and emphatically rejects the law. “Not in the aspect of protecting children and women – all need to be protected, including men – but in terms of culture. On moral ethics, we have so much diversity in Indonesia: In one place that code will be different to another.

“Our father nation already addressed this so we could be unified in our diversity. What are you going to unite without diversity? I think that is the pride of our father nation to be able to unite so many cultures and traditions that can live harmoniously. “Culture can only survive when there is a demand – where it can give spiritual and physical protection and security in people’s daily life.”

Article written by Trisha Sertori
Published on The Jakarta Post