…and encroaching development.

By Jon Rees and Jesse Driver

Edited by Wayan Merli, and Putu

24th April, 2024

Bali is an incredible place, with family temples on every compound, as well as larger temples and even trees wrapped in shrouds. Unlike Muslim dominated Java, it can appear that the dominant religion is in Hinduism- given the lavish ritual observances connected to a Hindu faith system that arrived on Bali from India, over 1,000yrs ago; however, it is more like these rituals form a cloak over an omnipresent, even more ancient, deeply-felt spiritual belief system of animism.

I was lucky enough to visit Bali over the Easter break, and luckier still to meet up with an old teaching friend, Jesse, and his lovely partner, Merli, and their daughter Pu Tu. As Merli is Balinese, she grew up inculcated in the Island’s culture, myths and traditions. She was able to point out some of the differences between what it was possible to observe, and what was being truly experienced underneath the surface. As Merli stated, “often ceremonies are carried out as public displays more intended to assuage neighbours who may castigate people for not following these traditions.”

Visiting Bali was one of the best holidays I’ve ever had and this photo essay was compiled across my ten days there, with the Driver family adding anecdotes and explanations along the way- thank you for a great stay! In fact, Jesse made most of the key fact checks, though given the complexity of the faith-based systems here, he points out that there are very many features which we were not able to unpack, including the Balinese philosophy, Tri Hata Karana, “which brings together the realms of the spirit, the human world and nature” (UNESCO)

Devotion and care. Temples (not shrines, I understand), are ubiquitous across Bali.

Deities are cared for and daily rituals are offered. I loved this pair of gods, though I have no idea what their names and roles are within the spiritual realm of Bali. They sit atop a small altar next to the beach, and away from the main village temple. They are so old that their faces have been eroded by the salt in the sea air, and the passage of time has obliterated their expressions to which the mason gave form when carving them out of the chunks of volcanic rock from which the island derives its existence.

Expert artisanal craftsmanship is a key feature of Balinese life and accounts for the deeply woven beauty in the objects, temples and crafts visible throughout the island.

Ulan Danu Beratan Temple: one of the most important religious sites on Bali, this temple features on the currency. It also sits within the caldera of the Mt. Batur. The prevalence of the volcanoes whose explosive eruptions, along with massive tectonic movements, created the islands, including some still active volcanoes like Mt. Agung, that erupted just a few years ago, are stark reminders of the enormous violent forces of which nature is capable; therefore these stark reminders of the fragility and vulnerability of human existence- they are visible from across most of the Island- very likely play into the strong religious observance of a people who see nature for what it is- very much alive.

Also, Ulan Danu Beratan Temple. Instagram/Dino-tastic/postmodern melange..Jesse, Merli and Putu, my excellent hosts.

Yet, immediately next to Ulan Danu Beratan, on what used to be sacred land for the Hindu’s grazing cattle, there are now strange, Instagrammable phenomena such as this “Dino-park”/cactus house. There are also cutesy, cartoon-like fairytale castles and other chintzy plastic creations that now line the shores of the lake to allow the modern tourist to better frame their Instagram posts. So, while the temple used to appear on the bank notes, it is also being used to generate more income for the Balinese government through the tourist Dollars.

It reminds me of seeing scenes of the Bhagavad Gita depicted on certain family temple walls. These scenes would communicate important moralistic tales of Vishnu and the cast of sacred characters from that holy text. Now adverts and billboards implore the viewer to buy your luxury home of “overflowing abundance” complete with swimming pool, that consumerist sign of having achieved financial security and acceptance into the burgeoning middle/upper classes. Yet, filling all the swimming pools depletes the water table. families need freshwater – what happens when the wells go dry? Cautionary tales dot the landscape such as the folly of the luxury hotel built on a beauty spot on the approach to Mt. Beratan, but the developers found that they couldn’t connect a water supply from the lake. Merli speculates that particular episode may have had more to do with political shenanigans than engineering oversights, though.

The amazing view from this mountain-side hotel that was completed, but abandoned as water could not be connected. Given the locality of a nearby lake, and that the Hindu architects had perfected systems of aquaduts 1,000yrs ago when the Balinese culture was at its epoch, perhaps political machinations at play?

Kilometre square remnant of Bali’s primary forests. The rest of the island has been given over to agriculture. This is not at all dissimilar to the United Kingdom for example. Draw parallel to UK (98% cultivated/urban land); China’s eastern seaboard; Easter Island. At least they stopped before the last tree did come down…

Lai Chi Wo Village[edit]

Five-finger Camphor (Cinnamomum Camphora)[edit]

The Camphor measures 25 metres tall and 3 metres in diameter. It gets its name because it had five branches like five fingers, although only four of them remain today. It was said that during Japanese Occupation, when Lai Chi Wo was occupied as a military backup base for the Japanese Army, the Japanese cut down many trees for fear that their enemies will hide near the area and make sudden attacks. When the soldiers threatened to chop this five-finger Camphor, the villagers stood up to protected the tree with their lives. Therefore, only one of the “fingers” has been cut.

UK woodlands ‘at crisis point’ amid wildlife decline

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56738428

A religious procession – this parade was to celebrate the guardian, and the parade accompanies the guardian. The guardian is an actual spirit in the Baraong Landung – the black one is a boy guardian and the white one is a girl guardian. The hairy creature is a barong. There are several types, but these barongs represent the village guardians. The frond thing is called umbul umbul – which translates roughly to umbrella (like a luxury umbrella you’d attend a king with)..

We saw the elaborate funeral pyre of a 7th generation from the King of Ubud beginning to be constructed. In the two Instagram links you can see the tower being crowned and the huge procession through the streets of this relatively minor member of the Balinese Royal Family, which stopped all the traffic in Ubud.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-10/ubud-bali-russian-development-hidden-city/103413004

One of countless beautiful temples across Ubud, and Bali. They incorporate nature beautifully into their harmonic designs.Balinese never use the word shrine and always use the word temple. They have different words for small temples and big temples and house temples and kitchen temples – but they are all temples and not shrines

These guardian temples are found on each rice paddy in Bali. This particular rice paddy is very close indeed to Merli’s dad’s fields. A heavy storm flattened the rice crop just as I left Ubud, but fortunately as it was so close to harvest, a team of workers were able to get in and save the crop this time.

The oldest statue in Penestanan village! It’s sacred for the spirits of the water to that particular river.. I asked permission to take a photo of this lady who was performing acts of devotion and tending to the site. It is wonderful to see how the cycles of life are respected as the face of the being has long worn away, and moss and other plants have begun to grow up and around.

The village temple for Penestanan Kaja village

Selfy-time! Jesse and I posing for a long overdue reunion photo. Behind are the beautiful, verdant, UNESCO protected rice terraces of Tegallalang. Above us, and artfully obscured from the frame, are tourists whooping as they slide across high wires, as well as various other unnecessarily Instagrammable objects littering the hillside, including, obscurely, a wooden fishing boat, despite us being miles inland.

This man is bent double in the Sun, picking up winkles from the beach, in between the tidal surge. I am having a coffee on a sunbed. I did think twice about the exploitative nature of the photo here, but it tells a story I think is worth telling.

Even the stones that could be found on the hotel’s beautiful sculpted walkways were likely sourced here at the beach. In the relative cool of the early morning sunshine, a team of workers could be found laboriously sorting stones according to various sizes. That must be a tough life and it starkly highlights the differences in incomes found on the island, and between the two separate Balines and tourist economies that function here.

A drink and a snack at this spectacular bar, The Rocks, built into the cliff face, is very probably quite a lot more money than the lady in the previous photo would make in one day…two days work?

The grim face of “development” in Bali. Hot, asphalt roads teaming with traffic. Though, it’s likely the case that motorised machinery for transport and agriculture represent something of a miracle. There’s the overly romanticised gaze of the tourist that likes the aesthetics of the villager at work in the field with water buffaloes and a plough. I wonder, until you’ve done it for a few hours in the Sun, or a lifetime- to survive- what the advent of a motorised cultivator for your rice fields, or, a car that could transport your goods to market, and your children to school would mean?

Beauty, nature and architecture in harmony. Hindu Uluwatu Temple – one of the main 7 guardian temples on the island. Temple viewed from the clifftop walk.

A monkey navigating its way along a glass verandah at a bar restaurant called Ritual. Religious and spiritual observances give way to the range of services offered to tourists who account for approximately one third of Bali’s GDP- a figure that was devastated by the Covid Pandemic a couple of years ago…