Two faces of Bali

I learned during my brief visit to this Indonesian island that it is a two-faced sort of place. One is the Bali of the beach resorts of Kuta and Sanur on the southern end of the island. This is, perhaps, the stereotypical Bali, swarming with Australian, European, Chinese, and Japanese tourists even in the midst of the "down-season." These strips are lined with t-shirt shops, buffet restaurants, and the usual suspect international chains. The resorts, at least on the Kuta side, do give out on a fabulous beach with sweeping ocean views and mounds of washed-up coral. The sunsets are nothing short of spectacular. And it is cheap. Yet it is not this face of Bali that would bring me back. 

Sunset at Kuta Beach

The other face is a bit of Asia unlike anything I've seen before. Bali, a land of about 4 million people, is an Indonesian island just east of Java that is about the size of Delaware. Although the Balinese share many cultural traits with their island neighbors in Java and Lombok, their history has been distinct. When Islam began to spread in what is now Indonesia in the thirteenth century, it came to a land that had long been influenced by Hindu and Buddhist religion and culture from India. Some of the greatest monuments in Indonesia today are remnants of this Buddhist and Hindu period. Much of Javanese culture today reflects these influences, despite the strong influence of Islam. The spread of Islam in Java led many Hindu and Buddhist priests to flee westward, settling in Bali, which became a bastion of Buddhist-Hindu culture. Today, nearly 90% of the residents of Balinese adhere to Balinese Hinduism. I was told that it is actually more correct to call the religion Hindu-Buddhism, as it incorporates elements of both. In this way, it reminds me of Nepal.

The Elephant Cave Temple near Ubud

Moving north from Kuta and Sanur past the capital city of Denpasar, you enter into another Bali, one deeply influenced by this Hindu-Buddhist religious identity. Balinese homes are multi-generational and are separated from the world by a large gate. Larger homes contain their own temple, with stupas covered in a type of black grass rising above the walled compounds everywhere you go. At nearly every turn, a temple looms upward… some modest, others quite grand. All of this unfolds on the increasingly hilly landscape reaching upward toward the northern mountains. 

The royal palace in Ubud

Like much of Indonesia, space is not wasted in Bali. Every space possible is devoted to the farming of rice. In many places, this is grown on steep terraces that have been sculpted into the sides of steep hills with careful irrigation designed to nurture the three crops grown each year. It is easy to see in Bali how the efficient domestication of rice allowed Asian populations to grow so large. 

The Ceking Rice Terraces

Today, this traditional landscape is slowly being eroded. Although the government has limited tourism development in terms of hotels and resorts to the southern part of the island and other cities, many foreigners are buying up pieces of property in the country. Rice paddies are slowly turning into retirement homes for Europeans, Australians, and Americans. There is considerable fear among the Balinese about what this pervasive economic change and ongoing globalization means for their strong culture. 

The Holy Water Spring Temple

Both faces of Bali are worth a look. But the quiet, beautiful culture of old-world Bali is the one that would bring me back, hoping that it still can be found.