Bali is the most well known of Indonesia’s islands and remains the number one tourist destination in the archipelago. One of Bali’s biggest attractions is its culture, which despite the intrusion of the outside world has been preserved in unique arts and ceremonies. It’s hardly surprising that people are captivated with this tropical island paradise … and some of them never leave! Art and culture are strongly bonded to Bali’s unique form of Hinduism called Hindu Dharma, which is widely thought to be the closest example to the religion and social framework that existed in Java during the zenith of its power and is now found nowhere else on earth.
The very soul of Bali is rooted in religion and spirituality and is expressed in art forms and skills that have been passionately preserved over the centuries. During the mid-sixteenth century Bali reached a cultural climax, encouraging and developing elaborate arts and customs which are the foundations of what is practiced today. In many senses they have changed little over time. Festivals are common place. Each village will hold some sort of colourful ceremony for each one of its own temples a couple of times a year … times by two or three temples per village … times by tens of thousands of villages … averaging out to one ceremony every few weeks or so just for each of the temples!
Add to this the rituals and celebrations for each person’s passage from birth, puberty, marriage, childbirth, death and the after life. And then there are island-wide celebrations like Galungan, Kuningan (almost like a western Christmas and New Year concept), Saraswati and Nyepi; a day of complete silence (when the whole island literally closes down in fear of evil spirits flying in from the sea) and you can begin to understand how important religion, spirituality and ritual play in the day to day life of the Balinese.
One thing every visitor notices is an abundance of arts and crafts, from elaborate dances and paintings to intricate wood and stone carvings. It seems that every Balinese is an artist, spending ‘free-time’ applying skills and images which have been passed down from generation to generation and grasped from a very young age.
Terraced rice fields carved into hillsides and mountain slopes dominate the landscape and like everything else here serve more than one purpose. They provide food, of course, but their very system of cultivation is tightly woven into a complex social fabric. Dissecting a luscious green landscape and filling the air with the enchanting sounds of moonlight, rivers and irrigation streams are communal in the sense that they supply enough water for rice cultivation and everyone’s needs and are, therefore, religiously maintained and carefully administered. In this way, villages and families are bonded, each having a responsibility to each other and the gods and spirits if they want to reap the benefits of a good harvest and maintain a harmonious balance.
And if that isn’t enough for you, Bali is nestled just 8 degrees south of the Equator south east of Singapore and north west of Australia. It has just two seasons; one dry, one wet and it is blessed with warm temperatures all year round! A truly tropical island paradise!