Balinese inherit Ubud's flourishing tourist industry

Text and photos by Amir Sidharta

UBUD, Bali (JP): Famous as the cultural center of Bali, Ubud has recently seen much tourist development fueled by foreign investment. International hotel chains have appeared to profit from this apparently lucrative business. However, new developments recently opened here suggest that Ubud will remain Balinese.

When tourism first appeared on the island, Ubud's Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati opened a palace to accommodate international guests.

Tjokorda was a visionary. He was a patron of the arts, and encouraged the development of Balinese painting. Therefore he allowed the German painter Walter Spies to build a villa in Campuan. Later, Spies would both inspire and become inspired by Balinese painters, fostering what is considered today the birth of modern Balinese art.

Spies became an awesome host, and tourist guide par- excellence, luring visitors to Bali and getting them to recommend Bali to their friends. His stay in Bali promoted Ubud's cultural tourism.

At the same time, the Tjokorda also was concerned about preserving and promoting traditional Balinese art. For that purpose, along with Tjokorda Raka Sukawati, Rudolf Bonnet and Walter Spies established the Pita Maha.

Tourism and the preservation of culture went hand in hand since the beginnings of Balinese tourism. The Japanese occupation and the ensuing War of Independence throughout the 1940s practically killed the tourism industry, which remained dormant through the 1950s. It was not until President Sukarno opened the Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur in 1966 that the industry was revived. The imposing multistory structure was the first and fortunately the last of its kind.

Around the same time, Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati's tradition of creating homestays was continued by Wija Waworuntu with his beautiful Tanjung Sari hotel and the Batu Jimbar estate nearby.

Ubud followed suit, renting out their authentic sleeping pavilions to their appreciative culturally oriented guests. A son of the great Tjokorda, Tjokorda Putra Sukawati, who was trained in hotel management in Switzerland, opened the Hotel Tjampuhan on the site of Spies's former home, which became famous for its excellent homestay hospitality. The glory of the homestays continued through the 1980s.

Ironically, in the mid-1980s a select group of enterprising regulars of the homestays of neighboring Peliatan, decided to create their own up-market version of the Ubud homestay. The Villa Ayu, the luxurious hotel mimicking a Balinese village environment by the Ayung River valley, was the brainchild of this group of individuals who were already very familiar with the island and its culture. However, in the end, due to the involvement of Indonesian-born, Hong Kong-based, publisher turned hotelier, Adrian Zecha, it became known as the Amandari.

Designed by well-known Australian architect Peter Muller, the Amandari was loosely modeled after the setting of a typical Balinese village. As a modernist, Muller stripped away much of the decorative element from the Balinese architecture in his design.

The Amandari's design became the model after which many other hotels around Bali were planned and built. Many quasi Amandaris mushroomed around Ubud, particularly around Sayan and Kedewatan, the villages between which the Amandari is situated. The hotel's concept and design was even adopted by a hotel in Seminyak, near Kuta.

Today, the Amandari is still very much the model for hotel developments in Ubud. The Waka di Ume, a small new hotel north of Ubud adopted Amandari's concept and simplicity and design in a unique eclectic manner. However, it seems that only a few Balinese hotel developers understood how a hotel so bare and spare and devoid of embellishments could be considered so attractive.

The sons of Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati, Tjokorda Oka, Tjokorda Putra and Tjokorda Gde, recently built a new hotel called the Pita Maha in Sanggingan, basically following the Amandari concept. Instead of following the modern minimalism of the Amandari's design, however, they created a equally comfortable environment, matching modern standards of comfort with their own sense of aesthetics. As a result, in contrast to the rather barren feeling we get from the Amandari, the Balinese craftpersons are more evident at the Pita Maha.

Another relative of the Tjokorda, Tjokorda Raka Kerthiyasa, has taken his Ibah hotel a step further. Intending to emphasize the beauty of Balinese designs and the talents of the island's craftspersons, he created a lavishly decorated environment in which he places modern facilities for his guests. A wall decorated with large carved statues become a backdrop for the elegant open pavilion which serves as the main lobby.

A row of water spouts in the form of carved animal statues, based on similar animal designs embellishing a few prominent palace gates and bathing places around Ubud, lead guests through an oriental garden to their rooms. The gateway to the hotel rooms are so intricately carved that one gets a Gothic sense that "God is present in the details".

Tjokorda Raka understands that there needs to be a balance between traditional aesthetics and modern comfort, and therefore he makes sure that once the guests pass the gates, they will enjoy a simple and familiar living environment.

Finally, the hotel's swimming pool reminds one of the rock-cut monasteries near Ubud.

Both Tjokorda Putra Sukawati of the Pita Maha, and Tjokorda Raka Kerthiyasa of the Ibah are not only hotel proprietors, but they are also the key people behind Ubud's Museum Puri Lukisan, founded by Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati in 1954. It is evident that a new generation of Balinese are now continuing Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati's spirit.

The spirit of the late Tjokorda is by no means monopolized by his direct relatives and descendants. Throughout Ubud, more and more Balinese have become successful in tourism related industries of various kinds.