Land and sea make Balinese culture exotic and intriguing

By Simon Marcus Gower

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Millions of international tourists have visited the exotic island of Bali. The vast majority of them arrive at Ngurah Rai International Airport and are whisked away to their hotels by taxis and shuttle buses.

A majority will settle into hotels huddled on the southern edge of the island, perhaps only rarely venturing to more remote parts of this geographically diverse island.

Many domestic visitors also arrive at the airport and choose southern hotels; but many more arrive by sea. Taking the short ferry trip from East Java, (Banyuwangi), to Bali, (Gilimanuk), these visitors get an immediate reminder that Bali is an attractive and biologically diverse island.

Easily visible from Java, Bali looks like a hilly, thickly forested and thinly populated island. Making the overland journey from Gilimanuk to Denpasar, one is reminded the that farming and fishing provide the livelihood for the majority of Balinese people.

The trip from Gilimanuk to Denpasar acts as a reminder that Bali may be small when compared to Java or Kalimantan, but it is, nonetheless, a substantial island. The road is winding and undulating and unlit and the journey takes about three hours.

As one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, Bali is among the more modest sized islands of the archipelago but a comparison with another famous Southeast Asian island emphasizes the significant size of Bali. The island of Singapore is a mere 620 square kilometers whilst Bali has an area of over 5,500 square kilometers.

On the road from Gilimanuk many of those kilometers can be seen and it is apparent that much of western and Central Bali is made up of hilly and mountainous landscapes.

The famous terraced Balinese rice fields can be seen in abundance and the painstaking, centuries old methods of farming can be seen in the seemingly endless ribbon of land under cultivation.

Observers have marveled for centuries at the ingenuity of the irrigation systems that maintain the brilliantly green rice fields covering the hills and mountainsides of rich volcanic soil.

Despite the many modern day tourist attractions on Bali, the island still has a predominantly agrarian-based economy.

It is true that huge sums of money are brought to the island by the tourist industry but it is probably equally true that most of this money will leave the island almost as soon as it has arrived because a considerable number of hotels and tourist related businesses are owned by 'off island' business groups.

For the Balinese people the economy is distinctly local, with farming, animal husbandry and fishing contributing a significant percentage of the total economy.

Traveling through rural areas, in village after village one sees the many puras (temples) erected to pay tribute to and appease the Gods. For the Balinese, devotions to their Gods are an essential part their daily lives, (whether rural or urban) and daily offerings of flowers, burning incense sticks and small amounts of rice are ubiquitous as devotees strategically place these offerings and sprinkle them with holy water.

Bali has made numerous concessions to tourism but daily devotions remain remarkably undisturbed by the presence of tourists. And if a visitor should mistakenly stand in the way of the sprinkling of holy water, he or she will get a little wet and perhaps have the good fortune of being blessed at the same time.

It is estimated that there are at least three puras in each Balinese village. On the road between Gilimanuk and Denpasar this appears to be a reasonable estimate.

This traveler lost count of the puras after about seventy- five. The number of puras is a clear indication of the importance of religion in Balinese family and community life.

One girl offered the following appraisal -- "We are all from our God and we must praise and thank God for the life that we have. We were raised from the sea and will be returned to it. As long as we do good things and keep honest thoughts we may be returned to this world after we die."

Here she touched on two key facets of Balinese belief -- a belief in all things coming from the sea and thus a need to honor the sea and a belief in reincarnation. The sea is a crucial part of the Balinese experience.

They conduct ceremonial tributes to the sea putting fruit, vegetables, rice, flowers, incense sticks and even ducks into the sea as offerings. They also cremate their dead and scatter the ashes into the sea, (returning the dead to the sea).

For the millions of tourists that have come to Bali the sea is often little more than a recreation area where they may surf, swim, canoe, scuba dive, sail, jet-ski, paraglide and so on. In Balinese tradition the sea is no mere recreation area.

It is the carrier of life and the source from which and to which all life must flow. Colorful fishing boats may double as leisure boats for tourists to rent but they remain fishing boats and are actively used to gather food sources from the sea.

The Balinese clearly respect and honor the land and sea surrounding their island. So much of their existence and economy comes from the natural resources of the island; they effectively have to be guardians of the land and sea.

Tourists too really should show similar respect. A couple of tourists were recently overheard sneering and jeering at an elderly Balinese man as he waded through shallow waters collecting oysters -- no doubt as a supplement to his diet. The meticulous and apparently thoughtful manner in which he was going about his task was in stark contrast to the arrogant ignorance of the watching tourists.

Fortunately he had the wisdom to ignore their ignorance but there was no excuse for them to berate him in the manner in which they did.

Bali has much to entertain and divert tourists and tourists (Indonesian and foreign) should have respect for people and the remarkable, beautiful and bountiful land and waters of Bali.

The lands and seas of Bali have helped to make the Balinese culture exotic and intriguing for so many visitors.