ABOUT BALI

This tiny island of nearly four million Hindus, surrounded by a sea of 160 million muslims, lies just two km from far eastern tip of java. When the first Dutch war yacht pulled into Bali on 22 February 1597, those aboard found a heaven on earth. In the 1930s
Several popular documentaries featured this island paradise; then the world knew, and Bali has been degenerating ever since. It,s a tourist colony now, and isle of Capri in the western pacific. Earnings from tourism have risen spectacularly each year since 1970, and the industry is now aiming at one million tourists a year-one visitor for every three Balinese.

THE LAND

Bali is one big sculpture. Every eartern step is manicured and polished, every field and niche carved by hand. Once of geographic extension of java, Bali still resembles it, mountains and all, sharing much the same climate, flora, and fauna as the mother island.
There are few flat areas: hills and mountains are everywhere. The surface of the island is marked by deep ravines, fast- flowing rivers, and, in northern Bali, a west to east volcanic chain 1,500-3,000meters high, an extention of java,s central range.on the plains of southern Bali you see rice fields exquisitely carved out of hills and valleys, sparkling with water or vividly green. All season are one: in fields side by side there is rice have just been planted, rice that still growing, rice that,s ripened. Balinese terracing and irrigation practices are even more so phisticated than on java, employing the remarkable system of aqueducts, small dams, underground canals, and tunnels though rock hillsides.
A village organization called SUBAK, controls the distribution of water from a reservoir or main pipeline. In southern Bali , besides rice, crops of tea, cacao, groundnuts, and tropical fruits flourish. As you head north, the landscape changes from tiers of rice fields to garden of onions, cabbages, and papayas. Thached palm huts give way to sturdy cottages made of wood,tile,stone, and volcanic rock. In the higher attitudes you find mountain streams, prehistoric,fern,wildflowers, creepers, orchid, leeches, but terflies, birds, and screaming monkeys. Bali,s western tip, pulaki, is the islands,s unspoiled,uninhabited wilderness. Legend has it Bali,s first inhabitants originated here is alost, invisible city.

THE CREMATION

On this extravagant occasion you will see most of Bali,s popular art and all the more important religious symbols. Cremation liberates the soul of the death, allowing it to journey to heaven to rejoin and unity with the main source of emptiness.
Bodies are buried twice on bali : once at the death, and again after being exhumed and cremated. These funerals are a time of tipsy hilarity, gossips, offering and dances, all brightened by continuous gamelan music. First the deceased is :”re-awakened”, the grave opened, and remains placed on a decorated wood and bamboo tower, a fantastic creation of tinsel, paper, flowers, mirrors, silk and white cloth. The corpse is than carried in a noisy procession to the cremation grounds. The eldest son rakes the ashes to make sure all the flesh is burned. To free the soul, the ashes are carried out to sea and scattered. The 1993 funeral for the last RAJA [ king ] of Gianyar drew 50.000 people, almost two percent of the total Balinese population.

The water purification temple....

The purification procesing ceremony
after cremation in the sea near bat cave temple

Bali has many ancient and spiritual temple for yoga or meditation..for your mind and body healing..come to bali and explorer the beauty of bali.

THE CLIMATE

Bali lies only eight degrees south of the equator and has an eternal summer, warm sea breezes, and high humidity. Tropical showers can quickly give way to blinding sunshine. Rainfall, which usually is not heavy and continuous, arrived mainly in the late of afternoon
And night. From November to april the rains really come; the wettest days are in December and January. The dry season is may to October. From june to the end of September, Bali is very pleasant.

THE HISTORY

Bali is a living museum of the old Indo-javanese civilitation that flourished on east java over 400 years ago. Prior to 1815 Bali had greater population density that java, suggesting its Bali-Hindu civilitation was even more successful than java,s .Majapahit empires refugees were not the first to bring Hinduism to Bali; Indian culture was present in parts of the island as early as 9th century, and Balinese writing derived from palava script of southern India. Bali today provides scholars with clues about India,s past religious history in old sacred texts that have vanished in India its self.
When Gajah Mada of javas,s majapahit empires conquered Bali in the mid 14th century, East Javanese influences spread from the purely religious and cultural spheres into fine art,dancing, sculpture, and architecture. When Majapahit empires fell in the 16th century under pressure of Islamic military and economic invasion, there was a mass migration of javas Majapahit scholars, dancer, and rulers to Bali. Priest took their sacred books and mythical records, and on Bali they developed unique Bali-Hindu customs and institutions. But Hinduism is only the veneer; the Hindu practices of the new masters were merely superimposed on the deeply rooted aboriginal animism of Balinese natives, who cling to beliefs dating back to the Bronze age.

In the early 19th century, Bali sole export was its highly prized slave; its imports were gold, rubies, and opium. The island remained obscure for so long because of its lack of spices, precious metals , or aromatic woods and because of its step cliffs rising from the sea, deep sraits with treacherous tidal currents,and encircling reefs. Surprisingly, the fertile. Lava rich lowland of Bali were among the last areas occupied by the Dutch and only came under the colonial ruler following prolonged resistence. When a wreked cargo ship of the south coast was looted by the Balinese at the turn of this century [ traditional practices of islands people ] , the Dutch used the incident as a pretext to control the island. On sunny morning in 1906 in puputan squere, Denpasar , Hindu princes and their families, wearing splendid ceremonial customs and waving priceless kris, charged deliberately into Dutch rifles. This mass suicide [ Puputan ] , and others two years later in Klungkung, resulted in the annihilation of Bali,s most powerful and highest ranking royal families.

THE RELIGION

Out side of India, Bali is the largest Hindu outpost in the world. Put in another way, it`s the furthest reaches of the Hindu empires. On bali Hinduism has developed along lines all it own. In fact, the way in which the Balinese practices their frontier Hinduism is still their greatest art. Hinduism at least 3,000 years old and dates from the creation of Vedas, compilations of prayer, hymns, and others religious writings. Hinduism doesn,t have single founder or prophet. There is only one god, though its many difference manifestations are named and classification in great detil. The Balinese call their religion
Agama Tirtha [ science of the holy water ] an interpretation of religious ideas from China, India and java. Agama Tirtha is much more closer to the earth and more animist than Hinduism proper. The Balinese have their own Trinity of supreme gods, The shrines of three forces. Although the Hindu epics are well know and form the basis of Balinese favorite dances, the deities worshipped in India are here considered to aloof and aristocratic. Often the Balinese donn,t even know their names. Because of the caste system, 200 million people are shunned in India. On bali only the older people still believe in the caste system; the young ignore it. In India a Hindu must be cremated at once in order to enter the heaven; because of the expense, On bali sometimes a whole village will temporary bury its dead and later stage a mass cremation. In India worship at home it all important but on Bali group worship is preferred.

The most beautiful shrines at Taman
Ayun temple mengwi kingdom

The most bali famous and largest rice terraces
In bali location Jati luwih village - Tabanan - bali