Bali – an unsteady balance.
(These are some
impressions gained from a 4 weeks visit to Bali and living in a Home Stay in
the Rumah Roda family compound in Ubud Bali. I have not studied Bali culture
and am certainly no expert – these are impressions of a temporary visitor to
the Island – Peter Johnstone)
An ‘ecosystem’ happens when a place or a geographical region
evolves over time and the various competing elements achieve a state of dynamic
stability.
Bali has often been described as a ‘tropical paradise’ – a
kind of ecosystem of legends.
At some time in Bali’s mythical past, with its tropical
climate, the rich volcanic soils and high rainfall, the demons and gods, the
competing villages and compounds and the winners and losers achieved a balance
– a symbiosis with each other. The island and all in it - the way people
related and interacted with each other and with their environment, supported by
extensive religious and cultural rituals - achieved a mythical state of dynamic
stability. Losers either became extinct or took their accepted place in the
community as a reincarnated spirit in a gecko or street dog.
This powerful myth and belief system and the need to
maintain balance and harmony, underpins Bali’s cultural life.
Wayan Darthe, the elder from Rumah Roda family compound
outlined Bali’s key philosophy of life – Tri Hita karana ‘The Sacred Balance’.
The philosophy teaches that every person in their every
action should always heed their impact in 3 main arenas:
- Their fellow being, the
other;
- Their natural environment;
- Their God/gods, their
morality.
In all that a Balinese person does, he/she should seek and
maintain harmony, should seek reconciliation (where there is tension/conflict)
and should maintain a balance in such a way that the needs of others, of the
environment and of the gods are not impaired.
Sitting on the verandah of the Home stay in the Rumah Roda
compound or taking a quiet walk among the rice paddies away from busy central
Ubud, it is easy to suspend rationality and get a sense of living in harmony.
The balmy weather, the brilliant colours of the flowers and plants, the sounds
and smells (especially the seductive scent of the Champaka) and those spirits
in the gecko or the mangy dogs that cast an indifferent air to what is going on
around them; the meditative scene of the elderly woman cutting grass on the
edge of the paddy with nothing urgent in her movements and who seems to blend
into the peaceful environment. There is a beautiful balance that can be
appreciated by most visitors to the island. Wherever you go, rice paddy, market
and even in the taxi, there are the carefully crafted offerings and a temple
not far away.
Within the context of maintaining harmony, Balinese people are
eclectic and open to influences and changes. This is the Desa Mawacara belief system/framework. Balinese seek stability and balance -
however, if Desa (place), Kala (time) or patra (conditions) demand it, Balinese
will adapt and change. As a result there is wide diversity in dance, ceremony,
customs, art, dress, food and so on from one village to another. The Desa
Mawacara, the ‘Balance of Life’ has, so far, enabled the culture to remain
strong and yet adapt to the many influences, be they such things as tourism, life
style, technology or education. Bali has survived Dutch colonization, the
inroads of Javanese culture and the allure of the West.
However, if I leave the rice paddies or the Home stay verandah
and walk 50 metres down Jl. Kajeng toward the centre of Ubud, there is a very
different reality.
Near Ubud’s market there is frenetic busyness. There are
tourists everywhere and taxi drivers touting their ‘hello transport’. The
mayhem is compounded by traffic congestion caused by a huge hole in the main
street (big enough to swallow a locomotive).
Tourists have had a long affair with Bali. For Australians,
it is an easy place to get to; Bali offers a contrast in culture, it is sub
tropical and warm all year and it is cheap. Western tourists like the
deferential attitude of Balinese people to foreigners.
The rest of Indonesia gains huge benefits from tourism to
Bali and the Indonesian government is continually promoting a greater numbers
of tourists.
Wayan Darthe is sanguine about tourists believing that tourism has helped
Bali’s economy; it has given people an opportunity to improve their standard of
living and has lifted many people out of poverty.
There is also a large expatriate community who are buying up
huge tracts of land and establishing a variety of businesses across Bali.
While I was in Bali, Dr. Anak Agung Gde Agung wrote an
opinion piece in The Jakarta Post (The Sunday Post, 9/8/09).
I want quote him extensively because my observations support
his comment:
“The erosion of Bali's,
tradition, culture and natural environment as a result of massive efforts to
boost tourist numbers has occurred in a number of ways. The most visible is the
overload in infrastructure and overuse of precious natural resources. Roads
have become cramped with cars at all hours of night and day, while farmlands
have disappeared at a rate of around 1000 hectares per year to make way for
hotels, villas and malls.
All of Bali's 37 beaches
and eight rivers have undergone serious transformations from their original
states through development activities that have illegally violated building
codes. Water levels at various points are so low they risk drying up
altogether, inviting sea water to seep in. This problem and many more like it
were foregone conclusions when the number of hotel rooms, set by French tourist
company Sceto at a maximum 22,000 for Bali, exceeded the 70,000 mark. This
excludes villas, home stays and condominiums which have mushroomed in quantum
leaps these past few years.
The more fatal effect of
this overload of tourists lies in the impact it has culturally. As farmlands
are converted into tourist infrastructure, alienation not only occurs with the
land but also to the temples, rituals, ceremonies and communal life - the
essential lifestyle of the people who used to live on that land. The Balinese
way of life, culture and tradition has been displaced in the blink of an eye.
Worse still, the hotels
that have come to replace the indigenous farmers bring in their wake western
values of individualism, meritocracy, efficiency and other modernist traits.
These exist in stark contrast to the previous Balinese symbol-oriented society.
Needless to say, rapid transformations occur wherever the Balinese language is
abandoned for English as a sign of advancement.”
I
did not visit Kuta or parts of Bali popular to tourists, but the sheer number
of tourists arriving is turning much of Bali into a place that tries to provide
everything to everybody. There are now tourists who visit Bali to go on
elephant rides (elephants were imported and were never indigenous to Bali), for
white water rafting, to get married, to participate in a Writers festival or go
on a yoga retreat. The local Ubud and Balinese administration (as opposed to
the Indonesian government) are trying desperately to protect Bali’s cultural
uniqueness and environment. The administration is promoting the idea that
tourists be encouraged to travel to Bali to experience its unique cultural and
natural environment rather than Bali providing specific experiences for
tourists.
Travelling
across the island I wonder if this is too little too late. In many ways it
seems the degradation has gone too far. Has Bali reached a tipping point?
I
felt invigorated after my 4 week visit but am left with an uneasy question – As
a visitor, am I in a small way, also contributing to the erosion and demise of
Bali’s unique culture, traditions and environment? To its legendary ‘eco
system’?
September
2009.
