BALI ISLAND

With a reputation as being one of the most beautiful and diverse spots in Asia, Bali attracts almost 1,000,000 visitors a year, from all around the world. Geographically, Bali lies between the island of java and Lombok and is one of more than 18,000 islands that make up the Indonesian Archipelago. Bali is small, stretching approximately 140 km from east to west and 80 km from north to south. Slightly off center and running east to west is string of volcanic mountains. The tallest and the holiest is Gunung Agung, which erupted in 1963, and killed 2,000 people with the height 3,142 meters above the sea level.

Lying just 8*south of the equator, Bali boasts a tropical climate with just two seasons, wet and dry, a year and an average annual temperature of around 28*C. the rich volcanic soil and healthy monsoon season make this island extremely fertile and a range of crops are grown here. The wide and gently sloping south regions play host to Bali’s famed rice terraces among some of the most spectacular in the world. In the hilly, northern coastal regions, the main produce is coffee, vegetables spices and rice.

The Balinese people have strong spiritual roots and despite the large influx of tourist over the years, their culture is still very much alive. The main religion is Agama Hindu Dharma, which arrived in Bali with spread of Hinduism through Sumatra and Java during the 11th century. Although originally from India, The Balinese Religion is a unique blend of Hindu, Buddhist, Javanese and ancient indigenous beliefs, With the arrival of Islam in neighboring Java during the 13th century, A large number of courtier artists, musicians, and craftsmen fled to Bali, creating an artistic renaissance.

Naturally creative, the Balinese have traditionally used their talent for religious purpose and most of the beautiful work to be seen here, has been inspired by stories from the Ramayana and other Hindu Epics. The incredibly colorful cremation pyres and the everyday offerings to the gods, placed inside every shop and business are made with an eye for detail and beauty. The majority of Bali’s 3,216,221 people live, for most part, in tight village communities with large extended families. The largest towns are the capital Denpasar, population approximately 450,000 and Singaraja in the north.

TOURISM ASPECT OF BALI

Ever since two members of van de Hautman’s crew jumped ship in 1597, Bali’s utterly unique, higly developed culture has been endlessly fascinating to westerners, the paradigm of tropical beauty and exotic adventure.

The Dutch steamship line KPM Bengan calling at the northern Bali port of Buleleng in the late 19th century, though its cargoes consisted mostly of pigs, copra and coffee rather than tourist following Quickly upon the Puputan of 1906, Bali’s first tourist was Dutch parliamentarian H Van Kol, who reached Bali at his own expense and toured the island with a senior Dutch Official. Upon his return to Holland, he wrote of his travel on Bali in a book called Out of Our Colonies. By 1914 KPM was producing brochures rhapsodizing about Bali as an enchanted Garden of Eden. Next a classic book of photos of wild dances, corrupt kings, and bare bodies, published in Germany in 1921 by Gregor Krause. As Early as the 1920s, the island drew a steady stream of affluent, intrepid, genteel world vaganbons; these visitors perplexed the Dutch, who looked upon their tour of duty on quiet Bali as a bore some necessity.

In the 1930s the documentaries isle of the demons and Goona-Goona depicted Bali as a paradise on earth. The celebrated anthropologist Margareth Mead arrived to extol the island, getting things very wrongin her studies of Balinese children. The aristocratic Balinese and painter Walter Spies wrote and photographed the proud bronzed Balinese trance dancers and noble dusky peasantry; it later came to light that Spies was attracted to the island for its young boys.