Sacred: The sanctuary is home to several sacred sites.

Under banyan trees, nine grey monkeys congregated in a yard next to a Balinese Hindu temple. Some ate bananas; others just sat and looked at passersby.

A Western tourist posed for a selfie with a monkey that sat on his right shoulder while a Balinese woman, clad in a traditional green kebaya kept watch to prevent the monkey from biting the man.

The woman was one of 20 field officers at Mandala Suci Wenara Wana, better known as Monkey Forest Sanctuary, in Padangtegal village in Ubud, Bali.

I Nyoman Buana, the site'€™s general manager, said that the field officers would protect visitors from monkey attacks and bites '€” and would also caution visitors not to disturb the monkeys.

'€œThe monkeys are actually friendly,'€ '€” as long as the humans do not disturb them, Buana said.

The forest, in existence from the 11th century, has been a tourist destination since 1970, when there were fewer than 40 monkeys on the site.

The monkeys were revered by local residents as they lived in an area used by Balinese Hindus for worship.

The sanctuary has three temples: Pura Dalem, or the '€œDeath Temple'€, in the southwest, Pura Prajapati, the '€œCremation Temple'€, in the northeast, and Pura Beji, or '€œHoly Bathing Temple'€, in the northwest.

Nyoman said that residents protected everything that could be found in the sacred space. '€œAlthough the monkeys are sacred animals, we do not worship them. We just take care of them because they live within a holy area.'€

He said that like the monkeys, plants in the 12.5-hectare site, which boasts 115 species of trees, were also treated well.

Visitors were not allowed to pluck leaves from the trees because they were holy things used for Balinese spiritual ceremonies, according to Nyoman. The leaves of banyan trees, for example, are used for cremations.

Field officer Ketut Wisnawa said he always advised visitors to be careful when carrying food, which monkeys can smell up to 100 meters away, no matter how well a bag is sealed.

Careful: A field officer (right) is on-hand as a tourist poses with an adult monkey.

Monkeys could suddenly pounce and steal the food, leaving visitors shocked and panic. '€œEgg is the monkey'€™s favorite,'€ Wisnawa said.

He advised visitors not to give peanuts or other snack foods to the monkeys, because the foods were high in cholesterol and could lead to weight gain or other health problems.

Actually, there is no need for visitors to feed the monkeys, as the beasts are fed three times a day with bananas, corn and sweet potatoes.

Wisnawa said that he never tired of warning visitors not to touch the monkeys carelessly, because such action could be seen as a threat. The monkeys, after being touched, might scream. Afterward, their friends would come and bite and scratch the visitor.

'€œTogetherness among the monkeys is very strong,'€ Wisnawa said.

Simian solidarity posed a problem for field officers seeking to aid the monkey, Nyoman said, recalling an incident when he could not save a baby monkey that trapped on an electricity pole because it was surrounded by its parents and friends.

If he forced himself to get closer to the trapped baby, its parents and friends would have attacked,
Nyoman said.

Wisnawa said that visitors should ask field officers, who were more savvy about the ways of the monkeys, for help feeding or taking pictures with the beasts.

Among other things, giving a banana was a trick used to tame the wild monkeys or to get them to interact with the visitor.

Nyoman says that visitors shouldn'€™t show fear or panic when interacting with them monkeys to avoid alarming them or to drive them to bite or scratch.

The sanctuary is concerned about the monkeys'€™ health and has two veterinarians on-call 24 hours a day, according to Nyoman, who said that organizers were trying to cap the population of monkeys on the site to avoid overpopulation.

Researchers at Bali-based Udayana University said that the 12.5-ha of Monkey Forest could comfortably maintain about 400 monkeys, he said.

However, the current population is 605 monkeys, up more than 440 percent from 112 in 1991.

A mass effort to perform vasectomies on male monkeys in 2012 petered out after the spry animals proved too tough to catch, according to Nyoman. Only 17 vasectomies were done after four days.

Upward of 2,000 people visit the site every day, or about 4,000 on national holidays, Nyoman said.

The sanctuary is also spiritual site where visitors can find peace and harmony with others, the environment and God, he adds. '€œThis sacred forest displays a harmony between humans and nature.'€

'€” Photos by A. Kurniawan Ulung