W

hat a preposterous story about Bali, claiming that it is now a “fabricated” paradise, as stated by anthropologist Jean Couteau. All tourist destinations throughout the world create new attractions to entertain their guests from overseas. Does this man foolishly believe that tourists should only come to Bali to watch cultural dances or to visit temples? If this was true, Bali would still be in the dark ages.

It’s people like Couteau, a foreigner to this island himself, who want to keep places like Bali preserved in a “time capsule” for their own egocentric reasons, ignoring the aspirations of the local people who also want to join the 21st century and receive some of the advantages it brings. Does Couteau expect the Balinese to be still walking around topless and traveling between villages by foot also, just to keep his anthropologist sensibilities happy?

As the owner of the first Elephant Safari Park in Bali, together with my Balinese wife of 27 years, I can assure him that this park was not created to destroy the island, but to enhance it and to make tourists and locals aware that there is in fact an Indonesian elephant — the fifth-most endangered species in the world, who now have a safe sanctuary to live in. Our park is also about conservation, saving and naturally breeding this endangered species for future generations.

Is an Elephant Park any more or less “fabricated” than hotels, water parks, rafting or diving companies, camel or horse rides, ATV tours, mountain cycling, zoos, discos, golf clubs, or Couteau’s self-penned travel guide, titled Bali Eyewitness Travel Guide which itself is designed to lure visitors. Is that not a little hypocritical?

This is 2011, and the world has evolved, whether some believe for better or worse, but tourists expect and demand more than just beautiful temples and rice fields to look at when they visit, and Bali has to compete with many other tourist destinations in the world if it is to continue to survive in the future.

The Balinese also have the right to the jobs and standard of living that new attractions bring to the island along with the other benefits. Has this Sorbonne-educated scholar actually done any research on what the Balinese think of “enhancing the island’s attractiveness to tourists”? Or is this just his opinion?

Far from destroying culture, tourism and attractions support culture and livelihoods can happily continue to coexist, as is evident from the preservation and integrity Balinese society showcases on the island every day.

It would seem that Jean Couteau is out of touch with reality, or does he expect Paris to pull down the Eiffel Tower for being non-French, or Australia to remove the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House for being non-Australian, or the Statue of Liberty, which was gifted by this native Frenchman’s own land to America.

As for the “Indianization” of local architecture in Bali, it is known that Hinduism is believed to have begun, approximately 4,000 years ago, in the region of the Indus Valley in what we know as Pakistan. Almost all of the Balinese Hindu Gods and Goddesses (incarnations of Sanghyang Widhi Wasa) were historically assimilated into Balinese Hinduism from Indian Hinduism.

Nigel Mason
Elephant Safari Park
Seminyak, Bali