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Bali as a ‘living mystery school’
The spirit of Bali, which intertwines traditional values and customary laws within a universal framework of harmony, will continue to draw visitors long seeking enlightenment in this troubled world.
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Foreign beachgoers carry surfboards on Aug. 3, 2024, while walking along the sandy shores of Kuta Beach, located along the southeastern tip of Bali. (AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka )
T
his year, Bali is once again among the top recipients of Tripadvisor’s prestigious Travelers’ Choice Awards for the world’s most popular destinations. The reason Bali has consistently rated so highly? “Culture” and “spirituality”.
Bali is not just an island, but a global phenomenon. It is, as Indian statesman Jawaharlal Nehru once famously described, “the morning of the world”.
Here, Nehru observed something important. This was the harmonious relationship that existed between people, nature and the divine.
And the fact remains, Bali still teaches an increasingly troubled world about the values of ancient spirituality that have withstood the test of time. These values continue to enrich lives everywhere.
Indeed, Bali represents the hope that human diversity can survive the 21st century. For reasons not completely understood by anthropologists and historians, Balinese culture remains colorful, complex, rich, relevant and vibrant, both because of tourism and in spite of it.
In their book, Secrets of Bali, Fresh Light on the Morning of the World, Jonathan Copeland and Ni Wayan Murni, a Balinese tourism entrepreneur par excellence, inform us of something worth remembering. While Bali is one of the world’s most recognized tourism brands, the community of Ubud is Bali’s cultural center and the royal family of Ubud is its living, beating heart.
As Murni says, the Ubud royal family continues to restore temples, organize and contribute to ceremonies, sponsor dance and gamelan groups and fund research into preserving and interpreting customary law, or adat. For this reason, more income from tourism is returning directly to the community.
