Balinese NGOs and Parisada (Priest Association) are on their edge on issue on the sacred area of Uluwatu temple. The emergence of villas in the sacred area around Uluwatu temple which violate the Bhisama (edict of priest association) and Bali Government’s regulation on sacred area around the temple irritates the NGO and Parisada. Bali’s governor, Made Mangku Pastika seems to be lenient to the investors who build the villas inside the sacred area and further complicate the situation by taking no resolute decision on this issue.

A similar case occurred before, in 1994, protests against the Bali Nirvana Resort development inside sacred area around Tanah Lot temple organized by NGOs and Parisada ended on a compromise in which the investor moved the hotel back a few hundred meters.

A small victory that gives new insight that development in the name of tourism, which wreck the environment and undermine Bali’s culture, is not invincible and an action can be taken to save the environment and culture.

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