“As fast as paradise seduces tourist, tourist reduces paradise”, this sentence is not just a mere slogan but if we take look of what happen in Bali nowadays; it becomes truism. In the name for tourism development, big construction companies set up new villas, resorts, apartments and so on everyday. Many rice fields, forests, cliffs, gorges and every place that provides stunning view are converted into villas, resorts, apartment or other establishments, changing not just the environment but also Balinese way of life.

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Owning a piece of paradise, a piece of land in Bali where you can spend your holiday season and permanent annual income guarantee plus capital gain increase is a dream of many people; but the price of this dream, like the price of oil, has badly inflated in recent years.

“Own a piece of paradise” is the magic mantra of Bali property business, which enjoy its impressive growth amidst the slow recovery of tourism to regain its dominant position in the island of God. Take a look at the arid Bukit are in South Bali that is transformed from unwanted land to an area with most expensive land price in the island, not to mention at the beaches of Seminyak and Canggu area with rows of villas surrounding the greatly diminishing paddy field. More and more land is converted into villas, hotels and condominium despite the cry of many NGOs on the land ownership in Bali, which Balinese own less land than investors or foreigners; but with skyscraping price offered for a piece of paradise more and more Balinese sell or lease their land.

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Today, 12/29/07, Balinese celebrate the birthday of the trees. This holiday is called Tumpek Wariga or Tumpek Pengarah. There a lot some articles in this blog which describe how Balinese express their gratitude to the trees through the celebration of Tumpek Uduh and how this holiday serves as a remainder of the importance of trees for Balinese’s life and also serves as a message for the Balinese to preserve the tree. So this time I will put emphasis on unique mepengarah ritual which is practiced on the celebration of this ceremony.

Mepengarah ritual is a unique ritual in which Balinese give an instruction to the trees (menpengarah means giving an instruction). The ritual is conducted right after the ceremony to honor the god of the trees is finished. Balinese will tap the tree three times to wake it up and give the instruction to it. It runs as follow: Kaki-kaki titiang pengarah, malih selae rahina Galunganne, mabuah nyen apang nged. Nged, nged, nged”; the free translation of this instruction runs as follow “Grandpa-grandpa, I have an instruction, it is 25 days left for Galungan day, produce a lot of fruit, a lot of fruit, a lot of fruit.” In this ritual Balinese inform the trees that Galungan (Christmas a la Balinese) holiday will soon arrive and to celebrate the Galungan holiday many fruits and other and rice will be needed to make offerings which are going to be presented to the God and ancestors in this holiday and Balinese ask the trees and other plants to produce plenty of fruits and rice to fulfill the demand on this resources.

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By Marwaan Macan-Markar

TENGANAN, Bali, Indonesia , Dec 19, 2007 (IPS) - When they next harvest the the terraced paddy fields on a gently sloping hill, the farmers in this village will reinforce a tradition that celebrates harmony between people and the environment — and do their bit to slow down climate change.

Credit, carbon or otherwise, must go to the young men in this community of some 200 families with a history going back centuries. For it were they who took the lead in building a micro-hydro power generator to produce electricity using run-of-the-river water to run a small mill to husk and polish locally grown rice.

”This generator can produce 12 to 15 kilowatts of power,” says Putu Wiadnyana, 25, the architect of the single-room micro-hydro generator, which is located near the shimmering green terraced fields along the eastern border of Tenganan. ”The mill should be ready by early next year in time for the next rice harvest.”

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BALI, Indonesia Dec 16, `07 A UN Climate Change Conference adopted a plan to negotiate a new global warming pact on Saturday, Dec 15, after the United States suddenly reversed its opposition to a call by developing nations for technological help to battle rising temperatures.

The adoption came after marathon negotiations overnight, which first settled a battle between Europe and the U.S. over whether the document should mention specific goals for rich countries obligations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The agreement launches a two-year negotiating process - the Bali roadmap - aiming to secure a binding deal at the 2009 UN summit in Denmark.

European and U.S. envoys dueled into the final hours of the two-week meeting over the EUs proposal that the Bali mandate suggest an ambitious goal for cutting the emissions of industrial nations_ by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

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In the opening of United Nation Climate Change Conference (UNCCC), Nyepi day was proposed to be world day in order to minimize the carbon dioxide ratio in the air. It is stated in local Balinese media that the world need silence for a while and Nyepi, the celebration of Caka Lunar Calendar in Bali, will be applied to fulfill the necessity.

In fact, the philosophy of Nyepi day itself does not have any correlation to the nature conservation. It is just a New Year celebration which is conducted by doing nothing and without any big party. Yes, this is a unique thing of the Balinese in celebrating their New Year while the other New Year celebrations are carried out with a lot of food, drinks, joy, and always in crowd situation but the Balinese consider the New Year day as a good chance to purify the senses and get closer to God to have a better life on the new day. Coincidentally this way of custom gives the nature chance to breath.

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