I walked into the compound of the griya (Brahmin household) in the midst of much activity. Their family gods were getting new shrines and every post and pavilion was wrapped in gold-painted cloth; the neighbors were there in droves making offerings, sorting through rice and busying themselves with the myriad tasks any large temple ceremony entails. And this is two weeks before the ceremony even begins.

This compound is where Ida Bagus Oka Wirjana, or Gus Aji Blangsinga as he is more affectionately known (named after his village of Blangsinga) lives with only a few of his l7 children (with Ida Ayu Putu Muter), 27 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. An incredibly handsome and fit man of 73, Gus Aji is one of the living repositories of the famed Kebyar Duduk dance, which was created in the 1930s by I Ketut Mario and has become one of the standards seen in both sacred and secular venues.

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By Jonathan Kent
Newsweek International

Nov. 6, 2006 issue - Transport, sir?” Wayan Oka, 28, spends much of his day hanging out with his friends on Monkey Forest Road in the town of Ubud. Indeed, walk down the streets of Bali’s cultural capital, and in 10 minutes you’ll be accosted by a dozen or more young men like Oka, sitting beside the road and hawking their services as unofficial taxi drivers. “You’re my first job today,” Oka says. It’s past 9 p.m. and Ubud’s streets are dark and almost deserted. The restaurants have long since emptied, and the bars are quiet Oka is 28 and an economics graduate, but with business this bad, there’s no demand for economists. “My girlfriend and I want to get married, but I don’t have enough money,” he says.

Before Oct. 12, 2002, international tourists thronged to Bali, a Hindu jewel set in a necklace of predominantly Muslim islands strung through warm equatorial seas. Then came the awful day when bombs went off in the Sari Club and Paddy’s Bar in the tourist center of Kuta, killing 202 people and injuring many more. The first major terrorist attack since 9/11 raised fears that the war on terror was opening a new Asian front, one that would choke off Bali’s economic lifeline: tourism.

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