Conservation a la Balinese
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 by Sidarta WijayaConservation
1. The protection of natural environment.
2. The act of preventing something from being lost, wasted, damaged, or destroyed.
Those are the definition of conservation offered by my Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary. From the definitions above at least I can get a little idea of ‘conservation’ in English speaking country.
In Balinese culture the idea of ‘conservation’ equivalent to the idea of ‘kerti’ which means ‘order,’ ‘peace’ and ‘prosperity.’ How come? Let see how they connect each other. In the context of conservation the idea of ‘kerti’ is explained by expounding six kinds of ‘kerti,’ known as ‘sad kerti.’ They are Atma Kerti (soul), Samudra Kerti (ocean), Wana Kerti (forest), Danu Kerti (lake), Jagat Kerti (world), Jana Kerti (individual). Instead of ‘order,’ ‘peace’ and ‘prosperity,’ at this point, the word ‘kerti’ means ‘effort to achieve the prosperity of ….’
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