Through the Eyes of Researcher: The Impact of Tourism on Balinese Culture

Here is an interesting article on the impact of tourism on Balinese culture, written by Stephanie A. Thullen. This article is apart of her writing entitled “Tourism and its Impacts on the Environment”

Even more than the environment, most of the research that has been done on the impact of tourism on Bali has been on the cultural effects. The Balinese consider themselves a distinct ethnic group within Indonesia. In Bali, Hindus make up 93 percent of the population, but they are only 2 percent of the Indonesian population. Additionally, Hinduism is unique in Bali, as it is intertwined with art and nature, and is less involved with scripture, law and belief. It is a blend of Hinduism, animism and ancestor worship, thus it is more concerned with local and ancestral spirits than with the traditional cycles of rebirth and reincarnation. Temples are associated with a family house compound, rice fields or geographical sites, and each Balinese belongs to a temple through descent, residence, or “some mystical revelation of affiliation. The Balinese people see life as a “never-ending dance between the powers of good and evil, order an disorder.” (Their religion tries to find a proper balance between these opposing forces, and thus it fills their entire lives and, thereby, the entire island. Their offerings and rituals are performed in order to soothe the gods, scare away demons, entertain the faithful, and to fill their days with a common purpose).

As Don Lattin describes in his article “The Trouble with Bali,” Balinese religion is the tiny offerings of rice and flower petals placed daily in doorways, at crossroads, and on countless outdoor altars. It’s in the architecture and the orchestras, in the metal tinkling of gamelan music drifting across vibrant green rice paddies. It’s in the art and the stone gargoyles, in the Hindu epics brought to life through the play of shadow puppets, and in the supple brown bodies of Balinese dancers.

(more…)