Bali, An Overview

Bali

An Overview
Bali is one of the most visited places on the earth. It’s spectacular beaches, volcanoes, lakes, ancient temples, and terraced rice fields -- combined with its culture, art and people – have attracted almost 1,000,000 visitors a year, from all around the world.

Geography
Geographically, Bali is located between the two islands Java & Lombok, being between 8 03 40 8 degree South latitude and 114 25 & 115 42 40 degree East longitude. Bali is the one of more than 17.000 islands that make up the Indonesian Archipelago. It has an area of 5.620 square kilometers. Running east to west, there is a tallest and most being active volcanic Mount Agung, which reaches 3.142metres at its highest point and last erupted in 1963.

Lying just 8° south of the Equator, Bali boasts a tropical climate with just two seasons a year and the average temperature of around 28°C, but the higher altitudes can be quite cool. The rainy season lasts from October to March, and the humidity fluctuates depending on the season. Winds tend to blow from the West during the rainy season and from the East during the 'dry' season.

Regencies
Bali is divided into 8 regencies ( Jembrana, Tabanan, Badung, Gianyar, Klungkung, Bangli, Karangasem, and Buleleng, 1 municipal city (Denpasar), 55 districts and 701 administrative villages. Denpasar is the capital city of Bali province.

Demography
The total population of Bali is approximately 3.021.247 people. Most of them live in the southern part of the island. Here the tourist resorts are centralized such as Sanur, Kuta and Nusa Dua.

The strong cultural identity of Bali is based on a combination of closely related elements that include its religion, its language, its castes, its community life, and its art.

Most of Balinese’s religion are Hindus, and others are Christian, Moslem and Buddhist. But mostly they all live in peace and there is no conflict of religion or ethnics.

Although the official language is Indonesian, the Balinese usually use Balinese language as their everyday language to communicate each other.

The ancient caste system divides the Balinese into four distinct castes: Priests ('Brahmana'), Rulers ('Ksatria'), Warriors ('Wesia'), and commoners ('Sudra'). Ninety percent of Balinese are commoners, while the remaining ten percent are divided among the three higher castes.

Nearly everyday there are religious ceremonies in the temples spread all over the island. One of the numerous ceremonies is Manusa Yadnya Ceremony (sacrifice to people and society), starting from Garbhadhana Samskara (the 7th month pregnancy), Jatakarma Samskara (birthday), Otonan (the 210th day), Mepandes (the filling teeth - when a child enters to his/her adulthood) and Wiwaha Samskara (marriage). Subsequently, participation in the meetings of the Banjar (village association that manages village affairs) becomes obligatory.

Balinese people are very creative. They are rich of talents especially in creating various kinds of artistic things such as wood carving (statues), paintings, gold and silver smith, handicrafts, and dances.

Talking about Bali is not complete without mentioning Bali's native inhabitants, the so-called “Bali Aga”. They are the descendants of the first known inhabitants of Bali. Now their culture represents a unique combination of their animistic origins and Balinese Hinduism. There are only a few villages of Bali Aga left; the two best known are Tenganan in Karangasem and Trunyan in Kintamani, Bangli.