The uniqueness of ancient villages of North Bali.
It is true as a saying goes that the grass is always greener on the side of the fence and it may be nature of human who want to find, see and enjoy something different or what they do not have in their own country or place.
It is also not exaggeration to say that Bali, a small island in the Indonesian archipelago has been famous as a tourist destination all over the world since the Dutch colonial era which has been colonized the archipelago for centuries
Bali was promoted as an exotic island widely pictured with bare chest Balinese women, sacred dances, cremation ceremonies juts to name a few. Bali has been also dubbed with such as the Island of Gods, the Last Paradise and a phrase such do not die before seeing Bali. All of these were promoted by the Dutch Colonial Administration to lure travelers as well tourist to come to Bali using means of transportations owned by the Dutch such as Dutch shipping-lines, KPM, staying at Dutch-run hotels.
Nowadays after the independence, Bali was and is still the favorite tourist destination and new tourist resorts have been mushrooming such as Nusa Dua, on the south of the island offering primarily marine attractions and catering posh accommodations, Kuta on the west side of the western coast of the island boasts for its sunset, surfing and night-life and Ubud in the District of Gianyar well-known for its paintings and dances.
On the north of Bali, covering the almost one-third of the entire size of Bali is virtually emerging as a new tourist destination even though that the region was initially visited by mostly back-packers motivated by their adventures of finding a new experiences with budget style.
Lovina, on the northern coast with its black sand and docile nature of the sea in contrast with the Kuta beach was the first tourist destination. .The surveys shows that tourists prefer white-sand and strong gales suitable for surfing such as in Kuta, North Bali has a lot of tourist attractions even though there are not knows yet or deserves to be called “the Hidden treasures of North Bali”.
One of them is Bali Aga. Bali Aga, in English, Aga means “mountain” so Bali Aga refer to that the Balinese who live in mountain. In Bali it is acknowledged there are several villages as Bali Aga such asTrunyan in the Regency of Bangli, Tenganan in the Regency of Karangasem and seven villages in the North Bali, or in the Regency of Buleleng, namely on the east of the regency are Sembiran and Julah and on the western of the regency namely the villages of Sidetapa, Cempaga, Tigawasa, Pedawa and Banyusri. In general all of these Bali Aga’s villages clearly differentiate with the rest of currently Balinese.
On this article we are focusing on the villages of Bali Aga on the north of Bali’ The five villages are situated in the Distrct of Banjar, in the Regency of Buleleng, approximately 20 km south west of Singaraja, the capital of the Regency of Buleleng and approximately 75 km from Denpasar the capital of the Bali Province.
It is easily accessible by car via winding road uphill flanked by coffee and clove plantations.
From tourism perspective, these villages have a lot of tourist attractions, either their natural beauty or their unique culture and tradition. Those who are travelling to these villages can enjoy along the way on both sides of the road, coffee and clove plantations, overlooking view to the north coast of the North Bali.
Those tourists and travelers alike who are traveling to Bali Aga certainly are wondering to notice the people’s houses. They might see as very bizarre but amazing. It is only for instance, such as at the village of Sidetapa, one is easily able to find out in one family house that all activities are carried out in one room of the house such as sleeping, cooking, storing all of their clothing and ritual equipments. This note-worthy bizarre raises question, why so? It is a long legendary history of that and in short it is as told that in the old days there was a ogre roaming the villages threatening the people so that the house was designed in such a way with narrow alley between houses, small window even without window and all activities were done in one room of the house.
In addition of the unique traditional customary houses (Rumah Adat), in the villages there are also can be found so many traditional sacred dances which are staged on special occasion such as temple ceremony or other occasion relating with ritual of the villages. Those who are lucky visiting the villages and the dances happen being held would be lucky to enjoy it.
In the globalization era, everything is changing so are the villages of Bali Aga. Bali Aga’s villages are no longer isolated as they were, currently are more easily accessible and the people more educated and due to the lucrative of clove and coffee commodities in general the welfare of the people are stepping up or more well-to-do. They are now are able to build more modern houses adopting new trend in style and architecture but what is interesting to note that they have strong spirit of respecting and preserving their ancestor’s tradition.
For those who come from outside of the villages of Bali Aga would wondering to find a house in more contemporary house stands side by side with a traditional customary house and a car parked at the front of both houses. This symbolized that the people will not oppose the modern trend on one hand but keeping and preserving their tradition as it was, so modern and tradition go hand in hand in harmony and this is the magnet of Bali Aga as a tourist destination.
The uniqueness which cannot be found anywhere in the world and how far it can go that way everything will depend of the people of the villages in question.
Realizing the richness of tourist attractions what Bali Aga has to offer, several prominent figures of Bali Aga, such as Wayan Ariawan hails from Sidetapa village who is now settling down in the village of Temukus in the area of Lovina Tourist Resort and Putu Suwarjaya, who used to work at the starred hotel in the Batu Ampar Tourist Resort who is currently elected as the Head of Cempaga village, both are enthusiastically promoting Bali Aga as a tourist destination and even are planning to propose Bali Aga as tourist village such Penglipuran in the Regency of Bangli which has been officially adopted as a model of tourist village in Bali by the Bali Administration.
To this end both of them and supported by all the residents of Bali Aga they do not spare any efforts to make Bali Aga friendly environment, preserving the richness of their nature, such as prohibiting to hunting or shooting birds in the five villages of Bali Aga. They also encourage the resident of Bali Aga to keep it clean, convenience and safe. Gotong Royong, literally in English “working together” which involving all the residents without any pay solely based of the spirit of awareness for the sake of their own village is conducted regularly.
The popularity of Bali Aga is now has been going viral and in fact the Bali Aga has been frequently visited by tourists as well as travelers.
The popularity particularly of Bali Aga from tourism perspective, it will not free of negative side. Tourism generally has something to do with business and business means money. It is understandable that investors may lure to invest their money by building hotel, bungalow, and other sort of tourism business and they logically will calculate the recoup of their investment. What may be worrying that the investors may ignoring the bad impact of development, ignoring of respecting and preserving the Bali Aga’s uniqueness that is indeed the most tourist attraction and should it happen as one tourist expert used to say that tourism destroys itself.
What may happen in the future it will depend on the Bali Aga’s people.
