Bali Eco

Bali Eco will explaint alot about Bali ecologi likes: flora, fauna, landscape, mountain, likes , rice terrace, balinese tradition and balinese compound. The Bali's Eco Tourism interest spots such as Bali Barat National Park: Covering an area over 750 km2 on the western tip of Bali. The park's boundaries are open savannah, rainforest, mangrove swamps, coral reefs on Menjangan Island that home to the rare java deer and this place is good for diving and snorkeling. Jalak Bali is birds habitat from original Bali as the main population birds there. Jalak Bali is very expensive bird and should be under goverment protection.
Bali Bird Park: houses over 1000 birds including varieties from all over Indonesia.
Bali Butterfly Park: breed and preserve many kinds of butterflies.
Botanical Garden: The gradens contain a huge collection of trees, nearly 500 varieties of orchid and are rich in bird life, located at Bedugul.
Sangeh Monkey Forest: The main attractions hre are the hordes of Balinese monkeys that inhabit both trees and the temple, Pura Bukit Sari.
Ubud Monkey Forest: The forest is smaller than Sangeh Monkey Forest but the monkeys are just as wild.
Blahmantung Waterfall: this waterfall is spectacular, especially during the rainy season with dropping over 1000m.
Gitgit Waterfall: impresive 40m waterfall that gushes into deep pool.

There are various animals you might come across around the island. Chickens are kept both for food purposes and as pets. Balinese cattle are nearly as delicate as Balinese pigs are gross.
Bali certainly used to have tigers and although there are periodic rumours of sightings in the remote north-west of the island, nobody has proof of seeing one for a long time.

Bali has an interesting collection of animal and plant life. The rice terraces are the most common sight everyday in Bali, particularly in the heavily populated and extravagantly fertile south. Balinese gardens are a delight. The soil and climate can support a huge range of plants, and the Balinese love of beauty, and the abundance of cheap labour, mean that every space can be landscaped. The style is generally informal, with curved paths, a rich variety of plants and usually a water feature. You can find almost every type of flower, though some varieties, such as hydrangeas, are restricted to the cooler mountain areas. Orchids are a special attraction, and orchid fanciers should see the collection at the botanical gardens near Bedugul.

The Balinese Compound
Let’s take a look at the typical Balinese commoners "house" or compound. First, it should be emphasized that the Balinese do not live in a "house" in the Western sense of the word. Their living quarters are large compounds of 600 to 900 m2 comprising a number of separate buildings, most of them with verandahs, that are the counterpart of rooms in the Western house. Outward rather than inward-oriented, this architectural concept is devised so as to blend Man within his environment: people spend most of their time "outside", in the yard (natah), or on the open verandahs of the main buildings. The only closed spaces are the parent’s room in the bale dauh - to the west (daub) of the central part of the compound at the youth and children’s sleeping quarters, the bale daja, to the upstream-west part of the compound. The kitchen (paon) is located downstream and west of the compound, with the granary (jineng) to its east. Old people usually spend their days in the dangin pavilion, located in the central-eastern part of the house, while, just "above" it, the gods "reside" in a smaller walled yard located in the eastern mountain ward part of the compound called the sanggah or merajan

The occupation of the various buildings by the members of the family corresponds to the phases of incarnated life: the young live in the bale daja, the building nearest to the mountain from which they "recently" incarnated; with adulthood, they move to the middle-western pavilion (bale dauh); then, with old age, to the eastern bale dangin, the pavilion nearest to the family temple (sanggah or merajan) where their soul will be enshrined after death.

As explained above, the structure of the compound is tripartite and based on cosmic concepts: "houses" are seen as duplicates, both of the world and of the human body. Corresponding to the abode of the gods, the compound has a head: the family temple; corresponding to the middle world, it has a torso: the yard, complete with its arms: the various buildings of residence, and its navel: the Indra shrine in the centre of the yard; and, finally, corresponding to the lower world, it has respectively bowels, here the kitchen, genitals, here the gate, and even an anus, here the backyard refuse, situated "downstream" from the kitchen.

The Family Temple
Arguably the most important part of the Balinese compound is its temple, the sanggah or merajan around which evolves much of the ritual life of the family. The temple consists of a small walled yard with several rows of small thatched buildings looking like puppet houses, the shrines (pelinggih). Its organisation, beyond the general tripartite structure also found there, is a concrete illustration of the main concepts and cults of Balinese religion in its original, agrarian shape, i.e. prior to the reformism influences of modern times.

The principal shrine of any Balinese family temple is the Sanggar Surya, located in its mountainward-eastern corner. Toward the rising sun, Surya is the name of the Sun God, the origin of all rays. This shrine is therefore that of the Almighty, from which all lesser gods or rays originate. The ways the other shrines are situated in relation to the Sanggar Surya also illustrates the hierarchy of the godly, in two rows of shrines, one running from east to west and the other mountainward to seaward. The right angle where the two rows meet is the place of the Sanggar Surya shrine. Next to this shrine are sometimes situated shrines for the gods of the mountains, but the following pattern is the most common: on the westward row, the first shrine one sees is usually that of the Goddess of agriculture Dewi Sri and of the God of wealth Sedana. Their role is thus a reminder of the agrarian foundation of Balinese culture. Further westward is the taksu (inspiration) shrine, through which the individual comes into contact with his/her intangible equivalent, and, thus, is bestowed with his powers and talents. Beyond is a guardian shrine.

Downstream of the central sanggar surya shrine is located the row of ancestral shrines, the closest to the sanggar surya being the shrines of the remotest ancestors. The first to come, in the main sanggah/merajan, is often a shrine with a deer’s horn (menjangan sekewang), which denotes that the family claims its origins to as far back as the Majapahit empire. Next follows the ibu or paibon which represents the ancestors from the sub-clan temple of origin; then comes the rong tiga shrine for the worship of the closest ancestors, where the family’s dead are enshrined after completion of the cycle of death ceremonies. Finally, at the extremity of the row, comes another guardian shrine.

Like any temple, each individual family temple has a festival every 210 days, which follows the Balinese ritual calendar. When this time comes, the shrines are dressed, i.e. wrapped in coloured clothing, as a sign that the gods are visiting. These gods are then, as in any Balinese temple welcomed, and offered offerings, and, sometimes, dance.

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