Bali Experience

In ancient Bali, gardens were the privilege of the powerful. Kings built fantastic palaces whose architecture was designed to mirror the cosmos. The high palace roofs and temples symbolized the sacred mountain, while ponds filled with fresh spring water and lilies represented the opposite polarity, the sea. Trees and flowers lined mossy walkways, evoking the fertility of the land over which the rulers presided. Priests as well built gardens in their homes, where they could meditate on nature to bring them closer to enlightenment and where they could gather flowers to use in preparing ritual offerings. But for ordinary Balinese, the pleasures of a blossom draped view were unknown. Traditional house yards consisted of packed dirt, swept clean each morning, with possibly a few widely spaced trees to provide shade and fruit.

In contemporary Bali, things have certainly changed. Visit any street where Balinese live, from Sanur to Singaraja, and you’re likely to be overwhelmed by a riot of gorgeous tropical color spilling over stone walls into the street below. Drive down Bali’s main highways or pass by a village market and you’ll see colorful stands selling an array of flamboyant specimens, from rare Asian orchids to fragrant hanging vines to gaudy banana flowers. Ask a member of the growing group of Bali’s middle class what his or her hobbies are, and you’ll likely hear that he or she is a devoted amateur gardener. Garden fever, it seems, has infected the island with a vengeance.

In part, this wave of green sweeping the island can be seen as a result of state efforts to encourage Balinese to cultivate a number of useful and attractive plants in their house yards, a program called “tamanisasi” or “gardenization.” Through classes in nutrition and family health and welfare, Balinese have been taught the benefits of a varied diet, including plants easily grown at home, and the usefulness of having one’s own “living pharmacy,” a collection of medicinal herbs to make healing concoctions. But Bali’s contemporary glorious gardens are even more a reflection of the renowned aesthetic sensibility of the Balinese themselves and the incredible fertility of their land. Rich volcanic soil and a rainy season bringing needed moisture to the land combine to create gardens that are living, moving sculptures, spreading spectacularly across the landscape in lush cascades. In impressive contrast to most of the Western world, where gardening involves a good deal of trouble and toil, in Bali all one needs to do to have a breathtaking floral display in one’s own home is to plant a tree, and then sit back and watch it grow wild.

And visitors to Bali don’t have to go far to witness the beauty of nature in Bali. Some of the most impressive Balinese gardens are to be found growing right outside one’s door. Virtually every hotel in Bali, from the humblest homestay to the plushest five star paradise, is a showcase for the spectacular abundance of Balinese flora. Hotels like the Bali Hyatt in Sanur are so renowned for their displays that they offer special garden tours to introduce guests to the wonders that can be worked in Bali. No matter which colorful corner of the island you’re calling your temporary home, you can always do as the Balinese do: pick a tropical blossom to rest behind your ear, and luxuriate in the loveliness of the soft shimmer of the moon silhouetting the swaying branches of the coconut palms and the jewel colored hibiscus.