The
Heart of Bali
During the 19th century, ruled by feudal lords, the
royal village of Ubud grew to prosperity in the fertile
land between two great rivers. With its plethora of
museums, dance and music schools, art galleries and
craft villages, Ubud is perhaps the best known centre
of what has been called Bali’s ‘theatre state’ - the
cultural and artistic capital of Bali.
This rambling country town is located just one hour’s
drive north of the airport, convention centres and resorts
of South Bali. Offering both a central location and
a less-hurried pace than the south, the Ubud area still
shows glimpses of its basically rural character.
Ubud is 300 metres higher and thus cooler than the south.
The air is pungent, smelling of earth, river and forests.
Bright stars crowd the sky at night. Wandering the town’s
back lanes in the crisp night air is both pleasant and
safe.
A popular tourist destination, traditional culture remains
vital despite the influx of large numbers of visitors.
This town manages to be touristy without being tacky.
Ubud boasts some of Bali’s most stunning resorts, spas
and sophisticated stand–alone restaurants serving the
best of Asian and Western cuisines. A visit to this
country town also offers the chance to savour such delicacies
as smoked duck (bebek betutu) or the famed spit-roasted
and mouth-watering suckling pig (babi guling).
The town’s princes have always been enthusiastic patrons
of the arts and, culturally speaking, Ubud is to Bali
what Kyoto is to Japan or what Paris is to France. In
fact, many of Bali’s most accomplished dancers, musicians,
painters and carvers live in and around the Ubud environs.
Ubud’s growing reputation as a flourishing cultural
centre was virtually guaranteed with the arrival of
the artistic genius I Gusti Nyoman Lempad (1860- 1978),
a gifted painter, sculptor and architect who kept active
until his death at the age of 116. Lempad’s house, crafted
by the artist himself, still stands in the centre of
town.
Between the 1930s and the 1940s, Ubud’s role as the
epicentre of Balinese culture was further enhanced by
the arrival of eminent European painters (Bonnet, Spies),
anthropologists (Mead, Bateson), writers and musicologists
(Covarrubias, McPhee), and the rise of Balinese painters
and sculptors (Ida Bagus Nyana, I Gusti Ketut Kobot,
Dewa Batuan), as well as architects, lontar (palm leaf)
experts and assorted literati.
The Ubud area boasts scores of fine art galleries. Signs
point the way to studios where works by old veterans
as well as brash young artists are well represented.
For lovers of surrealistic collages and erotic art,
visit the flamboyant hilltop cultural complex of Antonio
Blanco, the ‘Dali of Bali’ - an unusual avantgarde venue
available for events, dance presentations and gala dinner
parties for groups from 15 to 150.
With hundreds of shops selling antiques, woodcarvings,
woven crafts, textiles and originally designed jewellery,
Ubud is also an agreeable place to shop, offering more
affordable prices than Bali’s other tourist centres.
