Mount Agung or Gunung Agung is a mountain in Bali

Mount Agung or Gunung Agung is a mountain in Bali. This stratovolcano is the highest point on the island. It dominates the surrounding area influencing the climate. The clouds come from the west and Agung takes their water so that the west is lush and green and the east dry and barren.

Gunung Agung last erupted in 1963-64 and is still active, with a large and very deep crater which occasionally belches smoke and ash. From a distance, the mountain appears to be perfectly conical, despite the existence of the large crater.

From the peak of the mountain, it is possible to see the peak of Gunung Rinjani on the island of Lombok, although both mountains are frequently covered in cloud.

There are two routes up the mountain, one from Besakih which proceeds to a higher peak and starts at approximately 1100metres and another which commences higher from Pura Pasar Agung, on the southern slope of the mountain, near Selat and which is reputed to take 4 hours. There is no path between the two routes at the top. Cecilie Scott provides an account of the ascent from Pura Pasar Agung. The mountain can be seen from various directions in video , there is a well produced video of the climb from Pura Pasar Agung and a short video from the top above Besakih . Greg Slayden describes a climb from Besakih claimed to have taken a remarkable four and a half hours to the peak and Ken Taylor describes a climb that took much longer and which included getting lost.

Guides are available in Besakih and the mountain can also be climbed without a guide. The climb from Besakih is quite tough. It is sometimes tackled as a single climb generally starting about 10.00pm for a dawn arrival at the peak and sometimes with an overnight camp about three quarters of the way up. It is far harder than the more popular Balinese climb up Gunung Batur. It is not a mountain that needs ropes and not quite high enough for altitude sickness but adverse weather conditions develop quickly and warm waterproof clothing is required and should be carried. There is no water available along the route.

Proceed through the temple complex then continue on a path that travels continuously upwards on a steep narrow spur through open forest and jungle most of the way. There is little potential to get lost until the route opens up towards the top where the correct route doubles backwards. Many climbers miss this turn and continue up a small valley which can be climbed out of with some difficulty.

Ubud, Bali.

Ubud is a town in central Bali, Indonesia, considered the arts and culture center of the island.

Ubud has a population of about 8,000 people, but it is becoming difficult to distinguish the town itself from the villages that once surrounded it. Ubud gets it name from the balinese word ubad (medicine).

Tourism on the island developed when Walter Spies came to Ubud, an ethnic German born in Russia who taught painting and music, and dabbled in dance. Spies and foreign painters Willem Hofker and Rudolf Bonnet entertained celibrities including Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, Barbara Hutton, H.G. Wells and Vicki Baum. They brought in some of the greatest artists from all over Bali to teach and train the Balinese in arts, helping Ubud become the cultural centre of Bali. A new burst of creative energy came in the 1960s in the form of Dutch painter Arie Smit (1916-), developing The Young Artists Movement. There are many museums spread all over Ubud, including Museum Rudana.

The main street is Jalan Raya Ubud, which runs east-west through the center of town. Two long roads, Jalan Monkey Forest and Jalan Hanoman, extend south from Raya Ubud. Puri Saren Agung is a large palace located at the intersection of Monkey Forest and Raya Ubud roads. The home of Tjokorde Gede Agung Sukawati (1910-1978), the last "king" of Ubud, his descendants currently live there and dance performances are held in its courtyard. It was also one of Ubuds first hotels, dating back to the 1930s.

Bali wildlife and environment

Bali has around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali Starling. The only endemic mammal of the island, the Bali tiger, became extinct in the 1930s. The Bali Barat National Park is a refuge for wildlife such as the pangolin, common muntjac, chevrotain, leopard cat, black giant squirrel, macaque and leaf monkey.

Bali Silat known as Kertha Wisesa

The Grand Master of Kertha Wisesa began his journey in 1972 travelling to the mountain areas around the mother temple district teaching the art and philosophy of traditional Silat Bali. Today, across the entire island one organization stands out as being ubiquitous in every district and every village. It is called Kertha Wisesa and teaches the traditional Martial Art of Silat Bali.

Each day between 5pm and 6pm you will see children and adults dressed in traditional black uniform gathering to practice traditional Silat. This tradition differs from the more modern sport version of Silat called Pencak Silat that has world and national championship competitions. It involves a deeper understanding of the religious and ceremonial world in which the Balinese people live as well as being more combat oriented.

Balinese culture

Bali is famous for many forms of art, including painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese gamelan music is highly developed and varied. The dances portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, and kecak (the monkey dance).

National education programs, mass media and tourism continue to change Balinese culture. Immigration from other parts of Indonesia, especially Java, is changing the ethnic composition of Balis population.

The Hindu new year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the preceding day large, colorful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.

Languages in Bali Island

Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and like most Indonesians, the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing.

English is a common third language (and the primary foreign language) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the large tourism industry. Staff working in Balis tourist centres are often, by necessity, multilingual to some degree, speaking as many as 8 or 9 different languages to an often surprising level of competence.

Religion in Bali

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 93.18% of Balis population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (4.79%), Christianity (1.38%), and Buddhism (0.64%). These official statistical figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

Immigrants from other parts of Indonesia have drastically changed the demographics in Bali. Although the majority of the population of Bali adheres to Balinese Hinduism, recent years have brought an influx of people from other islands seeking to benefit from the tourist industry, export of local handicrafts and other factors, making Bali the most affluent island in the region. The bombings in Bali by Muslim militants and the numbers of wealthy Muslims from Jakarta with political connections buying prime real estate for development has started to create Hindu-Muslim tensions where none existed before.

Bali island geography

Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java and approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and 112 km north to south (95 by 69 miles, respectively), with a surface area of 5,632 km. The highest point is Mount Agung at 3,142 m (10,308 feet) high, an active volcano that last erupted in March 1963. Mountains cover centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Mount Batur (1,717 m) is also still active. About 30,000 years ago it experienced a catastrophic eruption — one of the largest known volcanic events on Earth.

In the south the land descends to form an alluvial plain, watered by shallow rivers, drier in the dry season and overflowing during periods of heavy rain.

The principal cities are the northern port of Singaraja, the former colonial capital of Bali, and the present provincial capital and largest city, Denpasar, near the southern coast. The town of Ubud (north of Denpasar), with its art market, museums and galleries, is arguably the cultural center of Bali.

There are major coastal roads and roads that cross the island mainly north-south. Due to the mountainous terrain in the islands center, the roads tend to follow the crests of the ridges across the mountains. There are no railway lines.

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west black sand. The beach town of Padangbai in the south east has both: the main beach and the secret beach have white sand and the south beach and the blue lagoon have much darker sand. Pasut Beach, near Ho River and Pura Segara, is a quiet beach 14 km southwest of Tabanan. The Ho River is navigable by small sampan. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, this is not yet a tourist area.

To the east, the Lombok Strait that separates Bali from Lombok marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia that is known as the Wallace Line, for Alfred Russel Wallace, who first remarked upon the distinction between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

Several important incident about Bali

Bali has been inhabited since early prehistoric times firstly by descendants of a prehistoric race who migrated through mainland Asia to the Indonesian archipelago, thought to have first settled in Bali around 3000 BC. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the islands west.

Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, and particularly Sanskrit, culture, in a process beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Balidwipa has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong charter issued by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 913 AD and mentioning Walidwipa. It was during this time that the complex irrigation system subak was developed to grow rice. Some religious and cultural traditions still in existence today can be traced back to this period. The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. When the empire declined, there was an exodus of intellectuals, artists, priests and musicians from Java to Bali in the 15th century.

The First European contact with Bali is thought to have been when Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived in 1597, though a Portuguese ship had foundered off the Bukit Peninsula as early as 1585. Dutch rule over Bali came later, was more aggressively fought for, and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.

In the 1840s, a presence in Bali was established, first in the islands north, by playing various distrustful Balinese realms against each other. The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults first against the Sanur region and then Denpasar. The Balinese were hopelessly overwhelmed in number and armament, but rather than face the humiliation of surrender, they mounted a final defensive but suicidal assault, or puputan. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 4,000 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. Afterwards the Dutch governors were able to exercise little influence over the island, and local control over religion and culture generally remained intact.

Japan occupied Bali during World War II during which time a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese freedom army. Following Japans Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch promptly returned to Indonesia, including Bali, immediately to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels now using Japanese weapons.

On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance. In 1946 the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly-proclaimed Republic of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on Dec. 29, 1949. In 1950 Bali officially renounced the Dutch union and legally became a province within the Republic of Indonesia.

The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia.

In 1965, after a failed coup detat in Jakarta against the national government of Indonesia, Bali, along with other regions of Indonesia most notably Java, was the scene of widespread killings of (often falsely-accused) members and sympathizers of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) by right-wing General Suharto-sponsored militias. Possibly more than 100,000 Balinese were killed although the exact numbers are unknown to date and the events remain legally undisclosed. Many unmarked but well known mass graves of victims are located around the island.

On October 12 2002, a car bomb attack in the tourist resort of Kuta killed 202 people, largely foreign tourists and injured a further 209. Further bombings occurred three years later in Kuta and nearby Jimbaran Bay.

Bali :some short Introduction

Bali is an Indonesian island located at at dms|8|25|23|S|115|14|55|E|region:ID-BA_type:state, the western most of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east.

It is one of the countrys 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island. The island is home to the vast majority of Indonesias small Hindu minority.

It is also the largest tourist-buzz* destination in the country and is renowned for its highly developed arts, including dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking and music.

*tourist-buzz = business cause by tourism sector