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Environment
Balinese Gardens:
Tropical Beauty on Display
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.
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