I am reading Hildred Geertz's wonderful new book "The Life of a Balinese Temple: Artistry, Imagination, and History in a Peasant Village" published 2004 by the University of Hawai'i Press.
Geertz will be familiar to Bali readers as an anthropologist who has been regularly visiting and writing about Bali since the 1950s.
In this beautifully illustrated work (unfortunately only in monochrome) she traces the history of Pura Desa Batuan from earliest times to the present. Her latest research period was in the 1980s with subsequent visits in 1995 and 2000. Of particular interest is her treatment of the influence of tourism on the life of the temple and the art works and reconstructions there.
One statistic stood out in her tourism chapter. She estimates that at the start of the 20th century there was about two acres of rice land to every family on Bali. By 1970 there was less than an acre per family. By 2000 it was estimated that there would only be a quarter acre per family. So profound has modernization been that huge tracts of land have been given up for urban development, tourism and related enterprises. It makes me wonder for the future if tourism does a nosedive and can no longer be relied upon as a source of income. With such profound changes in the Balinese agrarian economy, what does the population do if tourism loses its economic strength?
Geertz will be familiar to Bali readers as an anthropologist who has been regularly visiting and writing about Bali since the 1950s.
In this beautifully illustrated work (unfortunately only in monochrome) she traces the history of Pura Desa Batuan from earliest times to the present. Her latest research period was in the 1980s with subsequent visits in 1995 and 2000. Of particular interest is her treatment of the influence of tourism on the life of the temple and the art works and reconstructions there.
One statistic stood out in her tourism chapter. She estimates that at the start of the 20th century there was about two acres of rice land to every family on Bali. By 1970 there was less than an acre per family. By 2000 it was estimated that there would only be a quarter acre per family. So profound has modernization been that huge tracts of land have been given up for urban development, tourism and related enterprises. It makes me wonder for the future if tourism does a nosedive and can no longer be relied upon as a source of income. With such profound changes in the Balinese agrarian economy, what does the population do if tourism loses its economic strength?