Balinese Gardens. William Warren
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recently. Many were brought by the Dutch during the 20th century from the great botanical gardens at Bogor, which in turn amassed a collection of plants from all over the tropical world. Still others arrived much more recently, introduced by private fanciers as exotic specimens for gardens or by landscape designers for their planting schemes at famous resort hotels.
Thriving in the rich earth, nurtured by the warm rains, these soon escaped their original confines and multiplied freely, often becoming almost wild. Who today would guess that Plumeria originated in the New World, Delonix regia in Madagascar, the Hibiscus in China, the Bougainvillea in Brazil? That the dazzling Red Gingers and Heliconias were comparatively rare only a few decades ago? All have become a part of Bali's natural scenery, in many cases part of its culture, adding their charms to a magical allure that remains as powerful as ever.
Girls pause by a bridge near the aerial roots of the revered Banyan or Waringin tree.
The gardens of Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay, designed by Made Wijaya and begun in 1992. Wijaya says of the landscaping: "It was inspired by the backyard plantings in the neighbouring village of Pacatu-tight clumps of frangipani (Plumeria obtusa), pandanus and cactus trees. The seven village clusters, in contrast to the more artfully natural public areas, are 'done up' in Balinese village lane style with lots of poetic corners. The water features were essential-to cool the often baking hot site-and to provide an element of grandeur to the tight-packed main dining room pavilions"
The scarlet blooms of the Delonix regia, with its long seed pods, make a vivid contrast with a tropical sky.
The white Plumeria is the most fragrant of the species, although pink and red flowered species, such as the one seen here, add a particular beauty to any garden.
This scene at Bukit Jambul typifies Bali at its most fertile, with plantations of clove trees (seen to the left) and coconut palms interspersed by terraced rice fields.
The Balinese Landscape
The island of Bali emerged from the seas in a series of cataclysmic volcanic explosions two to three million years ago-just the blink of an eye in geological time-and has been in the process of growing and changing ever since. A relatively minor eruption of Mount Agung in 1963, for example, blew out one billion cubic metres of matter, blasting away the top 130 metres of the volcano in the process, and depositing lava and ash over many parts of the island. Periodic explosions such as this one can literally change Bali's landscapes almost overnight.
Thanks largely to its turbulent origins and relative youth, Bali manages to cram an astonishing range of landforms into a fairly tiny area of just 5,500 square kilometres. The most obvious feature of the landscape is the sinuous backbone of volcanoes which runs the length of the island from east to west. Two other major regions, the lowland plains and limestone fringes, each play a vital role in Bali's unique topography.
Young Mountains and Ancient Reefs
Bali's volcanoes are dominated by Gunung (Mount) Agung in the east, which at 3,014 metres is still by far the tallest peak on the island, despite its recent dramatic shortening. West of this, the adjacent peaks of Mount Batur and Mount Abang are 1,000 metres shorter than Agung.
Along the northeastern flanks of Agung, around the diving spot of Tulamben, spectacular lava flows from the 1963 eruption spill into the ocean, forming the most recent addition to Bali's landscape. The stark scrub vegetation found growing over the dark lava here give an indication of what the entire island may have looked like when it first emerged from the sea.
Mount Batur, at the centre of the island, nestles dramatically in the midst of one of the world's largest calderas beside a huge crater lake. Tongues of lava fan out from the central cone of the volcano, many of them resulting from different eruptions at very different times. The more recent flows are still black and unvegetated even after several decades of exposure to the elements, while the earlier ones are already brown and overgrown.
The outer slopes of the massive Batur caldera, which form much of central Bali, are scored by deep ravines with precipitous sides that have been cut by rivers running through the soft tuff rock, a common feature throughout the island. Continuing to the west, the mountains separating Lovina from Negara are also of volcanic origin, but date from a much earlier era, so their craters have long since disappeared; the only sign of their volcanic origins is a few sulfurous springs which dot the region.
North and south of Bali's volcanic backbone lie the coastal plains which form Bali's rice bowl. Most of Bali's lowlands, and certainly all the fertile parts, have been formed by deposits from numerous volcanic eruptions. Along the coasts fringing the lowlands are black sand beaches consisting of fine volcanic particles. By contrast, other beaches such as the one at Sanur, are lighter in colour and composed of rough volcanic and coral particles mixed with the shells of countless billions of marine organisms.
Several parts of Bali meanwhile are non-volcanic and stand in sharp contrast to the rest of the island. These are the limestone (fossil coral reef) areas of the southern fringe, chiefly at Negara in the west and on the Bukit Peninsula south of the airport, where the luxury hotels of Nusa Dua are located. Like many limestone regions, these areas have poor soils and are difficult to cultivate.
The Human Side of Bali's Landscape
For all the rugged natural beauty of many of the wilder parts of Bali-the volcanoes and lakes, lava fields, forests and seashore cliffs-the overwhelming impression is of a profoundly humanised landscape. People probably first arrived on Bali between three and four thousand years ago and have been moulding the island to meet their needs ever since.
The most striking manifestation of this is the intricate patchwork of innumerable rice fields which covers many parts of the lowlands and climbs the hills and lower slopes of the mountains in tier after tier, creating one of the most harmonious and beautiful meldings of the natural and the man-made on earth. Bali's rice fields represent one of the most sophisticated and stable examples anywhere of a traditional agricultural system, a system which has been in place for nigh on a thousand years and which has much to teach modern-day farmers elsewhere.
Nestling part way down a ravine, a farmer's house is surrounded by fruit trees.
The Ayung River, Bali's largest, cuts through soft volanic rock to form a ravine so typical of the terrain around Balis central volcanoes.
Rice is more than just a staple food for the Balinese; it is a cultural and spiritual lynchpin whose cultivation has had a profound influence on the structure of Balinese society. It is even personified as a deity, the goddess Bhatari Sri. The commonest form of rice cultivation on Bali is the wetland or sawah system of flooded fields, where the water is retained by low banks or bunds. Most sawah fields may be watered by irrigation; the seasonal nature of the rainfall on Bali, especially at lower altitudes where the rice is grown, means that a scant one per cent of the 100,000 hectares or so of sawah is rain fed.
Almost 20 per cent of Bali's land is devoted to another traditional form of cultivation-the kebun or home garden. These are an intricate, mixed-cultivation system in which as many as 50 different crops of all shapes and sizes may be grown. The tallest trees are generally durians or coconuts, below which grow other fruit trees such as rambutan, jackfruit and mango, providing a lush, dark-green canopy. Also important