UBUD - Place Interest In Bali

UBUD

Far from the madding crowds, Ubud has long been a quiet haven for the arts. Set amidst emerald green rice paddies and steep ravines in the stunning central Balinese foothills, some 25 km north of Denpasar, the village was originally an important source of medicinal herbs and plants. “Ubud” in fact derives from the Balinese word for medicine — ubad.

It was here that foreign artists such as Walter Spies settled during the 1920s and ‘30s, transforming the viliage into a flourishing center for the arts. Artists from all parts of Bali were invited to settle here by the local prince, Cokorda Gede Sukawati, and Ubud’s palaces and temples are now adorned by the work of Bali’s master artisans as a result. Unfortunately, the tourist boom has transformed Ubud into a bustling business center, complete with traffic jams and fast food outlets.

According to an 8th century legend, a Javanese priest named Rsi Markendya came to Bali from Java and meditated in Campuan at the confluence of two streams — an auspicious site for Hindus. He founded the Gunung Lebah Temple here, on a narrow platform above the valley floor, where pilgrims seeking peace came to be healed from their worldly cares. You can still get there by following a small road to the Tjetjak Inn on the western outskirts of Ubud, then taking the path down toward the river.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s Ubud became the focal point for foreign artists and other creative people gathering around Spies, a highly gifted and versatile German artist. A painter and a musician by training, Spies heard of Bali on reading Jaap Kunst’s Music of Bali, published in 1925, in which the Dutch musicologist praised neighboring Peliatan highly for its gamelan orchestra.

His work and anecdotes on the island riveted the attention of Spies, who was then director of the sultan of Yogyakarta’s European orchestra. Many other talented foreigners were attracted to Ubud also at this time. Among others, Miguel and Rosa Covarrubias popularised the hitherto little known beauty of Bali upon viewing Gregor Krause’s magnificient photo album, published in 1925. Krause had worked as a doctor in Bali around 1912.

After living in Ubud and Sanur, Covarrubias wrote his Island of Bali, one of the classics on Bali to this day. Rudolf Bonnet, the Dutch painter, was told of Bali’s breathtaking beauty by the etcher and ethnographer Nieuweokamp in Florence and came here to seek inspiration in the late 1920s. Colia McPhee came to join Spies’ experiments and stock-taking of musical traditions, which were at this time very dynamic, with new creations springing up overnight.



They worked together with the legendary Anak Agung Gede Mandera of Peliatan. McPhee later published a book on Bali’s musical traditioi as well as an account of his experiences here, A House in Bali.
Ubud rapidly became the village “en vogue” for many of these visitors — an insider tip from the many musicians, painters, authors and others.