Ubud, Bali, Indonesia: A Green Sanctuary Where Gods Reside

As the morning mist in Bali's central volcanic region slowly dissipates, the emerald rice terraces of the Ubud valleys begin to shimmer. This highland town, 200m above sea level, has its artistic roots in the hoofprints of the 14th-century royal family who relocated here, planting the seeds of art in the volcanic ash soil. Along the streets, century-old mango trees drop aerial roots, touching the gallery door knockers left by Dutch painter Rudolf Bonnet in the 1930s. This "Father of Ubud Style" allowed the batik patterns of the rice fields to breathe tropical life onto the canvas. At noon, the vines of the Sacred Monkey Forest weave a canopy, as the long tails of 2,000 Balinese macaques sweep across the 11th-century Sukawati Dynasty stone tablets. Inscriptions record that this was once a royal meditation forest. Today, macaques nibble on offerings on the temple eaves, and the banana peels slipping from their paws cover the ancient Sanskrit inscriptions that read, "Respect the wise god Ganesha." Three times a day, the ranger, Made, rings a bronze bell, and the monkeys leap down from the seven Hindu shrines. They know that the coconuts in the offerings belong to the elephant-headed god, while the mangoes are the monkey king's private indulgence. In the afternoon, the irrigation canals of the Tegalalang Rice Terraces flow with ancient secrets. Priests at the water temple still follow the 11th-century Subak system, allowing mountain springs to flow through bamboo pipes into each rice paddy. The ridges where Julia Roberts rode in the Hollywood film are actually the result of the Subak cooperative's wisdom: each ridge is engraved with the family's mark, and the intercropping of rice and coffee trees subtly echoes the "symbiosis of all things" in the Vedas. At dusk, the twenty-four springs of Tirta Empul Temple gleam with golden light. Stone inscriptions from 962 AD record that the Javanese monk Empu Kuturan split the rock here, allowing the sacred water to flow again into the land that had dried up after the battle between gods and demons. Barefoot devotees walk past 108 stone steps, letting the spring water wash over their ankles. The seventh spring specializes in curing eye diseases, the thirteenth can cleanse sins, and at the bottom of the last spring lies a bronze Buddha statue discovered by a Dutch archaeological team in 1927. The Dharma wheel pattern in its palm forms a wonderful geometric echo with the irrigation canals of the rice terraces. After nightfall, the main street of Ubud is lit with turmeric paper lanterns, and the batik wax dyes in the galleries are drying in the moonlight. The Warung Kopi at the street corner exudes the roasted aroma of civet coffee, and the owner, I Wayan, displays his family's heirloom palm leaf manuscripts, which record the musical notation used by 18th-century Ubud craftsmen to create reliefs for the Lombok royal palace. When the croaking of frogs in the rice fields and the bronze bells of the temple play in concert, the entire valley becomes a living museum. Macaques doze in the shrines, spring water writes poetry underground, and the rice terraces measure the eternal summer of the Indian Ocean with their rings.