The practice of Balinese Hinduism is increasingly challenged by the economic costs of ritual obligations, contributing to ritual-induced poverty and associated mental health burdens. Although previous studies have documented these problems, little attention has been paid to practical solutions. This qualitative study examines alternative forms of yadnya rituals in Bali that reduce both economic and psychological burdens. Data were collected through interviews, participant observation, and document analysis involving ritual practitioners, crematorium managers, griya priests, and religious leaders in Bangli, Denpasar, Gianyar, and Karangasem. The analysis identifies four adaptive practices: alternative ritual venues, crematorium-based ceremonies, digital technologies, and collective rituals. These innovations reduced ritual costs by approximately 90-97% while alleviating psychological distress associated with social expectations and financial pressure. This study contributes by demonstrating that theological reinterpretation by religious leaders enables communities to preserve ritual values while adapting to contemporary economic and mental health challenges.
Besakih Village, home to Bali’s most sacred temple complex, generates 7.23 tons of waste per day, of which only 6.78 percent is processed due to limited capacity, leaving the remainder unmanaged. This study develops a sustainable waste management model by integrating the Balinese philosophy of Tri Hita Karana (THK): spiritual balance (parahyangan), social (pawongan), and ecological (palemahan). Using Participatory Action Research, data were collected through focus group discussions, interviews, and stakeholder-led waste audits. The findings indicate that integrating THK enhances waste governance. The parahyangan dimension restructures ritual waste management, while pawongan strengthens community participation through banjar-level waste banks and 24 green jobs. The palemahan dimension promotes circular practices by converting organic waste into compost and refuse-derived fuel. Household participation reached 89 percent, diverting 125.57 tons of waste during the program period and increasing workers' monthly income by IDR 1.5 million. Overall, integrating cultural values with circular-economy principles enhances resilience in community-based waste management systems.
Overtourism threatens destination sustainability, accelerating stagnation or decline within the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC), as Bali’s ecological stress, cultural commodification, and governance fragility illustrate. This study explores rural digital nomadism as an exploratory strategy for sustainable rejuvenation in Kelecung Eco Village, Tabanan, Bali. Using a longitudinal single-case design (2020-2026), it draws on 22 interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation, and a feasibility survey of 85 respondents. Integrating co-living, co-working, and authentic cultural experiences initially extended visitor stays, diversified household income, and repositioned the village within global flows. Constrained by weak marketing, livingwage pressures, and institutional resistance, the village strategically refocused on its edu-ecotourism model while keeping rural digital nomadism as its main future direction. Theoretically, the study extends TALC to the Global South through participatory nomadism, distinguishing community-embedded models from urban nomad bubbles. Practically, it shows that rejuvenation depends on formal institutional and financial support.
The symbolic cremation ritual for agricultural pests (Mrateka Sarwa Marana), constitutes an important component of Bali's Subak system for sustaining agriculture through indigenous knowledge and collective ritual practices. This study examines the ritual process and the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) embedded in the Mrateka Sarwa Marana ritual. Employing a qualitative religio-cultural ethnographic approach, the research was conducted in Bedha Village, Tabanan, Bali. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews with key informants, and library research. The findings show that the Mrateka ritual functions as a collective mechanism integrating ritual purification, ethical pest management, symbolic cremation, and community participation to strengthen ecological balance and social cohesion within the Subak system. The tradition also preserves TEK through irrigation management, synchronized planting, environmental sanitation, intergenerational knowledge transmission, and the complementary use of modern agricultural technology. The study proposes an integrative framework demonstrating how ritual, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and the Subak institution collectively contribute to sustainable agriculture and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Despite receiving approximately 6.9 million international tourist arrivals in 2025, Bali’s hotel occupancy remained relatively low at 57–67%, revealing governance challenges in the tourism accommodation sector. This disparity is partly driven by tourists’ growing preference for villas, homestays, and short-term rentals, many operating outside formal licensing and taxation systems. This study analyses the governance challenges underlying the mismatch between rising tourist arrivals and declining hotel occupancy and proposes strategies for sustainable tourism accommodation in Bali. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected through focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, field observations, and analyses of policy documents and media reports. The findings show that the Bali Provincial Government and the Ministry of Tourism have strengthened regulatory enforcement, including restricting online travel agencies from marketing unlicensed accommodation providers. Although these measures have encouraged business formalization, non-compliance remains widespread. The study highlights the need for stronger enforcement, integrated data systems, and collaborative governance to foster a more accountable, competitive, and sustainable accommodation sector.
This article details the values and interests inherent in the customary forest management practices of the peoples of the Old-Balinese village of Tenganan Pegringsingan in East Bali, highlights social justice from a planning perspective, and analyses the challenges villagers face in their pursuit of cultural recognition. It highlights the spiritual and ecological ties the Balinese have historically had to forests, which are seen as sacred spaces that contribute to cultural continuity and environmental balance. Despite this, modern management often overlooks these intangible values, causing ecological and social issues. Through ethnographic methods, including participant observation and interviews with traditional leaders and community members from 2022 to 2023, and drawing on earlier fieldwork from 2010 to 2012, the study finds that community-based values guide forest resource management. These values encompass protocols governing human relationships with the forest, residents' perceptions of the forest as a protector and marker of identity, and the forest's role as a spiritual space.
This study aims to analyze how Balinese transmigrants in Lampung sustain their ethnic identity through community organization, focusing on the adaptation and function of banjar organization in both enclave villages and urban settings. Employing qualitative field methods including interviews, surveys, and observation in Balinuraga village and Bandar Lampung city, the research contrasts the preservation strategies of traditional banjar institutions. The findings reveal that in rural enclaves, banjar structures closely replicate customary institutions from Bali, fostering strong ethnic, religious, and social cohesion. In contrast, urban banjar associations demonstrate greater inclusivity, accommodating inter-religious and inter-ethnic members and emphasizing cultural activities to reinforce identity. The study concludes that community organization remains crucial for ethnic continuity, but adaptation is required in diverse urban environments. Its novelty lies in the empirical comparison of banjar models across enclave and multicultural contexts, revealing unique mechanisms for maintaining identity. Further research should address generational change and the sustainability of banjar structures amid ongoing urbanization and social integration.
The present paper was designed to point out if the practice of Balinese spatial system by its speakers is linguistic or cultural in nature. Several scholars indicated, though not dominantly, that the use of a relative system in Balinese spatial system was observed to be used by their research participants. Other scholars in their studies, employing linguistic and nonlinguistic tasks in the production tasks, nevertheless, found out that an absolute system was largely practiced by their research participants. Additionally, there are also quite recent studies investigating the use of Balinese spatial system by local signers in Bengkala village. The findings pointed out that children and adult deaf subjects consistently used pointing in linguistic tasks. However, the child and adult deaf subjects used absolute responses in nonlinguistic tasks. Cultural and Balinese Hindu religious practices seem to guide the use of spatial systems in Balinese.
This article examines the Mayadenawa myth as a semiotic foundation of Balinese Hindu ritual, with particular attention to the Galungan festival. Galungan is a major religious celebration held every 210 days in Bali to commemorate the victory of dharma (cosmic order) over adharma (disorder) and to mark the return of ancestral spirits to the human realm. Employing Barthes’ theory of two-order signification, this study analyzes the Mayadenawa narrative at the levels of denotation, connotation, and myth. The findings show that the myth functions not merely as a narrative of divine conflict, but as a cultural sign system that legitimizes ritual practice and naturalizes moral and religious values. By applying a semiotic approach, this study moves beyond descriptive interpretations and demonstrates how myth operates ideologically to sustain Balinese Hindu identity through rituals.
This article aims to reveal the phenomenon of religious moderation between Balinese Hindus and Sasak Muslims at the shared sacred space of Lingsar Temple in the Muslim-dominated island of Lombok (east of Bali) from a theo-humanist perspective. It addresses how theology, as the foundation of religious belief, can be transformed into humanistic practices that foster religious moderation in everyday interactions. Using a qualitative ethnographic approach grounded in hermeneutics, phenomenology, and social construction theory, data were collected through observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis, and interpreted through reflective analysis. This study finds that theo-humanism functions as a central social mechanism in realizing religious moderation at Lingsar Temple through two interrelated processes: the construction of a shared sacred space and the transformation of theological awareness into lived social harmony. Theo-humanism translates abstract theological doctrines into empirical social practices through three Bergerian moments—externalization, objectivation, and internalization—reproduced and sustained across generations, enabling theological plurality to be continuously negotiated as practical interreligious coexistence.
This comparative study examines how customary sanctions are applied in response to traditional law violations in Tenganan Pegringsingan (Bali) and Kajang Tanah Towa (South Sulawesi), and how these sanctions sustain ecological balance and social harmony. The research was conducted using in-depth interviews and participatory observation. Various types of sanctions are regulated by written and unwritten rules (traditional written customary law) of Tenganan Pegringsingan, including dosen, penging, sikang, sapa sumaba, and kesah. Meanwhile, in the Kajang Tanah Towa indigenous community, violations of the pasang (oral customary guidelines) are met with mild to severe sanctions. Serious violations are punished with poko’ ba’bala (base of the whip – for severe violations), tangnga ba’bala (middle of the whip – for moderate violations), and cappa ba’bala (tip of the whip – for minor violations). This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how indigenous legal systems function as effective mechanisms for environmental governance and community resilience.
This study evaluates the implementation of Bali Governor Regulation No. 55/2019 on Balinese Traditional Medicine (BTM) across traditional healers (pengusada), community health centers (Puskesmas), and hospitals. A quantitative descriptive survey was conducted in 2023 using structured online questionnaires distributed to 64 pengusada, 111 Puskesmas leaders, and 38 hospital directors. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The regulation strengthened pengusada legitimacy, with 70% reporting improved recognition. While 91% of Puskesmas have integrated BTM services, hospital utilization remains low, with 70.6% reporting fewer than ten monthly visits. Key barriers include shortages of certified personnel, limited funding, weak infrastructure, and exclusion from National Health Insurance (BPJS) coverage. Nevertheless, 98.2% of facility leaders support integration with conventional healthcare and wellness tourism. Strengthening certification, financing mechanisms, and reimbursement inclusion is essential for sustainable integration within Bali’s healthcare system
This study conducts a sentiment analysis of customer reviews for Ayam Betutu Khas Gilimanuk Cabang Tuban on TripAdvisor, a leading platform for culinary and tourism references, to assess consumer perceptions in the digital era. While prior research has explored online reviews in the restaurant industry, few focus on heritage culinary establishments, leaving a gap this study addresses by analysing 421 reviews (2012–2024) across variables such as rating, comment, and region. Using RStudio, the data underwent text preprocessing (tokenisation, case-folding, stopword removal), sentiment labelling (positive, neutral, negative), and lexicon-based analysis, supplemented by word clouds and temporal trend evaluation. Findings reveal predominantly positive sentiment towards the restaurant’s signature Balinese ayam betutu, though areas like service, cleanliness, and ambience require improvement. Theoretically, the study highlights that product quality alone cannot sustain positive sentiment without complementary service excellence, while practical implications offer actionable strategies for heritage restaurants and regional gastronomy development, bridging digital analytics with culinary heritage preservation.
Bali, which has the highest suicide rate in Indonesia, provides a critical context for examining suicide notes as both cultural texts and forensic evidence. This study examines how Balinese people communicate finality through language and how these styles relate to authenticity. Five suicide notes, written in Balinese and verified by authorities as genuine, were purposively sampled from online news. Using qualitative content analysis within frameworks of Olsson’s Insider and Outsider and Cultural Discourse Analysis, the findings show that authenticity is conveyed indirectly through culturally disciplined language rather than explicit declarations. Finality is predominantly framed through a journey metaphor which reflects Balinese Hindu beliefs. This study contributes to forensic linguistics by demonstrating that authenticity in local suicide notes is inseparable from local cultures and norms.
This study examines the intersemiotic translation of The Book of Esther into Balinese paintings in the Cheerful Good News collection published by the Indonesian Bible Society (2007). Using a qualitative case study, it analyzes how biblical narratives are reinterpreted through Balinese visual aesthetics using strategies of reduction, addition, focalization, integration, and symbolic adaptation. Each artwork is explored for textual fidelity, cultural and symbolic localization, and multimodal construction. The study highlights how simplification, substitution, and narrative emphasis reframe themes like courage, justice, and divine providence. While some narrative elements are condensed or altered, theological meanings are retained through symbolic codes and emotional framing. Rather than one-to-one equivalence, the process reflects interpretive transformation based on cultural and semiotic norms. The article contributes to translation studies and visual anthropology by applying intersemiotic frameworks within Southeast Asia, demonstrating how sacred texts are visually reimagined through local idioms rooted in religious symbolism and aesthetic tradition.
Many public and organizational programs achieve technical success, regulatory compliance, and high budget absorption, yet fail to sustain outcomes once external support ends, as prevailing evaluation frameworks emphasize outputs over sustainability. This gap reflects the absence of an integrated perspective on how institutional conditions shape long-term durability. This paper proposes the Panca Datu Logic Framework (PDLF), where panca denotes “five” and datu foundational elements, as a conceptual guide for sustainability evaluation. Using a conceptual-synthetic approach grounded in abductive reasoning, the framework is illustrated through three case-based simulations in Bali: rabies control, community-based turtle conservation, and waste management programs. The PDLF conceptualizes sustainability as an emergent, non-compensatory property arising from alignment among five domains—legal, human, financial, infrastructure, and culture—with culture positioned as an outcome of systemic coherence. The framework offers an analytical lens to explain both program fragility and sustained performance across institutional and geographical gradients spanning local, national, and global contexts.
This paper focuses on the development of a sustainable bicycle-led transport system in Bali. Since the coronavirus pandemic, bicycle use has accelerated globally as a cheap, safe, sustainable and healthy form of transport. But given its global reputation for tourism, Bali is lagging massively behind bicycle transport in more developed economies. So, the paper progresses in five stages. First, the global context for bicycle use is examined. Second, in addition to a more efficient transport system, extraordinary benefits are considered in terms of economic, environmental, societal and human health. Third, due to the lack of prior studies, the Indonesian context is necessarily presented from a seriously constrained data base, and existing legislation. Fourth, the results from an extensive user-focused empirical survey were analyzed. Finally, a series of proposals are suggested for planning policy that would necessarily support bicycle use in Bali.
Balinese Arak (an alcoholic beverage) faces structural challenges in governance, market positioning, and brand consolidation despite legalization under Bali Governor Regulation No. 1 of 2020 and production exceeding 4,000 liters per month. Fragmented pricing, inconsistent quality, and weak brand governance limit its competitiveness in Bali’s hospitality industry, dominated by imported wines and international spirits. This study examines how stakeholder collaboration and governance mechanisms strengthen branding and competitive positioning of Balinese Arak as a heritage-based tourism product. Using a qualitative approach through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with artisans, cooperatives, government officials, and hospitality actors in Karangasem Regency (a key production center) in East Bali, the findings reveal that regulatory support, cooperative institutionalization, product standardization, and collaborative branding convert cultural legitimacy into competitive advantage. Branding functions as a governance-driven process integrating quality assurance, adaptive innovation, and cross-sector collaboration, enhancing market credibility, hospitality integration, and long-term sustainability within Bali’s tourism economy.
Balinese karawitan, a traditional musical form rooted in cultural expression, continues to evolve while sustaining its aesthetic foundations. This study examines hybrid aesthetic values in Balinese karawitan by analyzing how poetic figurative language functions as a mediating device between tradition, modern musical expression, and character education. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, the research analyzes four compositions: Ngoner Ngakung (Love That Blossoms), Sekar Layu (Withering Flower), Janger Ngapat (A Celebration of Fertility and Gratitude), and Kenangan Manis (Sweet Memories), to demonstrate how metaphors and other figurative forms deepen vocal aesthetics and intensify emotional resonance. The findings show that poetic imagery rearticulates traditional symbolic vocabularies within contemporary vocal styles, transforming musical narratives into ethical reflections on love, impermanence, gratitude, and nostalgia. Through this process, figurative language translates cultural meaning into values such as empathy, resilience, respect, and compassion. The study highlights poetic figurative language as an aesthetic bridge that sustains cultural identity while enabling moral formation within modern creative practice.
Debates on community governance increasingly examine micro-practices that generate compliance without coercion. This study analyzes the marebu agung marriage completion ritual in an Old Balinese (Bali Aga) village, Desa Adat Binyan (Binyan Customary Village), Kintamani District, as a disciplinary mechanism that structures differentiated forms of customary citizenship. Based on a twelve-month ethnographic case study using observation, interviews, and analysis of awig-awig (customary regulations), the research shows that ritual choreography shapes subjects through regulated bodily action. Temporal deadlines and escalating material sanctions sustain compliance, while horizontal social visibility encourages mutual monitoring. The tripartite krama (customary membership categories) system withholds full recognition until ritual completion, linking marital legitimacy to community membership. Using Foucauldian analytics, the study demonstrates how sacred ritual operates as a technology of power within customary governance, contributing to global discussions on ritualized citizenship and non-state disciplinary systems.
