- Bali & JavaIndonesiaBali
- Bali is one of the thousands of islands that makes Indonesia. Bali is located between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Bali sits eight degrees below the equator, so they experience warm weather annually. There is two seasons in Bali; the wet season which occurs from December to March, and the dry season that fills the rest of the year. The average temperature from during dry season is 33 celsius and wet season remains around 28 Celsius throughout the day. There is a spine of islands of stretching east to west in SouthEast Asia formed by volcanic eruptions. Bali is a island formed mostly by volcanic properties. Depansar is the capital of Bali located on the south side of the island. . Depansar has a population of 788,589 according to the census years in 2010. the Native Balinese are referred to as Caturwangsa.
Java is an Indonesian island as well siting just west of Bali. Indonesia's capital city Jakara is located in western Java. The population of Java reaches over 141 million and is the home of the Javanese. Java Remains dominant in Indonesia's politics, culture, and economy for much of Indonesia's history has taken place in Java. Java was the mecca for hindu-buddist empires with left thousands of ancient temples throughout java's volcanic Geography. Indonesia has around 400 volcanoes and 100 of them are currently active. From 1972 to 1991 aproximatly thirty volcanoes erupted on Java. Composed mostly of volcanic ash, Java is the 13th biggest island in the world.
Five Themes of Geography
The land of gods, the land of paradise, Bali Indonesia. One of the 13,000 thousand islands that Indonesia comprises and perhaps more popular than the rest of the country. Located on the most western side of the lesser sunda islands, Bali is sandwiched between Java to the left and Lombok to the right. Since the 1960’s Bali has become a pronoun tourist attraction bringing in approximately one million tourist per year. But even with all this traffic passing along this insalan, the culture, land and individuals remain the same. At the heart of this beautiful, peaceful, paradise island is a cluster of enormous volcanoes. Along with spine of these indonesian islands lie over 76 active volcanoes, more than any other country in the world. The beauty does not end here, the ocean that surrounds bali is one of the most desired views that this island has to offer. On the edge of land, some of the most remarkable ancient temples in the world stand on coral reefs and black volcanic coral. Bali being the tourist attraction and most admired travel destination, leaves Java to be the most populous island on earth. Java is home to 57% of the indonesian population. Java centered the powerful hindu-buddhist empires of indonesia, and is where most of indonesia's history took place. The puras in Bali were built in worship of balinese hinduism. Though these islands sit next to each other, the temples really exemplify the differences among the culture styles and practices of the two islands.
In this chain of mountains spreading west to east of indonesia are thousands of islands broken into provinces. The capital of Bali is Denpasar which sits on the southern side of the bali province. The latitude is at -8.650000 and the longitude is 115.216667. The city’s elevation stands at 34 meters, 112 feet. Java is located between Bali to the right and Sumatra to the left. Bali is only 2 miles east of Java. Java’s capital is Jakarta, which lies on the north western tip of Java; the latitude is -6.1745 and the longitude is 106.8227.
Java remains at the center of indonesia geographically and economically, resulting in the home to over half of the indonesian population. The nation's capital has become modernized and exhibits anything from the old town, museums to shopping malls and dutch colonial buildings. To the left of java is Sumatra; Sumatra is known for its rugged tropical landscapes, and erupting volcanoes that allow a vast variety of fauna and flora to flourish on this island stretching in a northwest to a southeast diagonal shape. Indonesia shares land borders with three total countries; Papua new guinea to the east of Indonesia, east timor just below papua new guinea, and the west borders the eastern side of Malaysia. Just south of Indonesia lies Australia and to the east lies papua new guinea.
Bali is located very close to the equator, sitting 8 degrees south of the equator. This provides a warm tropical climate that averages year round at approximately 30 degrees celsius, creating a very inviting tourist trap. Though Bali is inviting year round with pleasant weather, the seasons can offer a slight variation to the experience. There are two seasons in Bali, the wet season; which spans from october to march with rain and warm climate, and the dry season which spans from april to september. The seasons are not always predictable, locals are often surprised as well when their dry seasons experience more rain than their previous wet season. The wet season surprisingly attracts just as many, if not more travelers than the dry season. Many tourist will visit bali during december or newyears time for celebration, this is the most popular time of the year bali experiences. The wet season also provides outstanding surf conditions for all the surfers (including myself) that dream to one day visit there beautiful black volcanic beaches, surfacing some of the best waves in the world. The surrounding coast of Bali varies from volcanic coral reefs to limestone beaches. The water temperature is typically around the same as air temperature creating an extremely high humidity level. Java shares a very similar style of climate and weather as bali, although the west side of java is more often wet than the east side, and the mountain regions typically receive much more rainfall.
Though Java and Bali only make up seven percent of the indonesia's landmass, they occupy 60 percent of the population and shelter intensive agricultural grounds. Indonesia's agriculture is the key component to their economy. More than 50 million indonesians are employed through the agriculture sector making up 40 percent of the total labour force. Most of the agriculture in indonesia comes from the harvest of rice, vegetables, and fruit. Other crops include tobacco, rubber, palm oil, sugar, hard fiber, tea, coffee, cacao, and cinchona. Since the 17th century west Java has cultivated and exported coffee as one of the first under the dutch east india company. Approximately 30 percent of indonesia is dedicated to agriculture and farming. There are two types of sectors determined by their scale; the large plantations run by corporate or private companies, and the smallholder producers, who consists of the traditional agricultural ways. The large plantations produce much of the palm oil, rubber, and rice while smallholders produce horticultural commodities including food supply. Indonesia also supplies and consumes the most palm oil in the world, with plantations stretching over 14 million acres. Indonesia is also the largest supplier of coconuts in the world, producing more than 15 million tonnes in 2009.The abundance of of rain that indonesia undergoes supplies a thriving breeding ground for all global agricultural commodities. Through all of this agriculture Bali thrives most of tourism nowadays as their number one income.
Java has only two ethnic groups that are native to this island and those are the sundanese and javanese. Off the northern east coast of java is the mudara island where madurese have migrated from to east java. Then there is the betawi, who are the creole people of java, descending from a variety of Indonesian archipelago ethnicities. Java is broken into four sections of culturally significant areas. The Kejawen also referred to as the heartland, the north coast of the pasisir region, the sunda lands of west java and the mandura, establishes with cultural ties to java's coast. the kejawen Javanese is the island's most dominant culture ruling the current aristocracy. This region is where most of indonesia's army, politics, business originate from. The education, language, art, culture, and etiquette are considered the most refined and respectable.
Bali is famously known for it’s astonishing art forms and cultural performances. The diversity in arts forms vary anything from, painting, wood carvings, sculptures, handcrafts and performing art. Festivals vary from a day of silence in favor of the hindu new year to the parade of ogoh-ogoh monsters that are paraded around and then burned at the end of the day to ware off evil spirits. Many other festivals can be anticipated throughout the year according to the balinese pawukon calendrical system. These festivals in respect to ritual and social context have a great amount of improvisation and new flare can be experienced at anytime in these events. These events typically take place in a city or communal environment a decent distance from the temples themselves. These performances are for entertainment and appraisal of the gods and cultural from which they developed.
The volcano eruption in the 1960’s of mount Agung resulted in deaths of thousands of people, causing many to seek pilgrimage elsewhere in indonesia. The Indonesian Communist Party had began ground forces for land reform programs which then caused the army to retaliate in a anti-communist purge resulting in 80,000 deaths on bali alone. One Sukaro was out of his presidency the new order began and Bali started to reestablish previous relationships with surrounding countries primarily in the west. Bali has then been recognized as the paradise island it was once before. Until the militant islamic terrorist bombing had taken place in 2002, in the center of a tourist area killing approximately 90 individuals, mostly tourist and foreigners. In 2005 a similar incent took place where suicide bombers had claimed the lives of over 20 people and three other bombers. This had a critical impact to society and especially the economies tourism.
However human interaction has steadily increased over the years with tourism throughout the southern end of Bali. The beach towns, enormous eruptive volcanoes, vast beautiful jungles and ground breaking temples draw tourist from all over the globe. This Benefits the island greatly with the economy, creating more jobs for natives, and a bigger profit to the land. One might worry if that much tourism will eventually begin to decay the glory of this mystic temples and bizarre beaches, but the land has remained culturally strong and stable even through the terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005. This had a significant impact to the island, but the tourism is what kept bali afloat. Bali has been identified as the world's best island right behind Santorini, in Greece.
Indonesia gained its independence in 1949 centering java with the most power politically, socially, and economically. Much like its neighbor Bali, Java initially supported its economy through rice plantations, but nowadays Java is the most developed province in indonesia with both a developed cities along with plenty of rich culturally significant temples and art for tourist. Major cities that flourished in the trade and business industry include Jakarta, Surabaya, Semarang, and Bandung. Cultural locations that preserve the richness of the land include Yogyakarta, Surakarta, and Cirebon.
The temples are what attract me personally. The size and detail of these ancient temples is absolutely breathtaking just by viewing footage or a picture of this beauty. I have only sense mayan temples in cozumel mexico, and I found those to be pretty amazing, but the extent to which the balinese and javanese take it is astonishing. Some temples I dream of visiting in Bali one day include Pura Tanah Lot which towers over the sea sitting on a rock full of trees, surrounded by crashing waves, and Sewu in Java, the eighth century Mahayana Buddhist temple.
Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: The Subak System as a Manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy." - UNESCO World Heritage Centre. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.
The World Bank, USAID, IMF World Economic Outlook, International Olympic Committee, CIA World Factbook, United Nations Human Development Program, Sportradar US. "Indonesia." Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.
"Indonesia - GEOGRAPHY." Indonesia - GEOGRAPHY. US Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.
