Jurnal Kajian Bali (Journal of Bali Studies)
The Jurnal Kajian Bali (Journal of Bali Studies) is an area study journal that specializes in publishing research-based articles about Bali. The topics of articles about Bali that can be published are very diverse including Balinese culture, politics, music, language, architecture, literature, history, mass media, popular culture, tourism, economy, environment, health, law, management, religion, and Balinese customs. The journal would also like to publish articles on Bali with comparative approaches. The Jurnal Kajian Bali (Journal of Bali Studies) is published twice a year, every April and October. Published articles are reviewed in a single blinded manner. The Jurnal Kajian Bali (Journal of Bali Studies) was first published in April 2011 by the Center for Balinese Studies, University of Udayana. Starting from April 2019, the journal is published jointly by the Center for Balinese Studies and the Center of Excellence in Tourism, University of Udayana. However, starting April 2020, the Jurnal Kajian Bali (Journal of Bali Studies) was published by the Center for Cultural Research and the Center of Excellence in Tourism, University of Udayana. This change occurred because of the reorganization of research centers at Udayana University from the end of 2019. Since its inception, Jurnal Kajian Bali was published twice a year. However, starting in 2025, it is published three times annually—in April, August, and December.
Tourist Arrivals Increase, Hotel Occupancy Declines: Governance Strategies for Sustainable Tourism Accommodation in Bali
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.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jurnal Kajian Bali (Journal of Bali Studies)
”Komodifikasi” yang Dipaksakan: Fenomena Joged Porno Buleleng
Menapak Sejarah dan Kritik Sastra Bali Modern
Mungkinkah Menganggap Akhir Abad ke-20 Sastra Bali Memasuki Sebuah Era Keemasan?
In the last two decades there have been pessimistic views on the futureof Balinese language and literature. These views hold that the youngBalinese generation is not interested in Balinese literature anymore and isreluctant to speak their mother tongue; hence the argument is that soonthis language and literature will be extinct. Close observation, however,shows that there is much evidence to indicate that toward the end ofthe twentieth century or early twenty first century the life of Balineseliterature has been lively, making it possible to argue that this literaturehas entered a new golden era. This article examines and discusses howvigorous Balinese literature has been by showing the lively literary readingand appreciation activities, the growing number of literary writing andpublication, and the emergence of literary appreciation through electronicmass media, especially ‘kidung interaktif’ programs on radio andtelevision stations. This study also discusses the contribution of Balineseliterature to the process of knowledge production and application ofsocial and critical theories.
Globalisme dan Multi-Versalisme: Beberapa Catatan tentang Dinamika Sosial Budaya di Bali
Globalism has variously impacted on the social, cultural, economic, legaland political life of the Balinese, which in turn has changed the structure ofBalinese society. Ultimately, this could also create conflicts or other socialproblems. Indeed, there are many regulations to anticipate and to dealwith such issues, but these have not been satisfactory due to weaknessesin implementation. This can be seen in the way issues on globalism affectideas of multi-versalism, which could in turn foster particular changestowards sustainable development in Balinese society.The majority of people who reside in the Bali Island are Balinese, whoare adherents of Hinduism. The Balinese have attempted to solve theproblems caused by globalization not only in the context of their dailylife, but also in the context of religion. It is important to note here thatthe religious issues are closely linked with the local issues, especiallythose dealing with their longstanding cultural. This essay will addressseveral issues: firstly, how globalism affects social, cultural, economic,and political aspects of Balinese life; secondly, how the Balinese anticipateor solve contemporary problems; and finally how the global and nationalissues have been tackled by the Balinese society through local wisdom.An analysis of these important issues is expected to offer a betterunderstanding of globalism in the context of Balinese local wisdom andthe ideas of multi-versalism.
Aktualisasi Nilai-nilai ‘Puputan’ dalam Pembangunan Karakter Bangsa
This article seeks to analyze the actualisation of the values and spiritof puputan (war until the end) by connecting it to current attempts of nationand charater building in Indonesia. It examines the values of puputan inits social and historical context and relates them to contemporary issuesin Indonesia. The topic of character building gains high currency inthe backdrop of moral degradation marked by cases of corruption,destruction, and violence. Bali has inherited the spirit of puputan fromthe struggle against Dutch colonialism; it is therefore a challenging taskto examine how far this set of values can contribute to the developmentof national character. The article argues that values inherent in the spiritof puputan, such as loyalty, honesty, bravery, trust, and optimism, arerelevant to the current attempts at national character building.
’Sarad-Jatah’: Representasi Sosio-Religius pada Budaya Pangan di Bali
Sarad and jatah are offerings presented during big temple ceremonies(odalan), when the gods come down for visits. One of the favorite daysfor such ceremonies falls on the full moon of the 10th month of theBalinese lunar-solar (Saka) calendar. The sarad and jatah offerings arevisual representations of the world in its Hindu-Balinese version. Thisrepresentation follows the depiction of the world given in the story of theChurning of the Milky Sea (Mandara Giri) such as told in the Old-Javanesetext Adiparwa. The sarad and jatah represent the dialectics of the positiveand the negative found in Hinduismm (rwa bhinneda), but their verticalstructure symbolizes the symbolic tripartition (Tri Loka) of the worldinto Bhur Loka, Bhwah Loka and Swah Loka. This article is based on on thespot observation and in-depth interviews held at the three locations oftemples: Besakih, Ulun Batur and Taro. Apart from a study of meaningof the two offerings, this article expounds the physical (food) and socialprocessses involved in their making. From the point of view of the writer,who is a non-Balinese, this study of sarad and jatah is also a means ofher own character-building in the nation-building context of multi-ethnicIndonesia.
Workplace and Home: Understanding the Sai Baba Movement in Bali as an Urban Phenomenon
Since the transition to post-New Order Indonesia in 1998, new religiousmovements such as Sai Baba have become popular in Bali. In contrastwith the New Order era when Sai Baba was under strict scrutiny, thesegroups are now warmly accepted by a far wider audience and especiallyfrom educated affluent urbanites. In this paper, I discuss several factorsthat make Sai Baba movement generally an urban phenomenon. I askhow change taking place in Bali regarding the economic and demographiccontext may have contributed to the people’s different mode of religiousarticulation. The economic transformation from agricultural economyto modern industrial economy in Bali has changed people’s occupationsand forced urbanization. I argue that the transformation also createstwo emerging cultural spaces of Workplace in the city and Home inthe villages of origin. Workplace is where people are bound to moderndisposition of time and Home is where people are tied to traditionaldisposition of time. These two cultural spaces determine people’s modeof religious articulation. As people move from their villages of origin tothe city, they also adopt a new mode of religious articulation in an urbancontext. I suggest that to understand the emergence of new religions andnew mode of religious articulation in Bali we have to look at specifictransformations at the economic and demographic level.
Verbal Abuse of Cursing in Balinese Myths
This article analysis forms of verbal abuse of cursing in myths of Balinese culture. The politeness of a language varies based on its speaker’s culture. Things that are considered polite or not polite in one culture, often associated with something that is respected, sacred, taboo, and/or hidden, such as, beliefs of its ancestors, parents, supernatural beings, as well as body parts that were respected or hidden. Degrading, cursing, swearing, and mocking acts appeared to be the contrary of language politeness. Therefore, both politeness and verbal violence are closely related to the culture of its speakers. In relation to the Balinese culture, some verbal violence applied in some of the Balinese myths. The verbal violence found in myth can be grouped into two types, which were first in the form of threats and second, in the form of curse-shaped. Based on the data found, the verbal abuses of curses found in the myth were of difficult childbirth, child expulsion, misfortune, and picking up jewelry, and pregnancy.
Fungsi dan Makna Simbolis Pohon Beringin dalam Kehidupan Masyarakat Bali
Balinese people seem to realize that their existence in this world has a high dependence on nature as a buffer of life. One of the natural elements, especially trees that are very functional in the life of Balinese people, is banyan (beringin). Beringin, which is referred to as the waringin, wandira, and grodha agung, is preserved in almost all customary villages in Bali. Recognizing the importance of banyan trees in Balinese life, this study aims to analyze two problems related to banyan trees from the perspective of their functions and meanings. Qualitative methods are applied and data is analyzed by discourse theory. The results show that banyan trees are used as a means of yadnya ceremonies in Bali and are useful for curing various diseases, both caused by naturalistic (sakala) and personalistic causes (niskala). Symbolically the use of banyan in a pitra yadnya ceremony in Bali is interpreted as a means of purification to improve the quality of the ancestral spirit in the process of unification with the gods.
The Relevance of Cultural and Media Studies to Theatre and Television in Bali
A critical approach to Balinese society presents a starkly different picturefrom the representations that Balinese usually tell themselves, whichare largely myths to disguise a painful reality. Bali no longer belongsto Balinese but to international capital, a process of alienation by whichBalinese energetically commoditize their culture while claiming theopposite. Even the frames of reference for discussing what is happeningare inadequate because they predate the rise of contemporary consumercapitalism and the mass media. That is why critical media and culturalstudies, disciplines designed precisely to address such phenomena, arepotentially so relevant for Indonesian intellectuals.
The Teaching of “Jñana Sandi” in The Text “Tutur Muladara”
Lontar is a written media which is used in the earlier period before the discovery of the paper as a part of the renewable technology. Studying or researching old manuscripts is not an effortless job. In addition to the technical factors, it also involves language and script which are applied in the text as well as other factors associated with the culture system. In the manuscript, there are texts which match its soul. One text that is fascinating to observe further is the text of Tutur Muladara, the teachings of the spiritual that focus on the integration of sound, breath, and mind. This article analyzes the teachings contained in the text Tutur Muladara. In this text, there are various teachings of kadiatmikan. One of them is the teachings of Jñana Sandhi. This sort of teaching consists of three subs, namely the teaching of seven holes of the sky, Yoga Sandhi and Sang Hyang Adnyana Sandhi
There are two reasons why “Balinese art” is not a global art form, firstbecause it became too closely subordinated to tourism between the 1950sand 1970s, and secondly because of confusion about how to classify“modern” and “traditional” Balinese art. The category of ‘modern’ artseems at first to be unproblematic, but looking at Balinese paintingfrom the 1930s to the present day shows that divisions into ‘traditional’,‘modern’ and ‘contemporary’ are anything but straight-forward. Indismantling the myth that modern Balinese art was a Western creation,this article also shows that Balinese art has a complicated relationship toIndonesian art, and that success as a modern or contemporary artist inBali depends on going outside the island.
The painting tradition of Kamasan is often cited as an example of theresilience of traditional Balinese culture in the face of globalisation andthe emergence of new forms of art and material culture. This articleexplores the painting tradition of Kamasan village in East Bali and it’srelationship to the collecting of Balinese art. While Kamasan paintingretains important social and religious functions in local culture, thevillage has a history of interactions between global and local playerswhich has resulted in paintings moving beyond Kamasan to circulate invarious locations around Bali and the world. Rather than contribute to thedemise of a local religious or cultural practice, exploring the circulation ofpaintings and the relationship between producers and collectors revealsthe nuanced interplay of local and global which characterises the ongoingtransformations in traditional cultural practice.
Pura Besakih: Di antara Legenda dan Sejarah Penguasa Bali
Pemilih Cerdas vs Konspirasi Media-Kandidat Pilkada di Bali
Teater GloBALIsme: Pariwisata, Interkoneksi Global, dan Nasib Manusia Bali di Garis Depan
The development of the tourism industry in Bali has had various implications.Apart from extraordinary social change, there is the issue of how Balinese menstruggle to maintain their cultural identity in the midst of globalized tourism.Balinese men are at the frontier of a society where global powers meet to exploitnatural and human resources for the sake of tourism. Some Balinese men havelost their historical relationship to Bali because their own land has been sold toinvestors. Origin and identity maintenance are no longer directed to the land orto certain communities, but rather to a never-never land, a (global) world withoutmeaning that one is no longer able to localize (Laksono, 2009b). It is in this neverneverspace without meaning that we witness fragments and stories of Balinesemen making use of opportunities, developing tactics, and even fighting againsttourism, which Tsing (2005) has called friction. In this so-called friction, localidentity and culture are continually reproduced, the beginning and end of whichare difficult to fathom.
Pedagogical Reinterpretation of Kakawin Nilacandra for Deep Learning: A Model of Hindu Character Education
A Deep Learning approach based on mindfulness, meaningfulness, and joy has become a focus of educational transformation in Indonesia; however, integrating this modern concept with local wisdom remains a challenge. This study presents a pedagogical reinterpretation of Kakawin Nilacandra, a Balinese literary work that narrates King Nīlacandra’s spiritual journey toward wisdom, self-control, and ethical leadership through Śiwa-Buddha teachings. Using a qualitative approach, the study employs content analysis and hermeneutic interpretation, supported by triangulation and textual evidence. The findings reveal that Kakawin Nilacandra embodies educational values closely aligned with Deep Learning principles. The reinterpretation identifies three sequential learning stages: self-awareness, self-transformation, and self-internalization. It also demonstrates the text's relevance to teaching modules and its potential application in language, character, history, and citizenship education. These findings highlight how the reinterpretation of local literary wisdom can contribute to culturally grounded pedagogical innovation and support the implementation of Deep Learning in Indonesia.
Politik Identitas dalam Teks Sastrawan Bali
This article examines short stories and novels by Balinese writers that depictmeetings, friendships and love affairs between Balinese and Western characters.The works discussed were written either in the national or the Balinese languageand were published between the 1960s and 2000s, coinciding with the developmentof mass tourism in Bali. One distinctive feature of the works is that narrators avoidmixed marriages between Balinese and Westerners despite the love between them.This recurrent theme goes against reality in which mixed marriage is common andaccepted in the Balinese community. During the period in which these works werepublished, the discourse on Balinese cultural identity has been very important andhighly debated in the mass media against the backdrop of the tourism industryand its potential negative impacts. This article argues that Balinese writers useliterary works to articulate their opinion about the importance of Balinese peoplemaintaining their Balineseness or cultural identity. Their works are meaningfulwhen viewed as an expression of Balinese identity politics in facing what isconsidered to be the growing threat of tourism.
Cinta dan Seksualitas dalam Dunia Kakawin
Budaya Demokrasi dalam Kehidupan Masyarakat Desa di Bali
Democratic culture in the lives of villagers in Bali has some of the proceduralprinciples of a modern democracy. Some parameters are the rotation of power,open leadership recruitment systems, order management turnover, recognitionof appropriate manners, tolerance of differences of opinion, and accountabilityof power holders. Application of democratic culture clearly affects how desapakraman elaborates the concept of democracy as a power base andindependence. In addition, it also determines the shape and nature of relationsbetween the desa pakraman with desa dinas, this condition could be the basis ofprocedural democracy as one of the values of local wisdom in the development ofcultural tourism in Bali
Membaca Karya-karya IDK Raka Kusuma dalam Bégal
Securitization, Belonging and Politics of Belonging in Bali
Artikel ini membahas kemunculan keamanan lokal (kelompok) dalam menanggapiotonomi daerah, dalam konteks globalisasi di Bali, Indonesia. Perkembanganotonomi daerah di Indonesia pasca reformasi telah mempengaruhi kondisisosial, politik dan budaya daerah-daerah dan kabupaten-kabupaten di Indonesia,termasuk Provinsi Bali. Otonomi daerah saat ini diidentifikasi sebagai faktoryang mendorong perubahan sosial, politik dan budaya pada masyarakat Bali.Hal tersebut mengakibatkan peningkatan isu-isu keamanan lokal dalam kontekspelestarian budaya, ketegangan antar-kelompok etnis dan keamanan pariwisata.Berangkat dari situasi tersebut, artikel ini membahas bagaimana isu-isu otonomidaerah diinterpretasikan oleh aktor-aktor lokal dalam isu-isu keamanan bersamapada masyarakat Bali; dan melihat bagaimana kesadaran politik dan politikkepemilikan yang dikembangkan oleh aktor-aktor lokal untuk merekonstruksiidentitas kebalian orang Bali. Politik kepemilikan adalah bentuk denaturalisasiperan aktor-aktor lokal untuk mengkonstruksi apa yang mereka sebut “rumah”dan rasa aman dari sudut pandang orang Bali.
Gema Perdamaian: Tourism, Religion and Peace in Multicultural Bali
Balinese tourism has experienced serious challenges because of such negative incidents as the bombings by the Muslim terrorists in the Balinese resort of Kuta in 2002 and 2005. The inter-faith measures enacted as part of the crisis management for Balinese tourism after the bombings on 12 October 2002 are particularly interesting. These measures included joint- prayers to promote interreligious harmony such as the prayer for world peace, Doa Perdamainan Dunia dari Bali (“Prayer for Peace of the World from Bali”) on 21 October 2002, which was attended by the minister of religious affairs, who is himself Muslim. In this event the bombings were then interpreted by Balinese as an expression of the anger of gods, a consequence of bad karma. Therefore, a massive ceremony, involving the most powerful priests, was carried out on 15 November 2002 in order to cleanse Bali of the trauma of the bombing and restore peace. Since then the “prayer for peace” (Gema Perdamaian, literally “Echo of Peace”) has continued to be held on 12 October every year. By focusing on this event and the Balinese peace movement after the bombings, this paper discusses a new relationship between tourism, religion and peace within the framework of multicultural Bali in the age of transnationalism
Understanding Fortress Bali:The Impact of Democratisation and Religious Revival in Indonesia
Politik liberalisasi dan desentralisasi dari kuasa negara sejak 1998 telahmentransformasi lanskap sosial dan politik Indonesia. Pergeseran itudiilustrasikan dalam artikel ini dengan membahas Bali sebagai sebuah studi kasusyang relevan. Sebagai rumah bagi sebagian besar warga Indonesia beragamaHindu yang minoritas, Bali juga dipengaruhi oleh dampak dari meningkatnyagerakan revivalisasi Islam dan ekstremisme agama. Sebuah gerakan sosial barutelah mencuat dan memicu sebuah pergeseran ke arah identitas Hindu yang lebihtegas. Tulisan ini meninjau persimpangan antara geopolitik dan proses perubahanlokal untuk memahami lebih baik karakter dari ‘gerakan-gerakan lokalisasi’, yangmungkin merangsang penggunaan agama sebagai kekuatan dalam perjuanganuntuk meraih otonomi lokal, tetapi mungkin juga pemanfaatan wacana-wacanalingkungan, etnik, dan sejarah.