The Bali Brand
2013
TAGs: Ulawatu Temple, Suluban beach, Ubud, nusa dua, hinduism, gwk tourist center, elizabeth gilbert, eat pray and love, apec, tourism, ethics, bali, kecak dance, demonstration effect, exotic bali, traditional, bali dance
Ngurah Rai airport welcomes visitors with wafts of frangipani incense and towering Balinese arches. Arriving at night, one is entranced by the scents and shadows of the place, a promise of the exotic.
Contrast this with the lines to queue up to pay the country exit fee of 150,000 Rupiah to the bureaucrat wearing a sporty cravat before being required to spill your personal belongings in the third security check, and you have a pretty decent image the tourist experience there.
I have to admit: I was feeling nostalgic about Bali with my first steps even though I had never before visited. The ubiquitous scent of clove cigarettes set me back more than twenty years when I wrote lengthy letters to my friends who spent part of our youth studying in Indonesia.
As always, nostalgia for the past set me up to be blindly caught in the net of the tourist loop. Bali culture, however, has been facing the pressures of foreign visitors since the 1970's, and, even long before, with the Dutch colonialists. These pressures often result in efforts to meet the appetites of foreign "invaders": lust, gluttony, and sloth, especially enticing the college age sector to the party beaches of Kuta and businessmen seeking both the beauty of the Island of the Gods and women (See Bali Raw, Malcom Scott, 2013). Yet, tourism in Bali is more than crime, gangs, and petty swindles, which can be found anywhere.
Contrast this with the lines to queue up to pay the country exit fee of 150,000 Rupiah to the bureaucrat wearing a sporty cravat before being required to spill your personal belongings in the third security check, and you have a pretty decent image the tourist experience there.
I have to admit: I was feeling nostalgic about Bali with my first steps even though I had never before visited. The ubiquitous scent of clove cigarettes set me back more than twenty years when I wrote lengthy letters to my friends who spent part of our youth studying in Indonesia.
As always, nostalgia for the past set me up to be blindly caught in the net of the tourist loop. Bali culture, however, has been facing the pressures of foreign visitors since the 1970's, and, even long before, with the Dutch colonialists. These pressures often result in efforts to meet the appetites of foreign "invaders": lust, gluttony, and sloth, especially enticing the college age sector to the party beaches of Kuta and businessmen seeking both the beauty of the Island of the Gods and women (See Bali Raw, Malcom Scott, 2013). Yet, tourism in Bali is more than crime, gangs, and petty swindles, which can be found anywhere.
A truly international travel destination, one is thrust into the current of visitors, Indonesian women wearing headscarves, male Sikhs wearing turbans, and a blue-eyed European tucking a copy of Eberharmen on her Kindle into her travel bag. The largest number of tourists visiting Bali are Australian (25%) and Chinese (12%) (Tourism In Bali Dominated by Australians, The Bali Times, Sept. 23, 2013), but when visiting the big resorts or the traffic-jammed two lane roads winding to the "vetted" tripadvisor attractions, one sees all nationalities. How can one place cater to so many different morals, tastes, and preferences? By adhering to a brand identity, which defines a common tourist experience, even if motives for visiting Bali differ.
So whether you want to visit Bali in order to party or to experience an “authentic” cultural exchange in a home stay, here are some of the attributes of the Bali tourist spiral I experienced. As Picard noted in his studies of the Pacific region, the "Bali brand" was both compelling and complicated.
So whether you want to visit Bali in order to party or to experience an “authentic” cultural exchange in a home stay, here are some of the attributes of the Bali tourist spiral I experienced. As Picard noted in his studies of the Pacific region, the "Bali brand" was both compelling and complicated.
Once it had become a tourist asset, the Balinese resolved to preserve and promote their culture, while taking advantage of its prestige abroad and its economic importance at home in order to obtain full recognition of their ethnic identity from the state and to improve their position within Indonesia. That is how culture, by becoming Bali's brand image -- that which distinguishes its tourist product in a highly competitive international market -- has also become, indissolubly, an identity marker for the Balinese.
Tourism, Ethnicity, and the State In Asian and Pacific Societies, Picard and Wood, 1997
The Indonesian government uses the brand to attract important travelers to the region. Bali had recently hosted the APEC CEO conference, with the Presidents and Prime Ministers from across the world in attendance as speakers for the summit.
However, over the last 10 plus years, maintaining this level of influence in the tourism world has been difficult. More than 200 Indonesians and visitors were killed in the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005. This halted tourism for a time, hurt the brand image, and bankrupted many local businesses. Since 2005, the country has tightened security measures, but the US State Department warns, "Localized political violence and civil unrest due to ethnic, sectarian, religious and separatist reasons is not uncommon in various parts of the country" (Indonesia Country Specific Information, Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. State Department).
The government is as worried about outside threats as it is regarding its homegrown insurgents. Before entering the departure gate lounge, one must pass through second round of security checks, much like flying to the United States, even if the traveler is catching a connecting flight.
In Nusa Dua, a southern tourist enclave of five star resorts, golf course, and an open-air shopping mall, Bali Collection, entering cars are inspected by guards. Every mall entrance sports a lackadaisical guard who held my bag without looking inspecting it as I walked through the metal detector. Some resorts had guards every few meters along the ocean promenade in an effort to prevent onlookers from taking photographs of the facility.
Where I stayed, the hotel also had guards at the gate and a metal detector at the drop-off rotunda, which was easily bypassed by walking up a breezeway that ran parallel to the entrance, taking passersby to the heart of the resort. APEC was gone, and some of the vestigial security measures were now for show, to make the ordinary visitor feel secure and happy to buy meals, boutique clothing, handicrafts, and spa packages at exorbitant prices.
Who better to ply money from the tourist, than the industry which makes the visitors feel as if they are safely experiencing a different culture, even one that is so serenely a stereotype of the complex host culture? The tourism industry, aided by the West's addiction to guide books, has diluted a complicated culture into one glossy magazine spread after another, marketing Bali as a brand.
Everywhere I went, in the mall, museum, or restaurant, lovely Balinese music piped from above like a film screen to one’s every day, mundane moments.
What do you expect from a resort area? Nothing less, right?
However, over the last 10 plus years, maintaining this level of influence in the tourism world has been difficult. More than 200 Indonesians and visitors were killed in the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005. This halted tourism for a time, hurt the brand image, and bankrupted many local businesses. Since 2005, the country has tightened security measures, but the US State Department warns, "Localized political violence and civil unrest due to ethnic, sectarian, religious and separatist reasons is not uncommon in various parts of the country" (Indonesia Country Specific Information, Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. State Department).
The government is as worried about outside threats as it is regarding its homegrown insurgents. Before entering the departure gate lounge, one must pass through second round of security checks, much like flying to the United States, even if the traveler is catching a connecting flight.
In Nusa Dua, a southern tourist enclave of five star resorts, golf course, and an open-air shopping mall, Bali Collection, entering cars are inspected by guards. Every mall entrance sports a lackadaisical guard who held my bag without looking inspecting it as I walked through the metal detector. Some resorts had guards every few meters along the ocean promenade in an effort to prevent onlookers from taking photographs of the facility.
Where I stayed, the hotel also had guards at the gate and a metal detector at the drop-off rotunda, which was easily bypassed by walking up a breezeway that ran parallel to the entrance, taking passersby to the heart of the resort. APEC was gone, and some of the vestigial security measures were now for show, to make the ordinary visitor feel secure and happy to buy meals, boutique clothing, handicrafts, and spa packages at exorbitant prices.
Who better to ply money from the tourist, than the industry which makes the visitors feel as if they are safely experiencing a different culture, even one that is so serenely a stereotype of the complex host culture? The tourism industry, aided by the West's addiction to guide books, has diluted a complicated culture into one glossy magazine spread after another, marketing Bali as a brand.
Everywhere I went, in the mall, museum, or restaurant, lovely Balinese music piped from above like a film screen to one’s every day, mundane moments.
What do you expect from a resort area? Nothing less, right?
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The artificial culture that is called ‘Balinese’ by tourist operators, state authorities and those on the Balinese ‘arts industry’ is not so much the culture of the Balinese people, but a manufactured ‘regional culture’ which, together with other ‘regional cultures’, provides cultural objects and performances that enhance Indonesia’s national culture. To a large extent these regional cultures are narrowly defined as the visual arts – dance, architecture, plastic arts, and are quite different from the anthropological notion of culture as a complex whole of custom, morals, law, belief and associated practices. These cultural arts have the advantage that they can easily be abstracted from the context that gives them their meaning in an ethnic culture, and can be publicly deployed as representations of national culture. Tourism, Culture, and Identity, The Changing World of Bali, Leo Howe, 2005, pp. 142 |
The Elizabeth Gilbert Effect...or should I say julia roberts?
“You know Julia Roberts?” our Driver of the Day, Rashi, asked over his shoulder while dodging a tourist bus on the narrow rode. “She made a movie here, Praying...." He hiccuped as he tried to remember the name, "Praying in Bali?”
Irrespective of using two different car agencies, the drivers expected I wanted to be Julia Roberts, or really Elizabeth Gilbert, who profited on the idea that self-discovery could be made by seeking wise teachers in foreign lands. I would be hypocritical to claim I don't believe that a person comes to a deeper understanding of one self when displaced from one's own cultural norms. However, such a journey serves the most egotistical aims when travelling abroad. Gilbert, furthermore, encouraged an onslaught of middle aged women looking for hot, sensitive boyfriends and sagacious healers in Bali. Apparently, in the eyes of the drivers, I fit that description. From the back of the nicotine stained minivan, I could hear the ghostly whispers of a graying woman looking down her nose at Eat, Pray, Love trying to figure out how to reach Ketut Liyer,Gilbert's spiritual healer. (See Time Magazine Bali's Travel Boom: Eat, Pray, Love, by Hillary Brenhouse, July 22, 2010.)
Irrespective of using two different car agencies, the drivers expected I wanted to be Julia Roberts, or really Elizabeth Gilbert, who profited on the idea that self-discovery could be made by seeking wise teachers in foreign lands. I would be hypocritical to claim I don't believe that a person comes to a deeper understanding of one self when displaced from one's own cultural norms. However, such a journey serves the most egotistical aims when travelling abroad. Gilbert, furthermore, encouraged an onslaught of middle aged women looking for hot, sensitive boyfriends and sagacious healers in Bali. Apparently, in the eyes of the drivers, I fit that description. From the back of the nicotine stained minivan, I could hear the ghostly whispers of a graying woman looking down her nose at Eat, Pray, Love trying to figure out how to reach Ketut Liyer,Gilbert's spiritual healer. (See Time Magazine Bali's Travel Boom: Eat, Pray, Love, by Hillary Brenhouse, July 22, 2010.)
Our first stop on the Elizabeth Gilbert Tour, for which I did not sign up, was apparently one of the surfer beaches, Pedang-Pedang, as it was a shooting location for the film adaptation.
However, our driver also took us to Suluban Beach, claiming that it was were the author came. One passes through a series of shops, bars, and restaurants to descend to the beach. While clearly catering to foreigners, it felt less uncomfortable than the spectacle other attractions offer. (Maybe I am a beach bum at heart.) Still I wondered, "Did Gilbert ever come here? If so, why?"
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Taking the "Elizabeth Gilbert" trail, may not always be accurate, and in Bali, may not be so different than finding Obama Beach all along the coasts of West Africa. (His father came from Kenya, in the east). However, pride in a political personality differs from assuming every tourist wants to be shown the same kind of tourist traps, but in a different location, based on one movie staring Julia Roberts.
The next phase of the Gilbert tour, unfortunately, took us to Pura Luhur Ulawatu, a Hindu temple on the cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean. Having visited holy places all over the world, I had another nostalgic misconception that somehow I would feel that moment when the heavenly choirs open in a flood of sunlight to make one feel the insignificance of humanity in the greater cosmic context. (Maybe I am more like Gilbert than I care to admit.)
However, when I read the travel websites, people warned of monkeys snatching glasses and jewelry and counselled on the necessity of wearing the sarong, provided by the temple.
When we arrived, the place was teeming with tour buses, and the attendants were handing out free bunches of bananas to lure the monkeys. I refused the fruit, and cobbled my way to the path which follows the cliff to climb to the temple.
However, when I read the travel websites, people warned of monkeys snatching glasses and jewelry and counselled on the necessity of wearing the sarong, provided by the temple.
When we arrived, the place was teeming with tour buses, and the attendants were handing out free bunches of bananas to lure the monkeys. I refused the fruit, and cobbled my way to the path which follows the cliff to climb to the temple.
Hindus comprise the largest population on the island, and many community temples and household temples dot the geography. Clearly, there is a deep respect and adherence to the religion among some people, as " Bali is the place with the highest proportion of Hindus, even more so than Nepal," in the world (Hinduism in Bali and Indonesia, Hindu Human Rights, September 26, 2012). Yet, the Uluwatu temple contributed more to the Bali brand image than to fostering spiritual beliefs.
The association responsible for the temple clearly used the monkeys as a hook to draw the tourists to their attraction in order to sell tickets for the Kecak, or monkey, dance. Traditionally, dances were intertwined with the Hindu and animist beliefs of the Balinese. "Performance art is thus and act of worship but also an expression of cultural values, a vehicle for folk history, popular stories, life rituals to do with prosperity and health of the village, morality, cremation and death," reported Simon Tinsdale in The Guardian profile of the Kecak dance (Primate Scream: Bali's Monkey Dance, April 13, 2011). Yet this dance, created in the 1930's, seems to be geared to the tourists as a profit making performance.
The association responsible for the temple clearly used the monkeys as a hook to draw the tourists to their attraction in order to sell tickets for the Kecak, or monkey, dance. Traditionally, dances were intertwined with the Hindu and animist beliefs of the Balinese. "Performance art is thus and act of worship but also an expression of cultural values, a vehicle for folk history, popular stories, life rituals to do with prosperity and health of the village, morality, cremation and death," reported Simon Tinsdale in The Guardian profile of the Kecak dance (Primate Scream: Bali's Monkey Dance, April 13, 2011). Yet this dance, created in the 1930's, seems to be geared to the tourists as a profit making performance.
Balinese dance and drama are extremely complicated, last a long time, use difficult languages, and have narrative structures very different from those of western drama (de Zoete and Spies 1938; Picard 1996:134-51). They often accompany a ceremony and are held in a temple rather than on a purpose-built stage for a paying audience. In order to make such performances partially accessible to tourists they have to be radically modified and adapted, and this has led to new forms of dance an new combinations of motifs from different dances, not all of which have been to the liking of the Balinese.
Tourism, Culture, and Identity, Leo Howe, pp 136
By the fourth day of my visit, it was even more urgent to try to escape the contrived culture of the resort and surrounding environs. Ubud, despite drawing Gilbert fanatics, suggested a possibility to see an art community that was perhaps removed from the commercialism of the beaches. The drive to the hillside community offered plenty of shopping opportunities, which I should have seen as an omen.
"It seems if you put the word 'traditional' in your sign, you have a better chance of bringing in customers," I remarked on the second day to a new driver, who laughed and said something in Indonesian to his buddy, who apparently was going to join us for the day's sightseeing.
"Traditional and exotic!" he exclaimed, "Those two words sell everything."
Unfortunately, Ubud reminded me of Santa Monica, where since 1977 the Hare Krishnas have celebrated the Festival of the Chariots. The main road was clogged with traffic and invitations to shop in the same kind of boutiques offered by the resorts and trendy California avenues. The main difference was there were many more tour companies vying for business in Ubud than in Nusa Dua.
"It seems if you put the word 'traditional' in your sign, you have a better chance of bringing in customers," I remarked on the second day to a new driver, who laughed and said something in Indonesian to his buddy, who apparently was going to join us for the day's sightseeing.
"Traditional and exotic!" he exclaimed, "Those two words sell everything."
Unfortunately, Ubud reminded me of Santa Monica, where since 1977 the Hare Krishnas have celebrated the Festival of the Chariots. The main road was clogged with traffic and invitations to shop in the same kind of boutiques offered by the resorts and trendy California avenues. The main difference was there were many more tour companies vying for business in Ubud than in Nusa Dua.
Tourism cannot be seen as having a merely tangential influence on the host society. It created changes which go to the core of a society while constituting new ethnic relations between neighboring groups and with the encompassing state. Tourists are unwitting actors in these cultural and political struggles...State authorities, tourist agencies, guides, and the hosts themselves change, manipulate and adapt local cultural resources to accommodate tourists desires, needs and expectations, often by emphasizing tradition, 'age-old' custom and the exotic.
Tourism, Culture, and Identity, Leo Howe, page 134
Fortunately, my visit coincided with the time of the Galungan celebration, which occurs every 210 days. Evidence of the celebration was everywhere, and, with relief I saw it wasn't a practice involving hand out-stretched for Rupiah, dollars or Euros.
The people's complete indifference to my presence was a welcome sign that perhaps these traditions hadn't been modified for the tourist experience, but were, rather, a routine community enterprise.
The people's complete indifference to my presence was a welcome sign that perhaps these traditions hadn't been modified for the tourist experience, but were, rather, a routine community enterprise.
Outside every courtyard, the penjor signaled the communities' devotion and gratitude. The bamboo pole is decorated with spices, such as nutmeg and mace, and filled with food, such as yam, rice, corn,and cassava.
It is easy to believe the Balinese have been bound by the Bali brand. On the one hand, tourism has gown the economy and attracted world leaders to the area. On the other hand, the southern interior doesn't have adequate water, due to the consumption of the resorts and golf courses (See TED Case Studies on Bali Tourism). Furthermore, the construction of wealthy villas has increased land values. Perhaps most importantly, the creation of the Bali brand was founded on developing a larger national identity, from many different islands and cultures, which in the end has transformed the culture and expression of the people's beliefs into a homogeneous, generic shell of itself, created through the language, concepts, and expectations of foreigners.
To put things in stark terms, tourism has been instrumental in effecting large-scale
social change which has resulted in a series of interconnected and paradoxical
outcomes – the formation of a new sense of Balinese identity based on a religious
culture conceived of as ancient, a new notion of culture seen as a heritage from the
past which can be exploited as a capital resource to attract tourists, and the idea that –
notwithstanding the changes brought about by tourism – the Balinese are retaining
their culture despite increasing exposure to western modernity. Tourism, Culture, and Identity, Leo Howe, page 149
As visitors, we have to be mindful of our intentions, whether or not our motives are egotistical like Gilbert's in seeking personal transformation by another "wiser" culture. Holding people to the expectation that they stay in a traditional or exotic role is no less imperialistic. "Although the Dutch used their superior powers to enforce and direct change while tourists instigate unintentional change, some of the outcomes are remarkably similar" (Howe, 134).
Local communities begin to resent tourists who in many cases are more affluent than the local people. They have different religious and cultural backgrounds and portray a lack of respect for local culture wearing offensive clothing or entering restricted religious sites. Young people in local communities begin to follow these displays, which are noted in the literature as the "demonstration effect (Harrison, Macleod, 2004; Teo, 1994). This results in greater social problems such as crime, drugs and prostitution (Holden, 2000). International Volunteer Tourism: One Mechanism for Development, WEARING and GRABOWSKI, 2011
I take responsibility for being one of those people, who through her ignorance, got caught in the tourist loop: wherein foreigners are assumed to want one thing, (mostly the company of other tourists?), and the local people are required to present a shadow version of their beliefs and customs.
I had to pay to get out of this bind; hopefully, the Balinese will pay less of a price in the future for the tourism trap.
I had to pay to get out of this bind; hopefully, the Balinese will pay less of a price in the future for the tourism trap.