Ways of Sustainable Development - Bali

Bali , a popular and known tourist   destination,a part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species  and  about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean.

 Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013  is  also renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking and music. Bali is the home of the Subak irrigation system, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Besides home for innumerable temples of exquisite architechture and wondrous ways of their faith , it exhibits a remarkable balance between traditional ways of life and modern ones. On one hand it treasures the rock sculptures and heritage of their ancient age ,while on another shakes and dances to the modern music numbers in the pubs of the busiest lanes where perform extraordinarily  dancers and artists.

Right from the sea shores to dense forests , from live volcano to lakes and from paddy fields to terraced farms, Bali exudes ecological balance everywhere . While moving through the  alleys of small villages, the series and endless display of sculptures, stoneworks , woodcrafts, metalcrafts in different forms mesmerizes and makes one think about the exquisite and precious inheritance that they have reared and treasured.

One of the most impressive form was the construction of rooms , houses , structure with bamboo. Bamboo as we all know bends when it is raw and green while it becomes brittle when ripened. Once while visiting Goa Gajah , a 8th century excavated cave site, I happened to visit a restaurant nearby. There was some kind of new construction going beside to extend the room. The worker had cut similar small pieces of bamboo and attached them to a wooden strip and nailed it to get the desired shape. The four base pillars of bamboo on which rested the whole construction had a square cut of  a square inch near its lower end . The person filled the hole with mix of concrete with the help of a leaf and was trying to fill the hollow base. This would solidify once settled and would reinforce the pillars giving them immense strength to uphold the whole structure resting on it.

This surely made me think that innovations and ideas can help us to so many things which we usually ignore leading us to solutions for sustainable development to help maintain the ecological balance. The minimum usage of concrete and in turn bamboo plants used for the same would give a cooling effect to the interiors and stop artificial blockages in the ground.

Such ideas can nevertheless bring out more solutions to help reduce the carbon prints and help the environment in many ways.