Bali: in Brief

The word Bali which has several meanings was first known in the year of 913 in the era of King Sri Kesari Warmadewa. The meaning of Bali are: to return, offerings (for redemption), truthfully, and exact. This word was probably originated at even the first century when many of Indian traders came to South East Asia, including Bali. At this island, they observed religious activities making use of offerings. And possibly because of what they observe, these traders later called the island as Balidwipa (The Island where the offerings or religous ceremonies are conducted).

Bali province as a part of Indonesia consists of five  islands, namely, Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan, Serangan (turtle island) and Menjangan covering an area of 5.6 square kilometres. Located in between Asian continent and Australian continent, Bali is a volcanic island. There are several mountains in this two seasoned island. Two of them, Mount Agung and Mount Batur, are active volcano. We also have four lakes, (you can read more about them my other post).

We have two seasons, dry season for six months (April-October) and another six months is rainy season (October-April). The temperature is ranging from 24 to 31 Celcius and rain drop is also ranging from 1400 to 2600 mm per year. As for humidity, it is 79%. (Makes you sweat a lot).
How many people live in Bali? Based on the last census 2001, there are 3,15 million. (Well, five years have passed since the last cencus that there are many more people live in Bali because of birth and migration  from other islands.) Census were conducted several times, namely:

• Year 1930: 1,1 million
• Year 1961: 1,8 million
• Year 1971: 2,1 million
• Year 1980 :2,4 million
• Year 1990: 2,8 milion.

The population is constituted with mostly Balinese Hindu, and the rest are Moslem, Christian, and Budhist. The Balinese Hindu is strongly bound to the social values that they have obligation to the temple, to society where they belong, the land or rice field group (if they have farm), to social status based on caste, and to village where they live.