Uluwatu: The Political Punchball

Perched 100 meters above the Indian Ocean and clinging to limestone cliffs, Pura Uluwatu have graced millions of tourist snaps, postcards, and tourist based periodicals. Now it has become the focus of a far more contentious issue. Political posturing? The preservation of a scared religious site? Or a financial conflict?

Over the past few weeks there has been a lot of written on Bali’s press concerning the debate over a 5 km exclusion zone for Bali villas and tourism based properties around the Uluwatu temple. There seem to be two main conflicting parties, those that wish to enforce the zone and preserve the sanctity of Bali’s most iconic temple and those who feel it is a dastardly plot to prevent the owners from realizing financial security by selling their land.