Bali Echo Visitor's Guide

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February/March, 1998
No. 033/VI/98

cover story

Galleries Galore
The boom in
contemporary Balinese
art

A Matter of Taste
Why bourgeois Balinese
are collecting art

beyond
bali

From Toraja to the
Togians
Sulawesi's most seductive
parts

Treading Lightly in
Lombok
Tips to being a green
tourist

regular
features

Weekender
The Saltmakers of Amed

Home Grown
Legian's Legend,
Made Kasim

Health and Beauty
The Ubud-based
Bali Utama Spice

Books
The search for the Great
Bali Novel continues

Cuisine
Bumbu Bali cooking
school

Fiction
Marni's Ride by
K. Landras Syaelendra

Jungle Drums

advertising index for
Bali Echo web site

Since then there have been several new generations of incense, all bearing the quirky names that have become something of a trade mark for these spice girls. Both Melanie and Dayu were keen to discover a local mosquito and insect repellent. Dayu remembered that Balinese farmers use a plant called legundi, twigs of which are tucked behind the ear and placed under pillows to ward off night attacks. After another intensive period of experimentation Begone Bug was born.

"We were really looking for something that could be used like a sage-based smudge stick. But then thought why not another incense stick?" said Melanie. Dayu went on "There's still a lot of legundi growing. But of course far less than in the past, as land is used for other things now. Pantai Padang Galak still has a lot of it, and now that people know that we are using it as a useful plant, farmers are planting more." Pantai Padang Galak, near Sanur, is the beach to where holy objects are taken for ritual washing, and has recently come under threat from another development project. The legundi, and the sacred place of ritual upon which it grows, could both be lost to asphalt and brickwork of yet another hotel.

Green ideals
"We also want farmers to plant more for their own use. Many useful plants are rarely seen these days as manufactured chemicals are regarded as more modern and convenient. But these plants are as effective as any chemical and, even better, they are free if you can grow them in your garden. We hope that Indonesians will recover the memory of how to use those plants," says Melanie.

Melanie and Dayu complement eachother perfectly. Dayu has absorbed the ancient knowledge of her family passed down on lontar. Her knowledge of plants for medicinal and other uses matches Melanie's research abilities and enthusiasm for experimenting. More than that, they share a unity of purpose and sense of ethics. Melanie's alchemist's den in Ubud, is a palace of decanters, vials, burners and other paraphernalia of the transformative quest. Here, they simply turn plants and plant products into various forms and shades of gold. "We want to make good quality goods that are not exploitative of people or the environment. If the business is successful and we can excite people with ideas, then we can employ many more people." In Bali, where business ideas are usually held with Pentagon-like secrecy, Melanie and Dayu's intellectual and social generosity is rare indeed.

Already Utama Spice has spawned a few small enterprises. For instance a ceramics works which make containers for products and refines clays, glass blowers who make the bottles out of recycled glass, paper makers for packaging and, of course, the Ubud Herb Walks organised by Lilin and Westi. These early morning strolls around the outskirts of the village, acquaint interested people with the botanical richness and usefulness of Bali's natural environment. "We are working with farmers in Java to plant certain crops that flourish there. For many it enables them to use their old knowledge again, stuff that had been disregarded by new agricultural technologies. In the past they have been encouraged to monocrop, plant only rice or only cabbages. We try to take a permaculture approach, for instance in Mambal, the farmers are growing temu temu with gardenia hedges, and now we are encouraging them to plant lime and orange trees for the leaves. Then they have income from many sources and at different times of the year," Melanie explains.

Above : As Melanie and Dayu show, the nose knows

continued