According to Nesa Eliezer, Balinese gardens inspire one to contemplate one's place in the world"When he made this garden, my father followed traditional Balinese principles of landscape design," explained I Gede Ariana as he showed me around his garden. "A proper balance of keramaian (abundance) and kesepian (empty stillness) is evident here, as it is in many Balinese gardens."

We were standing in his garden courtyard enjoying the subtle early morning light. The variegated colors of a clump of croton shrubs overlooked lower plants.The sun rendered the wine-red coleus translucent, giving them a rich ruby-like aura. Elegant heliconias, and green lushness of ferns and crinum lilies made the north-eastern corner of the courtyard delightfully refreshing. The rest of the courtyard was just hard-packed mud, swept clean,Empty, still. Only a few low plants edged the garden.   

The household's ancestral shrines rose on stilts in the lush, north-eastern part of the garden, their rush-thatched roofs sitting like some intriguing peasant hats upon their square forms. I could see the thin, smokey line of the incense that had already been lit by the visiting pemangku (temple priest) to sweeten the air of the spirits remembered there. The scented frangipani and tuberoses on the canang sari (offerings) sat in delicately woven baskets at their entrances.

These compositions of leaf and flower are placed on the ground to placate malevolent spirits and on walls and higher grounds to thank and invoke the good. The sweetly scented champak flower, dreamy hydrangea, odourless mussaenda and papery bracts of the bougainvillea could be arranged petal by petal, in a lontar-palm basket sitting upon a piece of banana leaf,elaborately adorned with intricately woven fans and spikes of coconut and lontar leaves. Frangipani and grasses, brilliant hibiscus and soft lavender-colored thunbergias, wild lantanas and the regal lotus - combined with many variations of flower and palm leaf in canang sari are an ever-present reminder to all who behold them that nature is, above all,intricately infinite. In Gede's garden, these simple symbols of reverence enhanced the peace and stillness of the space. Indeed, the garden was at once richly ramai and serenely sepi.        

MICROCOSMS OF THE EARTH

Nevertheless, whatever garden you walk into in Bali - be it a simple household courtyard or an extravagant, plush hotel gardens, the guiding principle remains a deeply ingrained reverence for nature. Gede Ariana explained it thus: "We take so much from nature; she gives so selflessly. We must repay her by honoring her. We make canang sari, we create gardens, we give importance to every plant, however humble." Balinese gardens, in other words, are in themselves offerings, designed to honor Mother Earth. They are microcosms of the Balinese world view and, as such, the elements that predominate that perception are the basic essentials of a Balinese garden. 

Water, for example, is extremely important. It is the giver and sustainer of life. Water is central to Balinese ceremonial proceedings, and the Balinese sometimes refer to their religion as agama tirta - the religion of water. Thus water is omnipresent in almost every Balinese garden, whether it be merely a small container of water with a single flower adorning it, sitting among the lush plants, an impressive dragon-pot filled with white water-lilies basking in the sun, or a pond where aquatic reeds and grasses rise from the water to catch the breeze, and lotuses and water-lilies carpet the surface of the water. Some of the more spectacular hotel gardens even include rivers, the banks of which are thick with ferns and drooping vines. Some of the older, traditional palace gardens as in Klungkung, include Floating Pavilions - pleasure houses - surrounded by ponds which contain blooming water lilies and darting, glistening golden carp. Statues of heroes and deities stand guard around the pavilions, and screens provide a sanctuary from the disorderly world without. Taman Ayun at Mengwi is just as breathtaking. Here,temples are raised on island gardens, and a large moat separates the temple and its gardens from the shore beyond.

Further evidence of the importance of water in Bali is the fact that the Balinese orient themselves according to its flows, as the Balinese cardinal points kelod and kangin illustrate. Kelod means downstream, towards the sea, while kaja is upstream, or towards the mountain, where the gods reside.Balinese piety is thus defined by the water course, for the location of household shrines, and indeed that of every building in a Balinese compound, is designed according to this system of cardinal directions. Thus shrines raised are always raised above the ground in the kangin and kaja part of a Balinese garden garden.

As well as water, the importance of trees is also acknowledged in every Balinese garden, for it is trees that give nourishment and shelter. Fruit trees - mango,mangosteen, papaya, coconut, betel nut - rise above shrubs and plants.The dark green silky leaves of miniature begonias nestle under the fronds of agaves and ferns, their intense red blooms startling against the green. A frangipani tree, its blooms scattered around below, leans over a small pond of water lilies and floating flotillas of water mosses. Charming compositions of periwinkles, lantana and gloriosa lilies hug the edges of the courtyard while a huge flowering Indian Laburnam hangs its bright yellow bunches of delicate flowers like lanterns over the house. A myriad images created by different gardeners; but each one a homage to the variegated bounty of nature.   

Potted water lily, private garden, Ubud.

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