50 Fun Facts About Bali

Bali is the westernmost of which island group?

It lies east of Java and west of Lombok, with the small islands of Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan off its south-east coast.

What is the capital of Bali province?

It is the most populous city in the Lesser Sunda Islands; Singaraja on the north coast was the old colonial capital.

Roughly what share of Bali's population follows Balinese Hinduism?

Muslims make up about 3 per cent of the ethnic Balinese and Christians about 1 per cent.

Tourism-related business makes up roughly what share of Bali's economy?

Agriculture is still the biggest employer, but tourism produces the largest output and has made Bali one of Indonesia's richest regions.

The Balinese name for the island appears as 'Vāli-dvīpa' on which 914 CE inscription?

It was erected under King Sri Kesari Warmadewa; dvīpa is Sanskrit for 'island', and one theory derives Bali from the Sanskrit for 'offering'.

Bali lies how far east of Java across the Bali Strait?

The island is about 153 km wide and 112 km from north to south, roughly 8 degrees south of the equator.

What is Bali's highest peak, known as the 'mother mountain'?

The active volcano rises to 3,031 metres and is rated one of the world's likeliest sites for a massive eruption within a century.

Bali's most important temple, Pura Besakih, sits high on the slopes of which mountain?

The lava flows of the 1963 eruption missed the Mother Temple by mere metres.

The 1963 eruption of the island's highest volcano had what consequence for many Balinese?

The eruption killed thousands and created economic havoc; further eruptions in late 2017 closed the airport.

What is Bali's longest river?

It flows about 75 km; the Ho River is the only one navigable by small sampan boats.

Beaches on Bali's south coast tend to be white; those in the north and west are typically what colour?

The volcanic black-sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are little visited apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot.

The Lombok Strait, east of Bali, marks which famous biogeographical boundary?

Alfred Russel Wallace landed at Buleleng in 1860; Bali's fauna is Asian while Lombok's is Australasian.

Which critically endangered bird is endemic to the island?

About 280 bird species live on the island; the yellow-crested cockatoo is a rare Australasian visitor west of the Wallace Line.

The last definite record of the Bali tiger dates from what year, when one was shot?

The endemic subspecies may have survived into the 1940s or 1950s; leopards now occur only on neighbouring Java.

Bali's Coral Triangle has over 500 reef-building coral species. That is about how many times the Caribbean's total?

A 2011 survey of 33 sites found 952 reef fish species and 393 corals, several new to science.

Which Javanese empire founded a colony on Bali in 1343?

When Majapahit fell in 1520, mass Javanese migration to Bali followed and the island became a cluster of independent Hindu kingdoms.

What is a 'puputan', as carried out by the Balinese royal family facing the Dutch at Sanur in 1906?

An estimated 200 Balinese killed themselves rather than surrender, and a similar mass suicide followed at Klungkung.

Which Dutch merchant-explorer arrived at Bali in 1597?

The Dutch East India Company followed in 1602, but Dutch control of Bali only began on the north coast in the 1840s.

Which two anthropologists' 1930s stays helped create the image of Bali as 'an enchanted land'?

The artists Walter Spies and Miguel Covarrubias and the musicologist Colin McPhee were there in the same decade.

Why did the Japanese decide to occupy Bali in February 1942, though it was not an original target?

The island had no regular Dutch colonial troops, only about 600 native auxiliaries, and fell quickly after landings near Sanur.

Bali's international airport is named after which Balinese national hero?

He formed a Balinese 'freedom army' under the Japanese occupation and was killed fighting the Dutch at Margarana in November 1946.

In which year did Bali become a province of Indonesia, with its first governor appointed by Sukarno?

Anak Agung Bagus Suteja was the first governor; direct popular election of the governor began only in 2008.

Roughly how many people were killed on Bali in the anti-communist purges of 1965–66?

That was about 5 per cent of the island's population, with upper-caste landlords of the PNI leading the killings of PKI members.

What is subak, listed by UNESCO in 2012?

It dates from the 9th century and covers nearly 20,000 hectares of terraces; its philosophy, Tri Hita Karana, links harmony with God, people and nature.

What is Nyepi?

From 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. work, travel, fire and lights are restricted and everyone, tourists included, stays indoors while pecalang patrol the empty streets.

Who are the only people allowed on the streets during Nyepi?

They patrol to ensure the prohibitions on work, travel and lighting are observed.

Large colourful monster sculptures paraded on the eve of Nyepi are called what?

They embody evil spirits and are carried through the streets before the day of silence.

Which is the most important Balinese Hindu festival, celebrating the triumph of dharma over adharma?

It is related to Deepavali; ngejot food-sharing with neighbours is held for Galungan and Nyepi.

Balinese children are traditionally named according to what?

Names are the same for boys and girls; a first-born is Wayan, Putu or Gede, and a fifth child is often 'Wayan Balik', meaning 'Wayan again'.

A first-born Balinese child is commonly given which name?

Putu, Gede or, for a girl, Ni Luh are alternatives; the name Wayan means 'eldest'.

The Kecak dance, performed by a circle of chanting men, is based on which epic?

Also called the monkey chant, it was popularised in the 1930s by German painter Walter Spies working with dancer Wayan Limbak.

What sound do the Kecak performers, up to 150 of them, chant percussively?

They wear checked cloths around their waists and move their hands and arms as they chant.

What is Balinese percussion orchestra music called?

It is highly developed and varied, and Balinese performing arts often dramatise Hindu epics.

Which meat, unusual in the rest of Indonesia, is common in Balinese dishes such as babi guling?

Babi guling is spit-roast pig; the difference reflects Bali's Hindu rather than Muslim majority.

The town of Ubud takes its name from the Balinese word 'ubad', meaning what?

It was originally important as a source of medicinal herbs, and is now regarded as the island's cultural centre.

Which 2006 memoir, filmed in 2010 with Julia Roberts, fuelled a tourism boom in Ubud?

Elizabeth Gilbert's quest for balance was set partly in Ubud and at Padang-Padang Beach.

The seaside temple of Tanah Lot is attributed to which 16th-century religious figure?

He is said to have spent a night on the rock during his travels through Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa, and is worshipped there.

How many people died in the 2002 Kuta bombings, Indonesia's deadliest terrorist attack?

Eighty-eight of the dead were Australians; members of Jemaah Islamiyah were convicted and three sentenced to death.

The 2002 bombers struck Paddy's Pub and which open-air bar opposite it?

A suicide bomber's vest exploded in Paddy's, and twenty seconds later a van bomb detonated outside the second venue.

The 2022 G20 summit in Bali was held in which resort area?

Bali also hosted Miss World 2013 and the 2018 IMF–World Bank annual meetings.

Which country has long supplied the most tourists to Bali, with China displacing Japan as second in 2011?

India has also become a major source; the island received almost 7 million international visitors in 2025.

Which 1963 project of Sukarno's kick-started the island's modern tourism?

Before it there were only three tourist-class hotels on the island; the airport opened in 1970.

Which indigenous group predating the Javanese migrations, mostly animist, still lives on Bali?

They predate the third wave of Javanese immigration and mostly do not follow Agama Tirta, mainstream Balinese Hinduism.

What is the supreme god of Balinese Hinduism, the 'undivided one', called?

The pantheon of gods is seen as manifestations of this supreme consciousness.

Bali has no railways, but a car ferry has run since the 1930s from Gilimanuk to which Javanese port?

A coastal road circles the island and three arteries cross the mountains at passes up to 1,750 metres.

How many international tourists visited Bali in 2025?

That was a rise of nearly 10 per cent on 2024; in the first half of 2021, during the pandemic, the island welcomed just 43.

Into how many regencies, plus one city, is Bali province divided?

Below them sit 57 districts, 80 urban villages and 636 rural villages; Denpasar is the lone city.

Arabica coffee from which highland area was the first Indonesian product to seek a geographical indication?

Growers there belong to Subak Abian cooperatives rooted in the Hindu philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, and process their beans by the wet method.

The offshore islands of Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan belong to which Bali regency?

They lie just southeast of the main island and are popular for manta ray and sunfish diving.

Which town on Bali's north coast, near Singaraja, is known for dolphin sightings?

Amed and Tulamben, on the east coast, are better known for coral-reef diving.