Three people travel to Bali for very different reasons. Marla is well read in Bali’s culture; she distrusts false ideologies, orientalism and tourism. To her surprise she finds the echoes of a golden age and a passionate lover. Nelson, a young woman from Sydney returns in the hope of reuniting with her Balinese boyfriend, but encounters the unexpected. Tyler, a New Yorker searching for a lost friend, enters a world of mystery and intrigue. All three are on the edge, unsure of whether they should stay in Bali any longer, but are increasingly drawn into the heart of this complex and alluring island. Through subtle storytelling and compelling characters, Inez Baranay unravels the exotic, ways of knowing and the culture of tourism, in one of the world’s favourite destinations.

"A tale of three people on the edge. Three very different tourists visiting Bali are on their way to a remote village where a trance dance is to take place. They are on the edge of meeting, on the edge of leaving Bali for ever. Three tourists, unknown to each other..." "Nelson is twenty, and only wants to party on at Kuta Beach among the pretty boys, magic mushrooms and all-night dance clubs. Marla is forty, on her way to Europe and is enchanted by the island with its golden past. Tyler is thirty, from New York, but in Bali, on a mission..." "The Edge of Bali examines the exotic, ways of knowing and the culture of tourism, in one of the world's favorite destinations."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Along rivers in Bali, small groups of farmers meet regularly in water temples to manage their irrigation systems. They have done so for a thousand years. Over the centuries, water temple networks have expanded to manage the ecology of rice terraces at the scale of whole watersheds. Although each group focuses on its own problems, a global solution nonetheless emerges that optimizes irrigation flows for everyone. Did someone have to design Bali's water temple networks, or could they have emerged from a self-organizing process? Perfect Order--a groundbreaking work at the nexus of conservation, complexity theory, and anthropology--describes a series of fieldwork projects triggered by this question, ranging from the archaeology of the water temples to their ecological functions and their place in Balinese cosmology. Stephen Lansing shows that the temple networks are fragile, vulnerable to the cross-currents produced by competition among male descent groups. But the feminine rites of water temples mirror the farmers' awareness that when they act in unison, small miracles of order occur regularly, as the jewel-like perfection of the rice terraces produces general prosperity. Much of this is barely visible from within the horizons of Western social theory. The fruit of a decade of multidisciplinary research, this absorbing book shows that even as researchers probe the foundations of cooperation in the water temple networks, the very existence of the traditional farming techniques they represent is threatened by large-scale development projects.

Series blurb: The Ecology of Indonesia series explores one of the most biologically diverse areas of the world, incorporating current research from Western and Indonesian specialists. Each book describes in detail, Indonesia's fragile ecosystems, its unparalled biodiversity, its peoples andtheir use of natural resources, and the ecological problems which have resulted from rapid economic development.

Here creative writers who are also university teachers monitor their contribution to this popular discipline in essays that indicate how far it has come in the USA, the UK and Australia.

Whether readers are planning a trip to Bali or just fantasizing about one, Journey Through Bali & Lombok makes for an unforgettable Bali travel guide. Containing more than 300 color photographs, this breathtaking volume brings you from the trendy beach of Seminyak to the Monkey Forest at Sangeh and the hot springs along Lake Batur to the sunken wrecks off Tulamben. Through stunning photographs, readers climb Lombok's smoldering Mt. Rinjani volcano and explore the nearby rustic Gili Islands and Nusa Lembongan. Greenway was a longtime resident of Bali and still considers it his spiritual home. Journey Through Bali & Lombok capture the region's stunning natural landscapes and the lives and experiences of the Balinese people--including their renowned religious festivals, gamelan music, and painting and craft traditions. For example, an image of the cliff-top temple of Pura Luhur Ulu Watu during a sunset dance performance--complete with hypnotic chanting and fire-walking--reveals intriguing aspects of ancient Balinese culture.