Academia
Beyond the resorts and glossy brochures, the PKP Community Center offers vulnerable Balinese women a lifeline of empowerment, community and hope.
An instructor (right) teaches a tourist how to make a canang sari offering during a workshop at a resort in Jimbaran, Bali. (Tribun Bali/Infinity8 Bali)
Balinese people place great value on a cultural concept called ngayah. It is characterized by a rich tradition of voluntary, selfless community or temple work undertaken collectively without the expectation of payment. Ngayah reflects another Balinese belief, menyama braya, which literally means to regard others as family.Together, these values foster profound mutual respect and cooperation, cutting across all social and economic lines. This is the living, breathing "real Bali" so many travelers hope to find, yet it remains largely invisible to the millions of international tourists who land on the island each year.
But it should be.
