Bali Cultural Landscape added to the World Heritage List at the 36th Session of the World Heritage Committee

• © UNESCO/Masanori Nagaoka

On 29 June the World Heritage Committee unanimously agreed to adopt the recommendation of UNESCO's advisory bodies and enlist the Cultural Landscape of Bali onto UNESCO's World Heritage List.

The full name of the inscription is the 'Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: The Subak System as a Manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy' and has been enlisted as a cluster site incorporating Bali's unique Subak system, the Supreme Water Temple of Pura Ulun Danu Batur, Lake Batur, the Subak Landscape of the Pakerisan Watershed and Cater Angga Batukaru and the Royal Water temple of Pura Taman Ayun, the island's main temple complex.

These cultural marvels are linked by a shared irrigation structure, which demonstrates the principle of Tri Hita Karana (a Balinese and Indian philosophy that draws together the realms of the spirit, the human world and nature) through the subak system. Subak refers to a religious and social institution of self-governing groups of farmers who democratically share the responsibility for the water used to grow rice in their paddy fields. Farmers meet regularly to control the distribution of the irrigation water and also to make spiritual offerings at the temples. Therefore, Indonesia's newly inscribed world heritage site consists of dramatic agrarian landscapes alongside traditional Balinese temples.

This is Indonesia's fourth cultural heritage site to be added on the World Heritage List, after Borobudur, Prambanan and the Sangiran Early Man Site.

More information about this inscription can be found at the below link.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1194

• 02-07-2012