I Love Indonesia

Ubud Ubud is a town on the Indonesian island of Bali in Ubud District, located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the central foothills of the Gianyar regency. One of Bali's major arts and culture centres, it has developed a large tourism industry. Ubud has a population of about 30,000 people. Recently, it has become difficult to distinguish the town itself from the villages that surround it. The town was originally important as a source of medicinal herbs and plants; Ubud gets its name from the Balinese word ubad. In the late nineteenth century, Ubud became the seat of feudal lords who owed their allegiance to the king of Gianyar, at one time the most powerful of Bali's southern states. The lords were members of the satriya family of Sukawati, and were significant supporters of the village's increasingly renowned arts scene. Tourism on the island developed after the arrival of Walter Spies, an ethnic German born in Russia who taught painting and music, and d...