bali

Karangasem

East Bali: water palaces, Bali Aga villages and dry volcanic hills.

Understand this place before you visit

The place

The eastern regency under Mount Agung, with royal water gardens, black-sand coast and the island's oldest villages.

Bali Aga communities with their own customary law, alongside fishing and salt-making families on the coast.

Pre-Majapahit tradition in Tenganan; strong ritual calendars; textile and lontar knowledge held by households.

Coastal and dry-farm cooking, sea salt from Kusamba, palm sugar and palm wine.

Agung's slopes, terraced dry fields, coral coastline and quiet bays.

Tenganan, Karangasem

Sit with a weaver in one of the only three places on earth where double ikat is still made by hand.

Mixed 3h

Bebandem, Karangasem

I Nengah climbs twice a day, every day. You meet him at the first round and stay for the boiling shed.

Low tourist intensity 3h

Ababi, Karangasem

A Karangasem guide takes you into the royal water garden as the gates open, before the queue forms at the stepping stones.

Established attraction 2h

Bungaya, Karangasem

A walk through a Bali Aga village with a host from the neighbouring banjar, on a day the village has said is open.

Low tourist intensity 3h

Tenganan Pegringsingan

A Bali Aga village that predates the Majapahit influence, governed by its own written customary law.

Bebandem

A dry-farming village in East Bali where lontar palm tapping, cattle markets and Bali Aga ritual calendars still set the week.