By MD.Moon hyungsuk , Buleleng, Bali
Beyond Bali’s postcard beaches and bustling resorts lies a quieter region — the lush northern coast of Singaraja, where mountains tumble into the sea and local life still follows the rhythm of ritual.
Here, amid temples, rice terraces, and black-sand shores, the Jagadhita Cultural Festival 2025 unfolded from 20–26 September, transforming this historic town into a stage of music, dance, and environmental learning.
Taking its name from the Balinese philosophical concept jagadhita — “universal well-being” — the festival has become one of the island’s most distinctive cultural gatherings. It is not only a celebration of heritage but also a reflection of Buleleng’s commitment to sustainable tourism and community education.
This year’s edition placed particular emphasis on environmental awareness, combining traditional arts with lessons in marine ecology, water protection, and responsible travel. Through workshops, performances, and school partnerships, Jagadhita showed how art can inspire social and ecological consciousness.
An Island’s North awakens
The festival’s opening parade coursed through Singaraja City, led by Wakil Bupati (Deputy Regent) Gede Supriatna.
Dozens of schools and community troupes joined, joined by international ensembles including the Eonnam Traditional Arts Troupe (Korea), Maya Global Event (India), Wild Roses Dance Group (Hungary), and Tegal Art House (Central Java).
At the centre of this cultural mosaic stood Dr Moon Hyung Suk, a long-time collaborator in Asian cultural diplomacy & consultants of this festival, who ensured each delegation not only performed but engaged with local schools and environmental projects.
The parade’s energy set the tone: exuberant, inclusive, and deeply conscious of place. Rather than turning Singaraja into a mere tourist spectacle, the event invited visitors to see how community life and ecology intertwine in northern Bali.
Culture as a classroom
Throughout the week, the festival became a living network of “learning through culture.”
At SMKN 1 Sawan, students from Bali and India danced together, exchanging gestures that transcended language. In Panji Village, Korean drummers taught rhythm while local youths introduced purification rituals symbolising the cleansing of nature and the self.
These encounters went far beyond performance. Each was paired with an environmental module developed in collaboration with Undiksha University’s Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, addressing issues such as coastal erosion, coral reef protection, and water-quality monitoring — long-standing challenges in Buleleng’s northern waters.
“Education through art has a special power,” said a local teacher. “When children drum, dance, or paint the sea, they begin to feel responsible for it.”
From the classroom to the coast
Indeed, the coastline itself became part of the curriculum.
At dawn, participants gathered on Lovina Beach, a site famed for its dolphins but increasingly affected by tourism-related waste. Local NGOs, including Trash Hero Singaraja and the Buleleng Marine Conservation Initiative, conducted clean-ups and short lectures on microplastics, waste segregation, and reef stewardship.
The collaboration illustrated the festival’s broader mission: to weave environmental protection into cultural experience.
Artists painted the changing colours of the sea on recycled canvases; dancers performed beside mangrove plantations; students wrote poems about water as life’s spirit.
Such efforts align with Bali’s provincial goal of achieving a “Green Tourism North Corridor” by 2030, balancing economic growth with environmental restoration. Jagadhita’s organisers see culture as the most natural entry point for that transition.
Evenings of shared humanity
As the sun set, the open-air stages glowed with the movement of bodies and the shimmer of traditional attire.
At Undiksha University Hall, a crowd of more than 500 witnessed an evening of extraordinary fusion: Hungarian folk dance stepping into dialogue with Javanese theatre, framed by the precise gestures of Balinese legong.
Each performance carried a quiet ecological metaphor — rivers flowing into seas, humans breathing with the earth. The final gala at Krisna Kuliner brought all troupes together in a crescendo of gamelan, Korean percussion, Indian rhythm, and European melody.
When the music ended, many in the audience lingered — reluctant to let go of the sense of shared belonging that had filled the air.
Why the North Matters
For decades, Bali’s tourism narrative has been dominated by its southern beaches. Yet the northern regency of Buleleng holds the key to the island’s sustainable future.
Once the seat of Bali’s ancient kingdoms and later a centre of education under Dutch rule, Singaraja possesses both historical depth and environmental fragility.
The region’s coral reefs, mountain springs, and coastal villages face mounting pressure from unchecked development. Recognising this, local authorities have turned to eco-education as both a defensive and developmental strategy. The Jagadhita Festival has become a vital platform within this approach, showing that preserving culture and protecting nature are not separate missions but parallel responsibilities.
The educational legacy
This year’s festival introduced a series of community workshops on sustainable livelihoods:
- “Tourism and Environment in Harmony,” exploring how homestay owners can reduce plastic use and manage wastewater;
- “Art for Awareness,” encouraging young painters to visualise conservation themes;
- “Blue Education,” a pilot initiative teaching schoolchildren simple water-testing techniques for local rivers.
These sessions reflected Bali’s Tri Hita Karana philosophy — the harmony between humans, nature, and the divine — reframed for the twenty-first century.
International participants, meanwhile, discovered that the island’s famed spirituality is rooted not in ceremony alone but in daily acts of care for land and sea. “You realise that ecology here is not an imported concept,” observed a delegate from Hungary. “It is already part of Balinese ethics.”
A festival with a future
The festival’s closing ceremony reaffirmed that Jagadhita is not a one-off event but a model for cultural sustainability.
Plans are under way to develop exchange programmes linking Buleleng’s schools with partner institutions abroad, ensuring that the friendships and insights forged this year continue to grow.
For local authorities, success is measured less in visitor numbers than in how many children leave inspired to protect their environment. For the artists, it is a reminder that creation and conservation can be one and the same act.
As Bupati Dr I Nyoman Sutjidra remarked in his closing message:
“Through Jagadhita, we show the world that culture is our bridge to understanding, and that protecting the environment begins with knowing who we are.”
The meaning of Jagadhita
In Sanskrit, jagadhita means the welfare of the world.
In Bali’s context, it expresses the belief that true happiness arises when humans live in balance with one another and with nature.
By bringing together artists, students, and communities from four continents, the Jagadhita Cultural Festival 2025 transformed this philosophy into action — proving that art can educate, unite, and heal.
On the black sands of Lovina, where dolphins leap against the dawn, that message now echoes across the waves: well-being for the world begins at home.
