It is interesting to see how rich
Bali’s Eka Karya Botanical Park is. It is home to a great
variety of tropical plants growing within a forest in Candi Kuning
village, Baturiti District, Tabanan Regency, 55 km to the north
of Denpasar. This botanical garden is 154,5-ha wide and lures
tourists, vacationers and people celebrating New Year or the Balinese
holy days of Galungan and Kuningan.
Standing proudly against a background of a tropical forest and
Bukit Tapak hill with a panoramic view of Danau Beratan Lake below,
the garden has a rich collection of plants, herbarium and other
facilities for botanical study and research for those engaged
in practice and pre-occupational training. Its management also
serves a package of ecological education complete with guide and
facilitators ready to assist visiting teachers and their students
in research and discussion on plants.
According to Deden Mudiana, an official of Bali’s Eka Karya
Botanical Park, this garden is the youngest, largest and widest
in Indonesia with thousands of kinds of plants coming from both
throughout the country and overseas. When planted, it was under
the name of ‘Botanical Gardens Conservations International’
(BGCI). The Bali Eka Karya Park emerged on 5 July 1959 in a ceremony
of inauguration by Prof. Ir. Kusnoto Setyodiwiryo.
There is a collection of 1,046 sorts of plants spread systematically
throughout the park, labeled with complete information. The collection
includes 316 kinds of natural orchid, which flower at different
times of the year according to the variety. There are always orchids
in flower here. The plant collection also includes 104 varieties
of unique cacti stored in a greenhouse, accompanied by 117 varieties
of traditional medicine plants passed down by ancestors and known
as ‘Usada Bali’.
Another specific collection located on the ground, 1,250 –
1,450 meters above sea level, encloses 130 varieties of plants
labeled ‘Upacara Adat’ or ‘Traditional Ceremony’,
appreciated by Balinese as it gives the gardens a socio-religious
character. The ‘Candi Bentar’ split gate of the complex,
which separates the local settlement from the forest, also reflects
this.
‘Taman Cyathea,’ with 49 varieties of fern, is another
collection found in the park, as well as a taxonomical herbarium
housing 507 varieties, a seed museum housing 595 varieties and
an Ethno-botanical Museum with its collection of 74 materials
and implements of Balinese ethno-cultural character. There is
one hectare of ground used as a seeding site and where plants
are developed and sold.
Statues of ‘Jetayu’ and ‘Rahwana’ strengthen
the character of the park which also contains the temples Pura
Batu Meringgit, Pura Teratai Bang and Pura Giri Putri. There is
Balinese traditional housing for those visitors who would like
to overnight in an atmosphere of a tropical garden. These are
officially one of the UPT technical units of the Development Center
of Indonesian Botanical Gardens, under the auspices of the LIPI
Science Institute of Indonesia.
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