Project 365

Another shot from the Ubud Monkey Forest, this time of the hanging roots of a sacred banyan tree.

The presence of sacred forest is a demonstration of the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature. In Bali, sanctuaries such as the Monkey Forest are usually in sacred village areas, often surrounded by temples. These cultural sanctuaries are not only an important part of Balinese heritage, but also an important part of everyday live. Temple festivals are regularly held for the villagers and the gods in such areas.

Location: Sacred Monkey Forest Ubud

This is Violaine. She is a couchsurfer and we hosted her for a few nights. This was taken at Ryan and Dana Bagus’ new house in Kuta. They adapted the word bagus , which means good in Indonesian, into their last names because for some reason it’s their favorite word.

We went to the Monkey Forest in Ubud and I was lucky to snap this photo of a monkey family.

The monkeys within the Sacred Monkey Forest of Padangtegal are commonly called long-tailed macaques. Their scientific name is Macaca fascicuiaris. Macaques are found throughout Southeast Asia and many species of macaques live successfully in areas that are heavily utilized by humans. On Bali, there are Balinese long-tailed macaque troops (populations) that live in areas where they have little to no contact with humans and troops that come into contact with humans on a regular basis. However, despite the fact that many species of macaques thrive in areas that are heavily utilized by humans, there is evidence that the viability of Balinese long-tailed macaques (the ability of macaques to continue to thrive) may be dependent upon the conservation of Bali’s forested areas.

Location: Sacred Monkey Forest Ubud

My American friends just moved down to Kuta and they found this in their yard. I guess things alike auto flock.