Brought to the West by 17th-century travelers, the shadow play is an East Asian form of puppetry in which flat cutout figures are silhouetted against a translucent screen. Developed in China, probably about 100 BC, shadow puppetry spread as far as North Africa and Turkey, then to Greece, its most famous version being the plays of BALI and Java. These plays present incidents from Hindu epics with buffalo skin figures, whose grotesque shapes and ornamentation are prescribed by tradition. In performances lasting up to ten hours, the puppeteer manipulates the figures with rods and intones the story to musical accompaniment. The colorful ceremonies still performed in terraced courts of Balinese shrines give some idea of what life around older shrines must have been like in their heyday.
Balinese tourism runs rampant in a few patches but the rest of the island is relatively untouched.
The challenge in arranging a BALI holiday is being honest in what is desired from it. A person seeking luxury should aim for Nusa Dua on a peninsula where some of the world's most sumptuous hotel palaces line the shores. Then there is Kuta. This is a cross between Surfers Paradise and Animal House, especially during Australian school holidays. In tourist terms, the western part of BALI is a non-event.