Sanur’s Padang Galak Beach is a favorite amongst kite-flyers in Bali, but talk of a potential hotel or other development project in the spot have some members of the local ‘kite community’ worried about the end of what limited open space is left in the area.
Padang Galak Beach is on the northern end of Sanur, a seaside town under Denpasar administration, popular with tourists and expats. The beach is the main site of the Bali Kite Festival, an annual kite festival where giant traditional flights are competitively flown, with traditional Balinese villages in Denpasar battling for victory and to signal to the Hindu gods for prosperity. The festival, which is on its 39th year, saw thousands of people flock to the shore on Saturday.
But amidst this year’s festivities, was apparently rumblings about an endangered kite tradition.
Another of Sanur’s beaches, Mertasari which has seen rapid development with hotels, shops, and restaurants, is too small a space for the giant kites, so now the fear is for Padang Galak, says Made Yudha, second chairman of the Bali Kite Association.
“Mertasari has already shrunk, so the space there is not possible,” Yudha told Tribun Bali on Sunday.
According to Yudha, investors should not be allowed to build for commercial purposes on kite-flying spaces, because of the sacredness of the area.
“So you cannot build anything around here. Actually, the provincial government must defend this place as a green open space,” says Yudha.
“Imagine this is happening, it’s almost the 40th kite festival in Padang Galak. It’s a shame for the children,” he added.
However, no matter the perception of the area as “sacred” by some, city zoning officials see things differently.
Padang Galak is a “tourism zone” not a “green zone,” says Kadek Kusuma Diputra, head of DPMPTSP, the Denpasar Licensing Agency.
Meanwhile, Diputra recently revealed that there are some investors who will build entertainment venues, such as malls and other entertainment centers in Denpasar—though he did not specify who all is behind the projects and where exactly in Denpasar the building would be.
However, the site doesn’t sound like it would be Padang Galak. Diputra says up til now, there have not been any applications filed for development permits in the kite-playing area of Padang Galak.
But the spot is up for grabs, according to the official.
“What is clear to me is that it is a tourism zone,” he said.
Big development projects hovering over land perceived as sacred by Balinese is nothing new to the island.
The impending reclamation of South Denpasar’s Benoa Bay is a similar story on a much larger scale. Indonesian developer TWBI has been in a very slow process of moving towards reclaiming 700 hectares of the bay—that’s been designated as “sacred” by the country’s leading authority on Hinduism—to build artificial Dubai-esque islands complete with hotels, other tourism facilities, and an F1 racing track.
