Bali Officials Crack Down on Bikini-Clad Tourists Taking Selfies at Sacred

Denpasar, MINA — Authorities on the Indonesian island have grown concerned by the rise of Westerners, some in bikinis, posing for selfies at their sacred Hindu sites, the Guardian UK reported Friday.

“This is the government’s attempt to maintain the Pura [temples],” said Bali deputy governor Tjokorda Oka Artha Sukawati, known as Cok Ace.

“The temples need to be preserved since they are the spirits of Bali’s cultures and customs.”

In the coming weeks, the government will be re-evaluating the system that allows tourists to visit temples unaccompanied.

Bali has become increasingly popular with tourists, attracting over 5 million visitors in 2017, with many drawn to its unique Hindu temples.

“It is because we are too open with tourists, so too many come, and indeed the quality of tourists is now different from before,” said Cok Ace.

The government crackdown was prompted, in part, by a recent viral photo of a Danish tourist sitting on a holy shrine at the Puhur Lutur Batukaru temple. The shrine is reserved for the most important deity in Balinese Hinduism and to sit on it is highly offensive. Local police are investigating and looking for the tourist in the image, according to the Guardian.

Other offensive images taken at holy sites in the past years include tourists who climbed on a sacred structure for a picture and one woman who did a yoga pose in a bikini in front of an ancient temple. T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)