What is now the Tjampuhan Hotel – in Ubud, Gianyar Regency, Bali, Republic of Indonesia – was built on the instructions of King Tjokorde Gede Agung Sukawati and opened in 1928 as a guesthouse attached to the Puri Saren Agung Ubud Palace, also known as the Ubud Royal Palace. But what was the point of a guesthouse without guests? Well, either because the house was planned for that purpose or because, since it had been built, it was necessary to fill it with guests, King Sukawati and his brother Tjokorde Raka Sukawati decided to invite famous artists to stay there – famous at least in those years of the 20th century. This is how Ubud became the cultural and artistic centre it is today.
After all, the king was fluent in English and Dutch – the latter because Indonesia was then under Dutch colonial rule. Walter Spies was just such a guest artist, although he was to play a more prominent role than other guests of the sovereigns, including the actor, playwright and composer Noel Coward, or the actor and director Charlie Chaplin, or the writer H. G. Wells, or the anthropologist Margaret Mead. G Wells, or anthropologist Margaret Mead… “the king invited Walter Spies to build a house on his land, and in return asked him to inspire Balinese artists to use more dynamic painting techniques and become more experimental in their subject choices”. Suarsa, commercial director of the Tjampuhan Hotel, told the online magazine Coconuts Bali in 2016. Today, Spies’ historic two-storey studio, suitably restored with very few alterations, perches over a lotus pond, alongside the more recently built bungalows and 66 Balinese-style rooms that complete the hotel.
The Tjampuhan Hotel, the second oldest hotel in Bali after the Inna Bali Heritage Hotel – which opened to the public only a year earlier in 1927 – is a magnificent example of traditional Balinese architecture. In its quest for harmony with its surroundings, Balinese architecture relies almost exclusively on local organic materials. Dried coconut leaves or ‘rumbia’ (sago palm, or Metroxylon sagu) on roofs, bamboo canes or woven bamboo in interiors, ceilings and walls, coconut or teak wood for jambs, pillars, doors, furniture and elsewhere, and stone or brick where necessary. These are the main building materials used in the Tjampuhan Hotel.
But Balinese craftsmen are especially known for their artistic mastery and sophisticated sculptural tradition in carving sandstone and andesite for the ornamentation of important buildings, such as temples and palaces. In fact, this hotel we have selected for you in the world has splendid and exquisite examples of the artisan tradition of stone carving. As such custom dictates, the arched thresholds in the common areas, richly decorated with floral ornaments and stone pinnacles, reserve the position on their keystone for the somewhat terrifying head and hands of Kala, the Hindu deity of time.
The spa at the Tjampuhan Hotel deserves a special mention. It is a ‘mythical stone cavern’ located at the base of the valley, just a few metres from the ‘natural splendour of the river flow’. In this spa, a profusion of motifs carved out of stone swoops – like a fantasy firework – from every corner, from the edges of the double pool to the ceiling; among floral elements they peep, crawl, glide, watch a thousand eyes and seem to whisper the voices of an infinity of figures, some human, some divine and others of animals such as monkeys, fish or frogs, among the abundant vegetation and the water. A place not only to find wellbeing, but also to let your imagination run wild and get lost in the twists and turns of the most whimsical reveries.
Let’s finish with just a few words about the surroundings of the Tjampuhan Hotel. Indeed, it is located in an area bounded by the Oos and Cerik rivers, just a few hundred metres from their confluence, further south, on the Campuhan Ridge, sacred to the Hindu religion. For Hinduism has many symbols of the masculine and feminine energies coming together, and this represents the place where two rivers merge into a single stream. Consequently, the river is not a place for bathing and recreation, but a place for purification and meditation. In fact, the word ‘campuhan’ means ‘confluence of two rivers’. It is from the same word that the Hotel Tjampuhan derives its name, which corresponds to the older Dutch spelling of the same word.
To enlarge the views of this magnificent hotel, you can take a look at this video:
Sources: Hotel Tjampuhan, Wikipedia, Bali Golden Tour, Voice Map, Coconuts Bali.
Images: Hotel Tjampuhan.
