East of Java and west of Lombok , the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller offshore islands, notably Nusa Penida , Nusa Lembongan , and Nusa Ceningan to the southeast. The provincial capital, Denpasar , [ 11 ] is the most populous city in the Lesser Sunda Islands and the second-largest, after Makassar , in Eastern Indonesia. Denpasar metropolitan area is the extended metropolitan area around Denpasar. The upland town of Ubud in Greater Denpasar is considered Bali's cultural centre.
The province is Indonesia's main tourist destination, with a significant rise in tourism since the s, and becoming an Indonesian area of overtourism. Bali is the only Hindu-majority province in Indonesia, with In March , TripAdvisor named Bali as the world's top destination in its Traveller's Choice award, which it also earned in January Bali is part of the Coral Triangle , the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species, in Coral Triangle, especially fish and turtles.
For comparison, this is about seven times as many as in the entire Caribbean. The confederation is the successor of the Bali Kingdom. The royal houses, which originated before Dutch colonisation , are not recognised by the government of Indonesia. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead. Inscriptions from and do not mention a king, until , when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Shaivism were practised simultaneously.
Mpu Sindok 's great-granddaughter, Mahendradatta Gunapriyadharmapatni , married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa Dharmodayanavarmadeva around , giving birth to Airlangga around This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali.
Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in Suradhipa reigned from to , and Jayasakti from until Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between and , while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.
