Architectural Digest
Set amid rice paddies and lotus ponds in the ancient village of Canggu on Bali's west coast is Hotel Tugu Bali, the third hotel project of Anhar Setjadibrata. In ten thatched pavilions, he realized his vision for a resort that celebrates Indonesia's history.
For Javanese hotelier Anhar Setjadibrata, collecting antiques is as much a historical quest as an aesthetic one. "I see each piece I own as part of the puzzle of Indonesia's past," he says. "Putting them together to tell a story is my passion.
Called the island of Gods and noted both for physical beauty and rich cultural heritage, Bali is most popular among international travelers than ever. For art connoisseurs, the region is home to numerous fine art galleries, with traditional art markets scattered throughout the island. As the area's foremost art collector, Hotel Tugu Bali owner Anhar Setjadibrata has already earned the respect of art aficionados and travelers alike at his Hotel Tugu Malang, which like its new sister resort
" Last year Setjadibrata translated that passion into new luxury resort Hotel Tugu Bali on the island's western coast. The twenty-six-suite hotel tells the story of several hundred years of Indonesian culture and history. Its artwork meander through different styles and centuries, pausing to explore Setjadibrata's ancestral Chinese roots, to showcase his favorite artists an to honor the local Balinese heroes who fought against the Dutch colonials. Tugu Bali sprang from the Indonesian antiques and culture artifacts that Setjadibrata has amassed over the past twenty-six years. He call it a "museum boutique hotel - a place where drama and romance and luxury come together to bring the collection to life."
(Setjadibrata, who designed the hotel, used an alang-alang roof to shade the entrances's porte cochere.
At left is a shrine to Bali's Hindu gods).
He first caught the collecting bug at the age of twenty-five, he says, when he made a modest foray into Ming Dynasty furniture, porcelain and silver. That was followed by purchases of carved wood Madurese panels, Javanese doors, Balinese stone sculptures and Dutch colonial architectural artifacts. Later he bought entire buildings, one of which - the Palace of Harmony - he reconstructed in entirety at Tugu Bali. "In the early 1970s I was struck by the fact that Indonesians were throwing their culture away," he recalls. "They didn't recognize its value. Old houses, furniture, photograph, silver, gold, everywhere you went, people were replacing them with modern things." Sixteen master craftsmen executed his design sketches. Composed of ten thatched structures, the resorts, at first glance, has a distinctly Balinese flavor.
(An area off the lobby "faces the beach and sunset," Setjadibrata says. "It's where we serve tea every afternoon." "We want our guests to enjoy the hotel's amenities, but we also hope they become involved in Balinese traditions," he says).
But the interiors reflect his travels throughout Indonesia as much as the wanderings of his imagination. The open lobby is both the center of the resort and its most majestic building. Its soaring alang-alang roof is supported by twenty-foot-high wood columns, each topped with the carved head of Boma, a mythological Balinese guardian whose leering face is believed to scare away evil spirits. The confluence of styles and traditions that characterizes the rest of the hotel is evident in the lobby, where his pieces are on display and also for use by guests. They include a century-old gamelan set and a sixteenth-century cupu manik, or sacred ceremonial bowl.
The bedroom in the Djojodipoeran Pavilion was named for prince Djojodipuro, who lived in Yogyakarta's palace on Java and during the early 20th century supported Walter Speis and other artists.
Similary exotic objects spill into the guest suites, two of which pay homage to painters who nurtured an artistic flowering in Indonesia in the early twentieth century.
The Le Mayeur suite, with private swimming pool and dining pavilion, is named for Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres, the late Belgian artist who moved to the island in 1932, married Ni Polok, a renowned Legong dancer, and created a legacy of paintings depicting everyday Balinese life. The villa is furnished with a canopied four-poster made from antique Balinese pillars and matching side tables and chest, carved by a blind woodworker in the couple's employ. Personal effects, such as Ni Polok's loom and several portraits of the couple, are scattered around the suite. "Most of all, I wanted the room to capture the spirit of how they lived," he says.
(The Le Mayeur Pavilion, colored in gold's and reds, is the hotelier's tribute to the late Belgian artist Andrian Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres. Many of the furnishings and artworks were purchased from his widow, Legong dancer Ni Polok, before her death on 1986).
Tugu Bali also honors Walter Spies, the influential German musician and painter who made Indonesia his home from 1924 until his death in 1942. Spies cofounded Pita Maha, an art association that helped to foster a resurgence in traditional painting.
"What few Indonesians remember is that before moving to Bali, Spies lived at Prince Djojodipuro's palace in Yogyakarta," Setjadibrata says. The Walter Spies Pavilion highlights that period, borrowing from the hybrid architectural style typical of the ancient Javanese city in the 1920s. Constructed of brick and timber, it incorporates several original Dutch Colonial architectural elements, including the entrance gate, door railings and stained-glass windows, that Setjadibrata salvaged from Spies's residence.
The Palace of Harmony is an eighteenth-century Peranakan ancestral hall that speaks to Setjadibratas own Indo-Chinese roots. He rescued it from destruction and turned it into
"I realized that my collections must no longer speak only to me, they must speak to all as a symbol of my country's rich history and culture heritage." says Setjadibrata, who began acquiring works in the 1970s. The main pool features lion statues spouting water.
A dynamic environment for dining. Against a back drop of crimsons and yellows, vintage photographs, antique silk textiles and Chinese-style teak tables, chairs and cabinets mingle with life-size stone sculptures of Chinese deities.
Tugu Bali is the culmination of Setjadibrata's lifelong fascination with Bali. Part history lesson and part romantic getaway, it's his version of paradise. "Almost everything in the hotel is related to the island in one way or another." He says. "I'd like to think that I brought a piece of its culture back to life.
Tugu Bali Hotel
Jalan Pantai Batu Bolong, Canggu Beach 3812
BALI - INDONESIA
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