Ubud - City of Indonesia

Ubud is a town on the Indonesian island of Bali. The town is located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the island's central foothills in the Gianyar regency. One of Bali's major arts and culture centres, it has developed a large tourism industry.

8th century legend tells of a Javanese priest, Rsi Markendya, meditated at the confluence of two rivers at the Ubud locality of Campuan. Here he founded the Gunung Lebah Temple on the valley floor, the site of which remains a pilgrim destination.

The town was originally important as a source of medicinal herbs and plants; Ubud gets it name from the Balinese word ubad.

Tourism on the island developed when Walter Spies came to Ubud, an ethnic German born in Russia who taught painting and music, and dabbled in dance. Spies and foreign painters Willem Hofker and Rudolf Bonnet entertained celebrities including Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, Barbara Hutton, H.G. Wells and Vicki Baum. They brought in some of the greatest artists from all over Bali to teach and train the Balinese in arts, helping Ubud become the cultural centre of Bali. A new burst of creative energy came in the 1960's in the form of Dutch painter Arie Smit , developing The Young Artists Movement. There are many museums spread all over Ubud, including the Museum Puri Lukisan and the Agung Rai Museum of Art.

The Bali tourist boom since the late 1960s as seen much development in the town, however, it remains a centre of artistic pursuit.

Tourism to Ubud has a focus on culture and nature. In contrast to main tourist area in southern Bali, Ubud has forests, a river, and cooler temperatures. A number of smaller "boutique" style hotels are located in and around Ubud, which commonly offer spa treatments by the foothills or treks up Ubud's mountains.