The rice terraces of Tegallalang and Jatiluwih demonstrate the subak irrigation system that Balinese farmers have used for over a millennium, the cooperative water management that distributes resources through networks of channels and dams. The terraces that cascade down hillsides, green and photogenic, represent agriculture that functions while also serving as attraction. The UNESCO recognition in 2012 acknowledged both the landscape's beauty and the cultural system that created it.

The terraces have become tourism product in ways that complicate their agricultural function. The entrance fees that tourists pay, the cafes that overlook photogenic viewpoints, the Instagram swings that have been installed for selfies - these represent commerce that preservation cannot prevent. The farmers who maintain the terraces receive some of the tourism revenue; whether that compensates for the disruption remains debated.

The Balinese dance performances that Ubud hosts nightly represent tradition that tourism has preserved by providing audience. The Legong dance, the Barong drama that depicts cosmic battle between good and evil, the Kecak fire dance that originated as ritual and became spectacle - these are performed by troupes that maintain the training and costume traditions their art requires. The performances are genuine even when scheduled for tourist convenience.

The music that accompanies the dance - the gamelan orchestras whose interlocking rhythms create textures that Western ears find hypnotic - requires training that begins in childhood and continues for life. The orchestras that perform are community institutions, their members drawn from villages where rehearsal is social obligation. The performances at Ubud Palace and the surrounding temples provide the cultural experience that visitors seek; the traditions they represent survive partly because visitors seek them.

The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary holds the temples and graves that make it holy while also holding the macaques that make it famous. The monkeys that roam the forest and harass visitors for food have become the attraction that draws tourists to what is primarily religious site. The temples within the forest are places of worship, the Balinese who come to pray sharing space with the tourists who come to photograph monkeys.

The monkey forest demonstrates the Balinese relationship with nature - the animals neither entirely wild nor domesticated, the forest both sacred and accessible, the coexistence that Balinese cosmology assumes between human and natural worlds. The visitors who find monkeys charming or annoying miss the point; the forest is holy, and the monkeys are incidental to what makes it so.

Ubud has become Southeast Asia's wellness capital, the yoga studios and meditation retreats and spa treatments multiplying since Eat Pray Love made the town famous among Western seekers. The industry that has developed caters to visitors seeking transformation - the yoga teacher trainings, the raw food cafes, the healers who offer treatments that blend Balinese and imported traditions. The wellness economy has transformed Ubud's character, the seekers now as visible as the artists who preceded them.

The wellness industry exists in complicated relationship with Balinese tradition. The Balinese have their own healing practices, their own understanding of body and spirit, their own traditions that predate the Western arrivals. The fusion that wellness tourism creates - the Balinese massage, the yoga retreat with temple visit, the detox program that includes ceremony - blends traditions in ways that purists from both cultures might question.

The Ubud Royal Palace sits at the town's center, the residence of the royal family whose patronage supported the artists who made Ubud's cultural reputation. The palace is not museum but home, though portions open for the dance performances that occur in its courtyard. The royal family maintains ceremonial functions, their presence at temple festivals and community events continuing the role that Balinese tradition assigns to aristocracy.

The palace anchors Ubud's identity as cultural center rather than beach resort. The galleries and museums that surround it, the dance performances that fill its courtyard, the market that spreads from its gates - these create the atmosphere that distinguishes Ubud from Bali's coastal tourism. The royalty that other Indonesian regions have abolished persists in Bali, the tradition that tourism values preserved partly because tourism values it.