Right after Nyepi, people in Bali began discussing several cases where individuals still went outside or behaved as if it were an ordinary day.
This year, the Day of Silence lasted from 06:00 on 19 March to 06:00 on 20 March. During this time, travel, unnecessary lights, noise and any actions that could disturb the silence are prohibited on the island. These rules apply to everyone in Bali, including tourists.
In Sukawati on the morning of 19 March at around 07:15, pecalang spotted 57-year-old US citizen Karl Adolf Amrhein on the street.
He was walking with a bag. At first, the man didn’t explain anything, and he was taken to a police station. There, he said his stay at a hotel in Ubud had ended and he had gone out to look for new accommodation. The police offered to let him stay at the station until the end of Nyepi, but he refused, so they found him a nearby hotel where he waited until the holiday was over.
Separately, another video spread on social media showing a foreigner who posts link to the account Luzzysun. In the footage, he can be seen on an empty street during Nyepi. Locals confronted him on the spot. But that wasn’t the only thing that angered people. The same story also sparked discussion of a social media post in which he used a rude, swear-word-filled caption about Nyepi and the local rules, causing widespread outrage among Balinese people.
Former Denpasar mayor I Gusti Ngurah Rai Mantra reacted strongly. He wrote that if the story is true, the wording in the post was beyond the pale, and he urged Bali’s immigration authorities to take notice of the tourist. In his view, it could amount to insulting religious feelings and the public rules that Nyepi in Bali is based on. He explicitly called for deportation.
Another confirmed case was captured by a CCTV camera in South Denpasar. On 19 March at around 17:19, a traffic management camera recorded people out on the street at the Pesanggaran junction in the Pedungan area, near the exit from the toll road. Bali’s transport agency confirmed the footage is genuine. At the same time, the agency said the focus should not be on harassment, but on explaining and reminding people of the rules.
Things ended even more violently in Buleleng, in the village of Joanyar in the Seririt district. During Nyepi, a group of locals held a drinking gathering with alcohol. The guests met at a house, and then an argument broke out. One of the participants was told to leave, but later he returned with a samurai sword and struck another man on the back. The victim was taken to hospital, and the suspect was detained along with the weapon. This is no longer just a violation of the Day of Silence but a criminal case—yet it all began with people simply ignoring Nyepi rules.
Sources: detiknews, antaranews.com
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