The municipal police have recommended demolishing a new restaurant building among the Jatiluwih rice terraces.
It was being built by the owner of the café Warung Wayan, even though new construction has been banned here since January.
The plot lies within the sacred zone of the temples and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What is protected here is subak, the traditional system for irrigating rice fields.
The owner received three written warnings and complied with none of them. When photos of the steel frame among the fields spread on social media, inspectors came to the site. No date for the demolition has been set yet.
The owner himself insists that he was allowed to finish the construction, which is how he understood the outcome of previous meetings with the authorities. People in Jatiluwih village say that no permission for the construction was given.
Warung Wayan is one of 13 venues that were sealed off in December 2025 because they stood on fields that the law protects from development. In response, farmers blocked tourists’ view of the terraces with sheets of corrugated metal and black plastic sheeting.
In January, after a meeting between the farmers and the regent, the barriers were removed and the authorities imposed a moratorium: no new buildings may be constructed in Jatiluwih, and the 13 venues may not expand. Only huts of up to 3 by 6 metres with grass roofs may be put up on the fields.
On Tuesday, members of the local parliament asked for the moratorium to spell out what kinds of houses, of what shape and size, the villagers themselves may build, so that inspections do not mistakenly affect their homes.
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