Preserving Cultural Heritage of Denpasar Local Community Perspectives

Bali is well known as the Paradise Island on the earth. Its unique landscape and cultural practice attract large number of tourists from all over the world. Bali’s cultural heritage is the main attraction for tourists and tourism is the main source of the local economy. Population growth of Bali due to tourism and migration is undeniable and it has led to several new developments in Denpasar city to accommodate growth. New developments have noticeably transformed the identity of Denpasar. Urban development strategies, in general, do not take necessarily take into account urban character and identity. Urban character and identity is important because it adds to the strength of the city and differentiates it from others. This paper underlines the significance of cultural heritage as an important factor for planning to preserve the character and identity of Denpasar. The planning aspiration of Denpasar city “Denpasar is a Cultural City based on the harmony between God, Human and the Nature” has come about more recently in the past few years after the population boom.Nevertheless, lack of guidelines about appropriate policies tend to suggest current policies are not effective in tackling the ongoing multi-layered threats of urban development on cultural heritage conservation. This paper seeks the suitable conservation strategy for Denpasar to address the current problem. This paper use descriptive analysis to gain knowledge from place and its community. NVivo 10 softwarehelps to captureviews and perspectives about the importance of cultural heritage and evolve strategies to retain the cultural identity and heritage of Denpasar from the interview of various heads of local communities in Denpasar. It concludes the suitable way of conserving cultural heritage and how it could improve planning and development polices of Denpasar.