Luh Ayu ManikMas, Love theForestBASAbali , I MadeSugiantoGus Dark

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Mid-semester, after therains, Luh Ayu Manik andher friends went campingby the seaside. After placingtheir clothes and food,the students ran to theseashore. They were all veryexcited to play in the sandand waves. Luh Ayu Maniktold her friends not to gotoo far out because of thestrong winds and big waves.The sky was overcast with athreat of rain. She called to

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her friends to get out andshelter in the communal hall(wantilan).

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After sheltering in thehall the rain began topelt down. Continuousthunder and lightningresounded throughoutthe sky. Lightning strikingthe sea was clearly visible.Luh Putu Suastini shiveredwith fear on hearing thethunder. She rememberedthe accident that killedher father when he wasstruck by lightning whenhe was planting rice in the

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rice field. Luh Ayu Manikcalmed her friends sothey would not be afraid.Perhaps there was heavyrain in the mountains to thenorth causing turgid watersdownstream. Many treeswere carried away by therains. Luh Ayu Manik passedher time by opening herInstagram. There was newsof a large flood and a bridgethat had been washed awayby the devastating rains.

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Luh Ayu Manik was sadwhen she heard of thebridge having been washedaway by the floods. Thevillagers would surely havedifficulties going anywherewithout being able to fordthe river without the bridge.She saw on instagram thatlogs had been tethered inthe river. The logs had piledup with rubbish. Perhapsthe trees had been felledfor housing and the land

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cleared for farming. Thetrees that had been felledand carried away by theflood waters had careeredinto the bridge downstreamcausing it to collapse. LuhAyu Manik told the news ofthe incident to her friends.

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The students of second yearjunior high agreed to planttrees, like ’cempaka’, ’bunut’,’lamtoro’ and other varieties.The aim was to make theforest verdant. After theirschool reports were issued,Luh Ayu Manik gatheredtogether her friends thathad agreed to plant trees inthe forest. All of her friendswere ready. A few trees hadindeed already been madeready to plant in the forest.

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They had all agreed thatthe next day they wouldclimb the mountain. Theboys among her friendsbrought shovels, hoes andalso ’panyong’ whilst manyof the girls brought trees toplant.

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To overcome fatigue, thestudents sang songs ontheir hike up the mountain.A cold breeze chilled themto their bones. The waywas slippery and thestudents took care, notwilling to make light of thesituation. If they were tolose concentration theywere liable to fall. Thestudents were happy tosee the rural environment.From above, the houses

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of the village were clearlyvisible. The sea itself wasvisible from the base of themountain. On the edge ofthe thick, still verdant forest,birds sang as though theywere communicating withthe students on their wayto plant trees. On arrivingin the forest they were allsurprised - the forest hadbeen clear felled! Fromoutside of the forest allappeared verdant but once

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inside, the forest had beendevastated.

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There wasn’t a tree in tact,only the trunks remained.Perhaps criminals hadstolen the timber. Luh AyuManik was sad because,despite having a forestranger post, thieves werestill able to operate. Werethe rangers in fear of thethieves? Were the forestrangers pretending to bedeaf and blind whilst thethieves were felling thetrees of the jungle? She

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wished to raise this issuewith her uncle who hadbecome a forest ranger.Her friends were also sad atthe sight of the devastatedforest. Luh Ayu Manik, alongwith her friends, began toplant trees. They all workedhard. After all had beenplanted, only then did theytake a rest and each partakeof their refreshments.

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All were happy and enjoyedtheir rice meals. Luh AyuManik suggested to herfriends that they shouldhike up the mountains moreoften. The aim being towater the newly plantedtrees to keep them alive. Inthis way they would not onlyget to plant them like theofficials but also keep themalive by regular watering.Don’t follow the officials’example of planting to

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create an image of beinga caring and committedenvironmentalist. As faras possible be dedicatedso that the planted treesgrow and thrive. All agreedto regularly return to themountain to water theirtrees.

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On arriving home, Luh AyuManik was worried. Shewas still haunted by thevision of the devastatedforest. She couldn’t believethe fact that the forest hadbeen clear felled. What’smore, the clear felled forestwas a protected forest.Where were the forestpolice? There were nopolice manning the posts.From the time the studentsbegan planting til they

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left for home no forestpolice had been sighted.The government alsohad forest rangers (PolisiPamong Praja) – weren’tthey supposed to patrolthere? She had a desire toenter the forest. She wishedto know who it really wasthat was felling the trees.If she found out she wouldreport them immediately tothe police so that, with thisevidence, action could be

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undertaken to apprehendthe culprits.

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Luh Ayu Manik had agreat urge to hike upthe mountain in order tophotograph the culpritswho were stealing thetimber. Any photos wouldbe given to the police. Shewished to end this crimethat was destroying theforest. If the felling of thetrees was not stopped thenthe inhabitants furtherdownstream would sufferthe effects of flooding when

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the wet season arrived.Farmers would be unable toplant their rice due to theirfields being dry from lackof water. The drying of theriver would surely createproblems for those in searchof drinking water. If all thesprings dried, only tearswould be left.

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Luh Ayu Manik went insearch of Luh Putu Suastiniso they could hike upthe mountain together.They both took buckets.The whole way Luh PutuSuastini was ever ready tophotograph the naturalworld. She was also keenon taking ’selfies’. Shewas preoccupied withher photography – thephotos being uploaded oninstagram. Many of her

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friends responding withthe heart image as a way ofshowing their happiness.Quite a few enquired as tothe location of the photos.The place, they said, wasbeautiful. This encouragedher even more to post’selfies’. However, perhapsdue to poor reception herdevice’s batteries weakened.

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After arriving on the edgeof the forest they couldclearly hear the sound ofa chainsaw cutting timber.Luh Ayu Manik and LuhPutu Suastini were startledby the noise. Surely thecriminals were alreadyfelling the trees in the heartof the forest. They creptslowly along looking forthe person cutting thetimber. From between thebranches of a large tree

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the high school studentsobserved. They could clearlysee a man felling treeswith a chainsaw. Luh AyuManik put her hand intoher pocket to get her cellphone. Because she hadbeen too hasty in goingto the mountain she hadleft her cell phone at homeso she borrowed Luh PutuSuastini’s cell phone.

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Luh Ayu Manik observedthe man’s features whowas cutting the trees byusing the cell phone’scamera. Unfortunately, asshe started to photograph,the cell phone’s batterydied. Luh Ayu Manik waspeeved at not being ableto photograph the thief.She was angry with herfriend for taking too many’selfies’ which had causedthe cell phone’s battery to

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die. However, Luh PutuSuastini wasn’t taking anyof the blame as she felt thatit was Luh Ayu Manik’s faultfor leaving without her owncell phone. Although shewas unable to photographthe criminal, she couldclearly remember the thief’sappearance. She was goingto report to the police. Sheso wanted to report thematter and hoped that thepolice would be able to

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compile an identikit picturein order to arrest the thief.

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At the police station, LuhAyu Manik and Luh PutuSuastini reported thefeatures of the personwho was felling the trees.Unfortunately, the policesaid they didn’t believethem and reminded themthat, ’Lying was a sin. Youmustn’t lie and whats-more report that there wassomeone stealing timber!’The police said that illegallogging was against the

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law. Whoever was provento be stealing forest timberwould be arrested andjailed. Luh Ayu Manik feltthat he words of the policehad two meanings – if thethieves were found theywould be jailed, but if theyweren’t caught red handedthey would be able to getaway with whatever theyso desired. Weren’t thepolice going to investigateeven though citizens had

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reported the matter. LuhAyu Manik went homepeeved. It seemed hopelessto have even reported theillegal logging.

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The police said that it wasdifficult to report a theftwithout evidence. Thiswould be rather awkwardand could result in theperson making the reportbeing reported! Luh AyuManik wasn’t going to giveup. She was going to provethat what she had reportedwas true. She was goingto make the effort in orderto show the culprit thatwhat they had done was

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wrong and against thelaw. Luh Ayu Manik madea plan of attack with herfriends. Made Anjasmaraproposed to scare thethief by dressing up in theclothes, and dancing themask dance of Rangda, thedemon witch of mythology.They all agreed with MadeAnjasmara’s suggestion. IfRangda was to appear in theforest surely the thief wouldrun helter-skelter to save his

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life.

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At the appointed time,Luh Ayu Maik along withher friends hiked up themountain. They all had theirrespective roles in carryingout the plan to scare thethief. Made Anjasmarawas to play Rangda, KetutSuprabawa Kabinawa wasto wear the mask of Celuluk,Rangda’s gruesome lookingsidekick, whilst the otherswere to prepare the rope tosnare the foot of the thief

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when he fled to save his life.Luh Ayu Manik was certainthe plan would go smoothly.After-all, they all thought,who wouldn’t be afraid torun into Rangda and Celulukin a forest?

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When they arrived onthe edge of the forest,they could all hear thenoise of chainsaws - MadeAnjasmara and KetutSuprabawa Kabinawa put ontheir masks and garb. Theirusual handsome selves wastransformed into a scarysight. They both walkedslowly in order to scare thethief. The marked man wasstartled, screamed and tookoff for his life. He tripped on

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the rope entrapment andfell. He screamed for helpfrom his friends but theycouldn’t hear because ofthe noise of the chainsaws.’Celuluk’ approached andgrabbed the man’s waist.

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The thief was angry onbeing disturbed and liftedhis chain saw. ’Celuluk’took off when he waschased to save himself frombeing cut into pieces bythe chainsaw. The timberthief’s mates entered thechase causing Luh AyuManik and her friends totake flight in all directionsto save themselves. If afight ensued they wouldsurely lose because the

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gang carried weapons.’Celuluk’ tried to run butunfortunately was trippedby the rope, the trap thathad been set by his friends.

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’Celuluk’ screamed forhelp. The thief laughedheartily. ’Celuluk’ wasincreasingly worried asthe chainsaw came closerto his face. On seeingher friend’s dangerouspredicament, Luh Ayu Maniklooked for a place to hideso she could change herappearance. Suddenly shebecame beautiful, adornedwith a golden crown andgolden arm and hand

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ornaments. She held inher hand a weapon withsupernatural powers (sakti).The weapon was used tostrike the wrist of the thiefcausing the chainsaw to fallfrom his grasp. The thiefwas enraged and, quicklyapproaching, began topunch and kick. However,the beautiful woman quicklyturned and destroyed thethief’s weapon. The robbercollapsed.

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The thief lunged withan axe but the beautifulwoman easily avoided it.On seeing an opportunityshe struck the thief’s heart.The thief with the axe wasdefeated. Whilst tyingup the three thieves, thewoman announced hername. She was Luh AyuManik Mas. After tyingup the thieves she againentered the bush to look fora place to change back into

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Luh Ayu Manik. She thenyelled for her friends to helpkeep watch on the thieveswho were tied up. Then LuhAyu Manik called her uncle,the policeman, to arrest andescort the timber thievesback to the police station.

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Her uncle arrived along withhis colleagues in the forest.The hands of the threethieves were handcuffed.The policemen offered theircongratulations to Luh AyuManik and her friends whocaught the thieves. All thestudents were said to beenvironmental heroes. Ifthe thieves hadn’t beenapprehended and jailed,what would have becomeof the forest? If the forest

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had been cleared, surelythe river downstream wouldhave been subjected toflooding in the wet seasonand made it difficult toobtain water during thedry season. The police,along with the community,planted shrubs so that theearth would be cool andshaded – the clearing of aforest would surely result incalamity.

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Modeled after traditionalIndonesian shadowpuppet storytellers andco-developed with thecommunity and a teamof local artists, our digitalschoolgirl/superhero willhave conversations withchildren, environmentalexperts, elders and othersaround environmental andsocial issues. Luh Ayu Manik– an 8th grade schoolgirlfrom Bali who incarnates

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into Luh Ayu Manik Mas– is a courageous, agile,fast and strong Indonesiansuperhero who uses herpowers to help sustainthe natural and culturalenvironment of Indonesia.

This book was made inpartnership with BASAbali.BASAbali is a collaborationof linguists, anthropologists,students, and laypeople,from within and outside ofBali, who are collaborating

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to keep Balinese strong andsustainable. For more info,visit www.basabali.org

Brought to you by

Let’s Read! is an initiative of The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program that fosters young readersin Asia. booksforasia.org

To read more books like this and get further information about this book, visit letsreadasia.org

Original StoryLuh Ayu Manik Mas, Tresna ring Alas, author: BASAbali , I Made Sugianto. illustrator: by Gus Dark. Released under CC BY-NC4.0.

This work is a modified version of the original story. © The Asia Foundation, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CCBY-NC 4.0.

For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Contributing translators: Morgan Belveal