Nirarta nestles above the Unda River, beyond the village
of Tabola, about 1.5 kilometres from the village of Sidemen.
Sidemen is the centre of a district, which bears the same name, and
includes a number of villages and a large stretch of the valley surrounding
Sidemen village itself.
Sidemen is one of 8 districts (kecamatan) in the Karangasem regency
(kabupaten). The term 'regency' derives from the old principalities which
divided the island of Bali before Dutch rule, and still provide the basis
for the administrative structure of the island. Karangasem is one of
8 regencies making up the province of Bali.
Karangasem is a sparsely populated regency with a population of about
a 250,000 people, spread over a wide area, much of it arid or mountainous.
The Sidemen valley is one of the relatively few fertile areas in the
regency. |