Hunt for naked tourist who meditated at Hindu shrine with no clothes on: Furious Bali officials search for foreigner after video goes viral

• Case gained widespread attention after Balinese influencer reposted the video 

Furious Bali officials are on the hunt for a tourist who was filmed in a video meditating at a Hindu shrine.

The case gained widespread attention in Indonesia after Balinese influencer Ni Luh Djelantik reposted the video multiple times between Saturday and Sunday, causing it to go viral.

In the video, the tourist can be seen meditating beside a shrine with his eyes closed in the lotus position. He appears to inhale some smelling salts before continuing with his relaxation.

In her repost of the video, Djelantik furiously wrote: ‘Harassment against places of worship must be actioned strongly!!!

‘We are fed up with the behavior of trash tourists who insult our homeland.’

In the video, the tourist can be seen meditating beside a shrine with his eyes closed in the lotus position. He appears to inhale some smelling salts before continuing with his relaxation

The palm-fringed hotspot has vowed a crackdown on misbehaving tourists after a spate of incidents including acts of disrespect to the predominantly Hindu island’s culture.

‘We are still carrying out investigations regarding this incident,’ Immigration Office head Tedy Riyandi said in a statement today.

The foreign national has been identified by authorities but his name and nationality have not been publicly disclosed as the search continues.

‘The efforts currently being made by the Immigration Office are to contact the foreigner’s social media account, but to date there has been no response,’ Riyandi said.

He said the search was being coordinated with Bali police and they were still trying to assess the location and time of the incident.

Tourist-dependent Bali attracts millions of foreign visitors annually but several high-profile cases since the island reopened after the Covid-19 pandemic have seen some deported for lewd acts.

Bali immigration deported a Danish woman in June after she was filmed flashing to the public while riding a motorbike.

A Russian woman was also booted off the island in April for posting a nude photo of herself in front of a sacred tree.

The post is accompanied by a message that is likely to be divisive. In her repost of the video, influencer Ni Luh Djelantik furiously wrote: ‘We are fed up with the behavior of trash tourists who insult our homeland’

In June, the local government published a guide for tourists who wish to visit Bali after being pressed to do so by the island’s immigration office.

In May, a German tourist sparked outrage by stripping off and crashing a sacred performance at a temple in Bali – in a naked rampage which could see her face almost three years in prison.

Darja Tuschinski, 28, was denied a ticket to a Hindu dance show, before allegedly pushing past security and removing her clothes in a bizarre protest.

The backpacker was caught on camera striding confidently past dancers before posing on the platform above them and forcing open a large set of gilded doors.

When a local man tried to stop her, she curtsied at him, appearing to mimic the performers’ movements, before walking off the platform to kneel next to a shrine as if in prayer.

Shocked holidaymakers sitting in the audience watched as the tourist continued her naked procession, making her way back on stage, before security staff intervened and the area was cleansed of its ‘bad energy’.

Furious staff rushed over and detained Darja for disrupting their show, before handing her over to police in the Ubud district of the popular holiday island in Indonesia.

She now faces up to two years and eight months in prison if she is found to have broken the country’s public indecency laws.

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