Opening January 2026
What is Adventure High @ BDS?
Adventure High is a fully experiential outdoor adventure-based junior and senior high school program at Bali Dharmada School (BDS) in the sacred tropical forests of Bukit Village, Bali. Bali Dharmada School is a nonprofit elementary, middle (grades 1-9; SD/ SMP) and high school (SMK) founded by long-term, experienced local and international community educators who are passionate about individuals, families and communities working together to protect the earth. We are educators who believe that community-based, nature-centred, experiential education is the key to creating a just and sustainable future. We believe each human being has a responsibility to every other living being, and it is through understanding our impact - and ensuring that this impact is positive - that we will make change.
Bali Dharmada School is not only a sustainability-focused school, but an integrated way of being. Our school is situated in nature in Desa Bukit, Karangasem, where we learn through being immersed in and working with our community. Students and families support local communities by living with them and participating in family and local events and activities. We live in ways that are inherently considerate and mutually supportive. And we join traditional ceremonies as a way of understanding the gratitude and selflessness that create the gentleness that is Bali.
Bali Dharmada School is based in current research that concludes that climate change is man-made and driven by efficiency-based technologies and acquisitive perspectives that eliminate nature and take for granted ways of living in and with nature that are inherently sustainable. Therefore, at Bali Dharmada School , we learn ways of being that connect us with nature and enable us to thrive while also enabling nature to thrive. We learn traditional skills from Bali and link these to proven and sustainable technologies from ancient communities around the world that continue to connect humans to the past while protecting the future.
All learning is hands-on and experiential. We scale mountains, plunge into rivers, climb trees, and cycle to and through villages. At BDS Adventure High, action is learning. Every day is out in nature, in Bali. No two days are the same. We always expect the unexpected. We sleep in tents. We eat food that we harvest from nature. We build. We forge. We connect. We grow. We learn to love, protect and restore the environment.
Learn more about our academic approach and our curriculum
What is Bali Dharmada School?
Bali Dharmada School is brought to you by the Guru Gede Budha Foundation
