About Us

Murni

Murni was born in Penestanan, a few minutes’ walk from Ubud. As a very young girl, in the 1950s, she lived in Denpasar, selling breakfast snacks before she went to school.

During the 1960s she was back in Ubud, living with her mother in Ubud market, and learning the trade.

By the early 1970s she owned 4 shops on Sanur beach and had founded Murni’s Warung, her famous restaurant, in Campuan-Ubud, and was on the way to becoming one of the most famous people in Bali.

She built Murni’s Houses, accommodation for guests, and 3 shops in Ubud in the 1980s, and began to travel extensively.

Throughout the 1990s she developed and designed Murni’s Villas in a quiet village in the hills about 15-20 minutes’ outside Ubud.

During all this time she was busy collecting and becoming an expert on Asian antiques and textiles and many of them are to be found in Murni’s Warung Shop beside the restaurant.

In 2007 and 2009 she exhibited part of her collection at the prestigious shows in San Francisco and gave a lecture on Balinese textiles to the Asian Arts Council at the de Young Museum.

Secrets of Bali, Fresh Light on the Morning of the World by Jonathan Copeland and Ni Wayan Murni was published in 2010 and is in its second print run.

Murni’s Very Personal Guide to Ubud  by Ni Wayan Murni and photographs by Jonathan Copeland was published in October 2011 and is available as an ebook on www.murnis.com, Amazon, iBookstore, Barnes & Noble and elsewhere.

Her latest venture, Tamarind Spa at Murni’s Houses, is intended to bring all these aspects of Balinese art, luxury, and culture together in one healing experience.

Jonathan

Jonathan Copeland was a lawyer and is an independent, freelance photographer and writer specializing in travel photography.

Jonathan Copeland lives in Bali, Thailand and England and travels extensively.  He wrote Secrets of Bali, Fresh Light on the Morning of the World, published by Orchid Press in 2010 and is currently working on more books.

Jonathan’s photographs have been published in magazines such as Garuda Indonesia in-flight magazine, Hello Bali, Ubud Live, and Bali and Beyond and newspapers such as the Jakarta Post and The Times, Lombok.

He has contributed photographs to books, such as Dancing Out of Bali by John Coast, Indonesian Food by Sri Owen and The Ethnomusicologists Cookbook edited by Sean Williams.

He has created and maintains several web sites, including Murni’s in Bali (http://www.murnis.com) and Secrets of Bali (http://www.secretsofbali.com) and his photographs are on www.jonathaninbali.com. Videos are on You Tube: JonathaninBali (http://www.youtube.com/user/JonathaninBali)