Balinese Temples

The focus of every community’s spiritual activity is the temple or pura – a specially designed temporary abode for the gods to inhabit when ever they so desire, open and unroofed so as to invite easy access between heaven and earth. Major religious ceremonies take place inside the pura and members of the community spend a great deal of their time and income beautifying the sanctuary with carvings and consecrating offerings at its altars.

            At first glance, however, visitors can find Balinese temples rather confusing and even unimpressive, in appearance. Many of them seem to be rather bland affairs: open-roofed compounds scattered with a host of shrines and altars, built mainly of limestone and red brick, and with no paintings or treasures to focus on. But many of Bali’s numerous temples – there are at least 20,000 on the island – do reward closer examination. Every structure within a temple complex is charged with great symbolic significance, often with entertaining legends attached and many of the walls and gateways are carved with an ebullience of mythical figures, demonic spirits and even secular scenes.

            The reason there are so many temples in Bali is that every banjar or small village is obliged to build at least three, each one serving a specific role within the community. At the top of the village, the kaja or holiest end, stands the pura puseh, the temple of origin, which is dedicated to the founder of community. For everyday spiritual activities, villagers worship at the pura desa, the village temple, which always lies at the heart of the village, and often doubles as a convenient forum for community meetings and other secular activities. The essential triumvirate is completed by the Pura dalem, or temple of the dead, at the kelod ( unclean ) end of  the village, which is usually dedicated either to Siwa, or to the widow-witch Rangda. Larger villages will often have  a number of other temples as well, perhaps including a pura melanting for agricultural temple or shrine, a pura subak, dedicated to the rice goddess, Dewi Sri.

            Bali also has nine directional temples, or kayangan jagat, which are regarded as extremely sacred by all islanders as they protect the island as a whole and all its people. The kayangan jagat are located at strategic points across the island, especially on high mountain slopes, rugged cliff faces and lakeside shores : Pura Ulun Danau Batur is on the shores of lake Batur ( North ), etc. The most important of these is Besakih – the mother temple – as it occupies the crucial position on Bali’s holiest, and highest, mountain, Gunung Agung; The others are all of equal status, and as a dutiful islander you are expected to attend the anniversary celebrations ( odalan ) of the one situated closest to your home.