Bali Travel Guide -> Short Introduction
to Balinese Temples | Bali is sometimes called the "Island of 10.000 Temples" (or "Island of the Gods") and this is not exaggerated. First of all, every village has at least three temples: the Pura Desa, where religious festivals are celebrated, the Pura Dalem for the Goddess of Death (this is the place where the funeral cremation rites start), and the Pura Puseh that is dedicated to the Gods of Heaven. Temples are everywhere, on the mountains and in the valleys, in the ricefields (they are small shrines for the Rice Goddess), and on the seaside, and every temple is different. The Balinese religion is still very much alive. Every morning you can somewhere in Bali see small or larger groups of girls and women bringing offerings to a temple and the important festivals are celebrated by everybody with large processions to the temple that are accompanied by gamelan musicians. The Balinese religion is based on Hinduism, but incorporates
a lot of pre-Hindu, animist beliefs (primarily ancestor worship). In ancient
times the founder of a village was revered as a god after his death by the
village people. When the Hindu princes from Java occupied Bali (see ">Short Overview of the History
of Bali) their form of worshipping their dead kings as gods came very
close to the old Balinese ancestor worship. The many different gods
of Bali (gods of Earth, Fire, Water, and Fertility) were now all viewed as
different manifestations of the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu,
and the destroyer/creator Shiva.
Bali has a Hindu caste system that is similar to that in India, but there is no caste that corresponds to the Indian Pariah. The highest caste are the Brahmans, the priests. The next caste are the nobles (members of the former royal families of Bali). They are called Ksatriyas. The third caste are the Vesiya, the warrior caste. The lowest caste are the Sudra. 93% of the Balinese population belong to the Sudra caste. Members of the higher castes have special titles like Gusti (member of the warrior caste), Ida Ayu or Ida Bagus (woman or man, respectively, of a Brahman family), or Anak Agung (member of the Ksatriya caste), etc. On the other hand, animism, i.e. the belief in demons and (usually malevolent) spirits is also still very much alive. The Balinese have a dualistic view of the world, where sky and earth, day and night, and gods and demons are opposites, but equally important opposites. (The black-and-white checkered cloth that is often used as decoration in temples refers to this). Just like the gods the demons require offerings to appease them. These offerings are often just a banana leaf with a handful of rice or a tiny basket with flowers and you can find them everywhere, not just in temples but also placed on the sidewalk in front of shops. Never step on one of them! Temples Although every Balinese temple is unique they share some common
elements. (See our temple plan). First, each
temple has two courtyards, der outer court, that you enter through the split
gate (Candi Bentar), and the inner courtyard, that you enter through
a roofed gate (Padu Raksa). In the first courtyard the preparations
for religious rites or temple festivals take place. The inner courtyard is
the real sanctuary with the shrines and thrones for the gods.
Every temple has a shrine for the local ancestor god (this is the most important shrine in the temple), and two shrines for the two most holy mountains, Gunung Agung and Gunung Batur. (The third holy mountain is Mount Batukau with its - very interesting - temple Pura Batukau). There are also thrones for the sun god and shrines for lesser "assistant" gods (whose job it is to keep an eye on the correct execution of the rites and who keep track of the offerings). Very impressive are the Merus. They are wooden pagodas on a stone base and can have up to eleven stepped roofs that are covered with palm fibres. (Merus with eleven roofs are dedicated to Shiva). (See also the temple plan) |
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Updated 02.01.2009
