according to mythology, Pedanda Sakti Bahu Rauh,
the first Hindu priest who come to Bali, settled in
this village. Many of the Brahmans concentrated in Mas
claim descent from this famous priest. In the 13th
century, the founders of the village built a large
temple to please the ancestors. The Brahman class
became so influential that the whole community came to
share in the festivities of the temple, as they are
still do today in Pura Taman Pule built up on the same
site. In the olden days, the fine arts of woodcarving
and painting were reserved exclusively for the royal
and religious purposes. Nowadays, they are also
produced for fun and commerce. Men of every caste are
artisans and the particularly talented live in Mas.
Don't be surprised when you visit an art shop to find
a core of wood carvers busy making statues, a carver
select his seasoned block of timber, then shapes the
rough from with an axe. With mallet and dozens of
small chisels, the carving is incised with ornaments,
and finally smoothed. The sculptors begin young. The
most expressive carving is often done by boys of
twelve years. As a craftsman says: "young boys have
no worries in life, they just carve".
eighteen kilometers northwest of Denpasar
city, this small village has a glittering history as
the capital of a powerful 17th century kingdom and is
the site of an important temple from that era. The
once great realm of Mengwi arose with the weakening of
Gelgel in east Bali around 1650.
The most splendid remainder from
Mengwi's former glory is indisputably the Pura Taman
Ayun. This is probably the largest existing Balinese
house temple, built in the middle of the 18th century
by Mengwi's greatest king. The temple is surrounded by
a wide moat that gives impression of a sanctuary in
the middle of a pond. The waters are a symbolic place
of contact with the divine through celestial nymphs
who bath in the pond. It is a state temple to worship
the ancestors of the royal dynasty of Mengwi kingdom.
the most beautiful, unspoiled coral reefs
in Bali are located off the coast of Menjangan island.
Comprising hundreds of species of coral, these reefs
extend 100 to 150 from the shore, then drop 40 to 60 m
down to the ocean floor. Menjangan and the nearby
mainland are excellent places for swimming, snorkeling
and scuba diving. To reach Menjangan island, hire a
boat at Labuhan Lalang, just opposite the island on
north coast of Bali.
it is the central for coffee and clove
plantation on the island. The area around here has
been explored by archeologists who have found evidence
of a 10th to 14th religious and administrative center
on the shore of the lake Tamblingan, ancient Chinese
ceramics near Munduk and a copper inscription in
Gobleg describing a mountain kingdom in the area as
early as the 8th century.
With an excellent 500-meter walk
down through the coffee and clove plantation you reach a
mighty waterfall. The falls are high, powerful and a
far better option than the falls at the more famous
Gitgit waterfalls. It is a quiet, peaceful and
pleasantly landscaped spot. A great opportunity to
have a great shower and feel its natural massage under
the great falls.
is Bali's modern tourist resorts with some 5
star hotels resorts and golf courses as well as
shopping center and upscale restaurants. A government
run dreamland of coconut palms, white sand beaches and
pristine waters located near the island's southernmost
tip. Geologically, the area is quite different from
the rest of the island. The climate here is also drier
than the rest of Bali, freshened by a mild ocean
breeze.
is an incredible temple of the dead drips with
gruesome carvings and statues of the terrible Rangda squashing babies,
while the Kulkul, the alarm drum tower graphically depicts the
punishments that await evildoers in the afterlife.
is poised 825 feet above the
Indian Ocean. The temple is carved from the enormous
limestone rock upon which it sits at the farthest
edge. Ulu means head, watu means rock and luhur
implies heavenly, ancestral, original and transcendent
all at once. It was here that Dang Hyang Nirartha the
Javanese high priest, who brought a renewal of
Hinduism to Bali in the 16th century, achieved the
conscious death called Moksa. Legend said that the
temple was built by Mpu Kuturan in 11th century and
then rebuilt several hundred years later by Dang Hyang
Nirartha in anticipation of his release there.
is located at Kubutambahan village about 12km east of
Singaraja north Bali, dedicated to Batara Meduwe Karang
(The Lord possessing the ground). The temple ensures
divine protection for crops grown on dry land. It's built on a
spectacular scale, well-maintained ground and frangipani trees
with great figures of Ramayana epic on the terrace of the front,
the central courtyard is decorated with carvings of Balinese folk,
elderly people, mothers with babies and toddlers. The most unique
carving of the temple is the one on the base of a large rectangular
links three central shrines in the inner courtyard, of a cyclist
wearing floral shorts with a rat about to go under the back wheel,
apparently being chased by a dog. The cyclist might be the Dutch
artist WOJ Nieuwenkamp who first visited Bali in 1904 and exploring
the island by bicycle.
is very much related to the sacred journey of the Javanese Hindu priest
Dang Hyang Nirartha in the 16th century. Ponjok Batu came from the word
Ponjok means small projection and Batu means stones. According to the
story, while sitting on a small projection of stones to admiring the great
view of the sea and composing a bit of poetry, suddenly he saw a wrecked
ship below with dying crews. With his holy magic Dang Hyang Nirartha
healed the crews and bid them to drink the holy water that suddenly
appeared in the rock. The local people noticed that the rock where the
priest was sitting on shone with a magical light and built a temple there.
is set apart from the land by a stone
basin, the rock has been carved by incoming tides.
Tanah Lot with its solitary black towers and tufts of
foliage spilling over the cliffs recalls the delicacy
of a Chinese painting. Tanah Lot was built in around
16th century by the priest Dang Hyang Nirartha.
This holy spring temple dates from
legendary times. In popular folklore, God Indra made
it when he pierced the earth to create a spring of
amerta, the elixir of immortality, with which was able
to defeat the atheist demon-king Maya Denawa. The
waters here are believed to have magic curative
powers. Every year people journey from all over Bali
to purify themselves in the clear pools. After leaving
a small offering to the deity of spring, men and women
go either side to bathe. On the full moon of the
fourth month each year, the villagers from nearby
village take sacred stone to be cleansed at Tirta
Empul. The weathered inscription on the stone was
deciphered and it gave the date of Tirta Empul's
foundation as 962 AD and described the cleansing
ceremony. For a thousand years these villagers had
been abiding by this tradition without having been
aware of the meaning incised on the stone. In 1969 the
temple at Tampaksiring was completely renovated. Many
of the shrines were built anew and painted in bright
colors.
