Rahwana, the villainous giant of the Ramayana
epic, could die neither on earth nor air. To kill him,
the monkey general Hanuman devised a plan to suffocate
the giant by pressing him between two halves of the
holy mountain Mahameru, a destruction between the
earth and air. When Hanuman took Mahameru, part of the
mountain fell to the earth in Sangeh along with a
group of his monkey armies, so they stayed to this
very day. Such is the legendary origin of Bukit Sari
or The Monkey Forest, a cluster of towering trees and
home of hundreds of monkeys. The forest is sacred and
for many years no one has been permitted to chop wood
there. A moss-covered temple lies in the heart of the
woods and is familiar hideout for the nimble
inhabitants.
the Sanur area, with traditional Intaran at his
heart has evidently been settled since ancient times.
An inscribed pillar here dated back to A.D. 913 is
Bali's earliest dated artifact, now kept in a temple
in Belanjong village in the south of Sanur. It tells
of King Sri Kesari Warmadewa of the Syailendra Dynasty
in Java who came to Bali to teach Mahayana Buddhism
and then founded a monastery here. Ten centuries
later, Sanur began to attract significant numbers of
foreigners to its shores, many of whom chose to build
homes here. The house of the Belgian artist, Le Mayeur
(now a museum) is the only one that still stands.
Sanur is also famous across the island as the source
of some of Bali's most powerful black magic and home
of the most feared sorcerers and most respected
healers or Balian.
it is a capital city of
Klungkung regency, a landscape area containing the
only surviving part of the Semarapura, the palace of
the Klungkung rulers built around 1710 and largely
destroyed by fighting in 1908. The only remains of the
palace are the KERTA GOSA-consultation pavilion for
peace and prosperity, the BALE KAMBANG-floating
pavilion, a kulkul tower and a massive redbrick
gateway decorated with stone carvings, which marked
the entrance from the outer to the inner courtyards of
the palace. Legend tells how two craftsmen who, while
sleeping in separate temples on the nearby coast, each
dreamt about a half of a massive and wonderful doorway
created the gateway. When they met and compared their
dreams they were realized that their vision fitted
together perfectly, and they built the doorway. Legend
also claims that at the time of the Puputan in
Klungkung in 1908, the wooden doors sealed themselves
shut and nobody has been able to open them since.
KERTA GOSA: it is a square open bale on a raised
platform. It is sometimes described as a criminal
court, which adds poignancy to the pictures of
gruesome punishments on the ceiling. The painted
ceiling is a unique example of the Kamasan style of
classical painting, often referred as the Wayang style
because the figures are essentially the same as the
characters in the Wayang puppet theatre. There are
nine levels of paintings; each has a specific theme
and story.
BALE KAMBANG: it is almost beside the KERTA GOSA and
surrounded by a moat, was the venue for royal
teeth-filing ceremonies. Its ceiling got six levels of
paintings cover Balinese astrology, the tales of Pan
Brayut and the adventures of Sutasoma who was a
legendary Buddhist saint adopted into a Hindu context
and it consist of a series of battles and selfless
acts through which he defeats evil and bring peace to
the world.
PURA BEJI: It is located at Sangsit village about 8 km east of
Singaraja, built in around 15th century on the site of a well. It is a
Subak temple dedicated to Dewi Sri as the goddess of rice in the
Balinese Hindu religion. The temple is belonging to and cared for by the
rice irrigation association. The split gate that lies between the outer
and middle courtyard of the temple as well as the covered gate between
middle and inner courtyard are carved with animals, plants, and monsters
motives and interspersed with demon heads. The front wall of the temple
shows rewards that await the godly in heaven and the punishments
awaiting the evil in hell. This temple is completely a work of art.
North Bali, it was the Old Dutch capital is
the world on the other side of the mountains. It was
also once Bali's main harbor but in recent years the
harbor has become silted up as it has been shifted
west to the more sheltered Labuan Celukbawang for the
major export and import business. The north coast of
Bali has been inhabited for centuries with local
villages mentioned in the 10th century inscriptions,
the ascendancy of the area only really began at the
end of the 16th century, when Ki Gusti Ngurah Panji
Sakti founded Buleleng, and in 1604 built a new palace
called Singaraja. Buleleng has a rugged and, in
places, dramatic landscape, as the northern flanks of
the mountains drop steeply towards long, sweeping
black-sand beaches. The land is dry and parched
towards the east, where villages are widely spread out
and the lava flows from the last eruption of mount
Agung are still visible. Most tourists however come to
the north for the burgeoning beach resort of LOVINA,
west of Singaraja, a great place to relax or to use as
a base for exploring the temples, hot springs and
inland scenery of the region.
PURA DALEM JAGARAGA: it is a Temple of the Dead, which is located at
Jagaraga village approximately 4 km uphill from Sangsit village. The
name Jagaraga derives from a slogan of the resistance means, "watch out
for yourself". Jagaraga was the site of an immense battle between the
Balinese led by their commander Gusti Jelantik and the Dutch during the
second military expedition in 1849. The temple was rebuilt after the
Jagaraga war and renovated to commemorate the martyrs. The temple is
dedicated to the God Siwa the destroyer and renowned for its front walls
which is a mass of pictorial carvings showing the traces of the Dutch
occupation, but shriekingly vivid sculptors of Rangda (the queen of the
witches) form the dominant imagery of the temple.
PURA BEJI: It is located at Sangsit village about 8 km east of
Singaraja, built in around 15th century on the site of a well. It is a
Subak temple dedicated to Dewi Sri as the goddess of rice in the
Balinese Hindu religion. The temple is belonging to and cared for by the
rice irrigation association. The split gate that lies between the outer
and middle courtyard of the temple as well as the covered gate between
middle and inner courtyard are carved with animals, plants, and monsters
motives and interspersed with demon heads. The front wall of the temple
shows rewards that await the godly in heaven and the punishments
awaiting the evil in hell. This temple is completely a work of art.
is a small town with probably the most
impressive ancient monument on Bali and important
temples such as Gunung Kawi, Pura Tirta Empul etc.
Gunung Kawi / the "mountain of poet": It is located at
Tampaksiring village north east of Ubud is a famous
complex of rock-cut monuments dating from the late
11th century. The monuments are connected with the
youngest son of the powerful Javanese king Airlangga
who lived in the first half of the 11th century, and
was a Balinese descent via his father Udayana. It's
set in a broad ravine, lush green valley with its
spectacular rice terrace view and gentle waterfall
around. The funerals shrines are shaped like temples
and nestled in groups are carved into the rock face.
Gunung Kawi consists of 10 rock-cut Candi (shrines),
which stand in 7m-high. Legend relate that the whole
group of these memorials was carved out of the rock
face in one hard working night by the mighty
fingernails of Kebo Iwa.
the village of Tenganan Pegringsingan is
very unique among the Bali Aga communities of the
island in its strong adherence to traditional ways.
Tenganan is a microcosmic reflection of the macrocosm.
According to this divine plan, it is arranged
systematically both in its delimitation from the
outside world, as well as in its separation into
distinct private and public areas within the village
precincts itself. Unlike other Balinese villages,
Tenganan traces its origin and its social institutions
back to a written source, a holy book known as the
Usana Bali (a chronicle of Bali). According to this
text, the Tenganese have been chosen by their creator,
God Indra to honor his royal descendents through
communal offerings and sacrifices. It states,
furthermore that descendants of the original villagers
have been chosen to administer the surrounding lands,
a consecrated place of devotion and ritual, and to use
all available means to keep them pure. Anyway,
Tenganan today is a wealthy village, and the only
place in Indonesia that produces the celebrated
geringsing double ikat weaving.
means " water of Gangga " refers to the
sacred river of Hindu. The last Raja of Karangasem,
Anak Agung Anglurah, built it in around 1948 as one of
his three testaments to his obsession with pools,
moats and fountains. Tirtagangga's elegant palace was
damaged on several occasions, including the 1963
eruption of Mount Agung. It isn't grand, but it's
still a place of beauty and reminder of the former
power of the Balinese rajahs. It has an impressive
terraced area featuring numerous pools, water channels
and fountains set in a well-maintained garden. You can
swim in the biggest spring fed pool.
Ubud is a village heaven for the arts. Ubud has been a place for
many foreign artists to live since 1920s like Walter Spies who
established himself in the hamlet of Campuhan on the western border of
Ubud in 1928, transforming the village into a flourishing center for the
arts. Unfortunately, the tourist boom has transformed Ubud into a
bustling business center on the island that makes Ubud is an excellent
place shopping. Galleries display contemporary styles by old masters of
thirty years experience and young boys who have developed a manner of
their own, the young artist style. Besides as the home of the arts, Ubud
is also very well known for its natural beauty with stunning emerald
green rice paddies, deep river gorges and many old sacred sites around.
The people of Ubud and adjacent villages really do still paint, carve,
dance and make music, and religious practices here are so rigorously
observed that hardly a day goes by without there being some kind of
festival celebrated in the area. Shortly, Ubud is close to many of
central Bali's major sights.
UBUD MONKEY FOREST: it is a sacred monkey Forest Sanctuary that lies on
the southern part of Ubud's center. The little forest are inhabited by
about 125 of Balinese macaques or also known as long-tailed macaques,
and the scientific name is Macaca fascicularies. There are three holy
temples in the forest that was built during the mid-14th century. Pura
Dalem Agung, the temple of the dead is located in the southwestern part
of the main forest area. Holy Bathing Temple is located in the
northwest, down a long flight of steps above the stream. The third
temple is Pura Prajapati in the eastern edge of the main forest
alongside of the graveyard.
