The Balinese Temple
Why's Bali called the island of the thousand temples?
It
is not surprising that Bali is called the island of the thousand
temples. Everywhere you see a temple. There are so many temples that the Government does not bother to count them. There are small temples, very small temples with only a very few shrines; there are large temples, very large temples with more than 50 shrines, such as the Temple of Besakih , the mother temple of Bali. There are even lonely shrines on the oddest places where one does not expect them at all. Every family, every compound, every clan or society has a temple; you mention a society or organization and has a temple. In the compound where the family lives there is the family temple. The desa, village itself must have at least three temples;
Pura Puseh
Pura desa and
Pura Dalem
The clan has its
own temple. Subak or irrigation organization has a temple,
called Pura Subak or Pura Bedugul. Every place where
the water to irrigate the rice field is divided has
a temple or at least a shrine. Bali has a whole has
a temple, the pura Besakih or the mother temple, where
every sect and nobility have their own temple.
The balinese are worshippers of ancestors.
The family does this in the family temple or house temple. The
village does this in the Pura Puseh and all Bali does this in
the temple of Besakih.
In South Bali the house temple
is always in the North-East corner of the compound in regions
South-West of Mount agung. The reason for this is that the top
of Mount Agung is the highest spot in Bali and the highest is
for God, Ida Sanghyang Widhi.
Because the people should pray
towards and God lives on the top of Mount Agung as the highest
spot in Bali and Mount Agung happens to lie in the East that
is why in South Bali the house temples is in the North-East
corner of the compound. In North Bali it is the South-East corner
where the house temple is built.
The number of shires in the
house temple depends on the wish of the family and it also depends
on where the family originally comes from. That is why the visitors
in one house temple sees only a few shrines and in another,
right next to it, much more. But in a house temple there must
be at least two shrines, the “Sakti Kemulam”; the Kemulan is
for God and the purified ancestors and the Sakti is for the
producing power of God. No matter how poor the compound is the
house temple is there. This house temple can be very temporary
built only of bamboo, but it can also be very elaborate; the
shrines are very nicely carved and painted with gold leaves.
Only the purified dead, that
is to say the dead, who have been cremated, join God in the
Kemulan shrine in the house temple. With some high caste people
the family makes a shrine for every ancestor who in his life
had done a great service to the family, and accordingly in the
house temple of such a family there are more than one ancestral
shrine.
Near the entrance to a compound
there is always a guardian shrine in front of or behind it;
sometimes there are two shrines in front of it, flaking it.
The guardian shrine is for the spirit that has to guard the
primes.
As told before a full-fledged
village has to have at least three temples:
Pura Puseh, where the founders
of the village are worshiped, always lies in the Kaja sphere,
towards the mountains, so it lies on the highest spot in the
village; Lord Brahma the Creator, resides there.
Pura Desa, the village temple,
is built in the center of the village, where Lord Wisnu, the
maintainer, is worshipped, because in Pura Desa the activities
of the village manifest to maintain the welfare of the village
and its inhabitants. In old societies, Pura Desa always
has the Bale Agung, a long wooden building where the villagers
monthly come together and sit to discuss village matters. The
Bale agung is also the place where the Ngusabha ceremony, a
ceremony to honor Dewi Sri, the rice Goddess is held. Pura desa
with a Bale agung is called Pura Bale Agung, because not every
Pura Desa has a Bale agung.
In the Kelod share, towards
the sea, so on the lowest part of the village, lies the cemetery.
Near it the pura Dalem is built. This is the right place for
Pura Dalem, because it is the temple of death or the temple
for the dead. Of course Lord Siwa, the Destroyer, resides and
is worshipped there.
The site of the three main temples is in accordance to the deep belief of the Balinese that the mountains are for god; the plains, the center of the country, are for the people and the sea, the lowest part of the country, is for the demonic forces.
Besides the three main temples
there is the clan temple, called Pura Ibu, Pura Pemaksan or
Pura Panti. Outside the village out in the rice fields, is the
Subak temple, maintained by the organization of irrigation and
farmers, where naturally Dewi Sri, the Rice Goddess is worshipped.
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