Bali temples and more temples

I spent my first week in a lovely villa in the north of Bali.  That area is a small, primarily Moslem enclave in a small, predominantly Hindu island in a huge, predominantly Moslem country.  I knew that Bali is primarily Hindu and did not expect to hear the muezzin several times a day.

Whatever my preconceived notions were, Bali is not a small, green, idyllic island.  It is much larger and much more populated than I thought, with a population of over three million.  Old-timers will tell you that Bali has changed so much in the last few decades, primarily due to over tourism.  The narrow roads are always clogged with cars and motorcycles, and the traffic is beyond horrible.  The drive from the airport to the villa, a distance of sixty miles, took four hours.

On Friday I left the lovely villa and finally went to visit some of the sites in Bali.  First I went to Pura Ulun Danu Beratan, a major Hindu temple on the shores of Lake Beratan.  I also had not expected that there would be not one but two beautiful lakes, appropriately named the Twin Lakes, in the mountainous interior of Bali.  Built in 1633, this temple is dedicated to the Balinese water, lake and river goddess Dewi Danu.  It is also known as the floating temple as some of the shrines sit on a small island in the lake.

At this temple, I saw a presentation of the barong, a traditional Balinese dance that features a mythological lion-like creature, who is the king of spirits and the symbol of good.  The dance was accompanied by a thirty piece percussion band, most of them playing something like a xylophone.  Both the music and the dance were a style that I have never seen or heard before.  Very interesting.

Next I visited one of the famous rice terraces that Bali is known for.  From a distance, the fields look green, but that is just the front of each terrace.  At this time of year, each terrace is filled with muddy water where the rice seedlings are individually planted.

Finally, I stopped at a second Hindu temple, Pura Taman Ayun.  Taman Ayun means beautiful garden, and this temple/garden complex which is surrounded by water is the second largest temple in Bali.  The various pagodas are dedicated to ancestors of the kings of Bali.

While I visited two large Hindu temples, we passed thousands as we drove.  That is no exaggeration.  I realized I have never visited a Hindu country and had no idea what the symbolism or customs are.  To add to my confusion, I have also discovered that Hinduism in Bali is unique, and quite different from Indian Hinduism.  Fortunately my guide, Putu, had been a teacher of Hinduism in the local public schools before becoming a guide, so he answered my questions and lectured to me for most of the day. 

In Bali, there are four types of Hindu temples.  First, every house has one.  Second, every extended family (clan) has one.  Third, every village, and fourth, there are public temples.  It is the latter that we are visiting, but we can see the small temples at every house and village that we pass.  There is also a fifth type of temple for various types of industry (fishing, construction, etc.)   The people apparently pray to their ancestors as well as the various Hindu gods, but there is also the concept of one god which is a foundational premise of the Indonesian country. 

Peggy arrived the next day and we moved to her friend Ben's house in the far south of Bali (twelve miles and a one hour drive from the airport.)  Ben built the house himself two decades ago in a remote, bucolic area, but the house now is surrounded by hotels and large houses right up to his property line.  His house is open and airy and quite different from last week's villa.

In the evening, we went to yet another Hindu temple, this one in a stunning cliffside location, to see a unique Balinese dance - the kecak.  The most amazing thing about this dance was that the "musical" accompaniment was a "choir" of seventy shirtless men who chanted rhythmically for the entire hour.  But the chanting was tuneless; they were more like a percussion section, closer to wordless rap than music.  And they did it in complete unison with occasional multiple parts.  Amazing.  The complicated story of the dance had an evil spirit kidnapping the lover of the good king.  The evil spirit was turned into an old man at one point and there was a golden deer for some reason.  As I said, complicated.  Needless to say, evil was vanquished at the end and the good lovers were reunited.

On our first day touring Bali, Peggy and I went to the Basakih Temple, also known as the Mother Temple.  Built high up on the slope of Mount Agung, this is the most important, largest, and holiest of Balinese Hindu temples.  In fact, it is not one temple but a complex of twenty three smaller ones, and was originally built in the 800's.  And it is built on the side of the mountain.  A shuttle conveniently drove us to the base, where we had to walk up a million steps, passing temples along the way until we reached the most important one on the top.  There are, however, two more temples higher up the slope but it takes two hours to hike to them.  I was okay not seeing all twenty three temples.