Around the World

It seems that its a tradition to have banana pancakes for breakfast. We went to the monkey forest and saw the monkey temple. Monkey Forest Park is a small nature reserve located near the southern intersection of Jalan Monkey Forest and Jalan Hanoman. It houses a temple and over 200 monkeys, mostly macaques. We fed the monkeys some bananas. There were a lot of monkeys, many of them with babies clinging to them. One monkey jumped on Donna looking for bananas. They don't like it when you hide them from them. A baby monkey held my finger with his foot. They seemed very docile. I walked up monkey forest road and bought a wood carving of a cat. After lunch I went back for a nap at our room.

That evening we had dinner on Ubud's main road. It was interesting to see the kitchen of wood stoves on a wood floor and a woman washing rice in a bucket. We saw a Barong & Legong dance at Ubud Palace, Ancak Saji Ubud Place Court Yard was built in the 16th century. The music was awesome, almost hypnotic. The dancers were beautiful. On the way back to our bungalow we peeked into a temple and saw some Balinese dancing in a ceremony

Went to center of Ubud and saw the markets. I rented a bicycle and rode around. An old Balinese man approached me in the street and sold me a hand-carved wood barong mask. There was a duck that kept standing in the street. I tried to push him off into the grass but he would keep going back into the middle of the street. On my bike ride I stopped and watched some wood carvers and talked with them. I rode to the Elephant cave. I continued up into the hills and rode past some rice paddies. There were many Balinese bathing in the river, washing trucks, bikes, and clothes along the side of the road. I talked with an artist that was painting on canvas. I was really tired that evening and went to the room to rest. Donna came in and left for a ceremony with a local named Wayang that she met.

I rented a motorbike and drove to Batur Temple. Donna's friend, Wayang, led us to the temple. We drove through many small villages. We stopped at a lookout along the road and saw the dormant volcano with Batur Lake in it. When we got to the temple, Wayang went to pray and we had a look around. There was a nice view of the lake and many people playing music and praying. The locals brought huge gifts of fruit piled high when they come to pray. We went and had lunch before we took the drive to Besakih temple. It was a beautiful trip in the woods. It cost 4000 Rupiah for us to see the mother temple. There were so many worshipers climbing to the many temples on the hill.

Besakih Temple
High on the slopes of Bali's Mount Agung sits Pura Besakih, widely referred to as the "Mother Temple" of Hinduism in Bali. Pura Besakih, or Besakih Temple in English, is the largest of the island's 11,000 or so Hindu temples; its 35 shrines and halls draw devotees from all over Bali in massive numbers each year. In 1963 Mount Agung, a volcano, erupted and destroyed several nearby villages. Besakih was untouched.

The temple is generally agreed to date back to prehistoric times in Bali. It is named for Naga Besukian -- the dragon-god thought by pre-Hindu Balinese to inhabit this, the highest mountain in Bali. Like most Balinese temples, Besakih is not a closed building but a mostly open-air affair. It is made up of courtyards with altars and shrines devoted to a number of gods. And those gods have better things to do than just hang around a temple; the Balinese believe that the gods visit a temple on particular dates -- and on those dates the Balinese hold festivals to honor (or placate) the gods. Of all the temples on Bali six are "supremely holy:" Pura Besakih, Pura Lempuyang Luhur, Pura Gua Lawah, Pura Batukaru, Pura Pusering Jagat, and Pura Uluwatu. Of these, Besakih stands higher than the others -- not because it sits some 3000 or so feet above the ocean on the mountain's side, but because it is more sacred to the Balinese. It is said to be the only classless, casteless temple on the island where any Balinese Hindu can come to worship.

Bali's Hinduism is unique. Many scholars believe it gives us a view of Hindu beliefs much as they existed 1500 to 2000 years ago. Hinduism was once the dominant religion in much of Southeast Asia and empires in the region where ruled by god-kings -- empires like Funan, Sri Vijaya, Angkor, and Bali. The Hinduism of Bali is less fragmented than that of modern India. Balinese are generally said to worship one god, Brahman, who manifests himself in various forms or personalities.

Lee Arnold, in his article on The Temples of Bali, quotes an anonymous Balinese who explains their views: "I am just one person; someday I might be a farmer, another a driver, yet another a cook, but I am still only one person." In the same way the Hindu "gods" Siva and Vishnu (Siwa and Visnu in Balinese) are really just different manifestations of the one god, Brahman, in Balinese theology. While this may be true, temples generally end up serving as places where one of Brahman's manifestations is worshipped; and Besakih is dedicated largely to Siva worship.

While the Hinduism of Bali may provide a glimpse into the religion's past it is by no means pure.Balinese religion has kept Islam at bay, but has absorbed aboriginal animism and Malay cultic ancestor worship along with aspects of Mahayana Buddhism.

The temple's anniversary, Odalan, is an excellent day to visit if you are looking for pageantry. But you should expect a crowd of several thousand people. That ceremony comes in the tenth month of the Balinese calendar, usually in April. We had come at the end of the anniversary. We explored the areas we were allowed to go and then headed back to Ubud through rice fields.

That evening we rode a bemo to Kecak Fire and Trance dance. We watched men sing "tica tica tica tica" as girls danced. In the Sanghyang Jaran dance an entranced boy walks through fire riding a wood horse. Kecak is a form of Balinese music drama, originated in the 1930s and is performed primarily by men. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak", and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where monkeys help Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance. Show program 1MB PDF