Pura Taman Ayun

Taman Ayun literally translates as "beautiful garden' and is generally regarded as one of the most attractive temples of Bali. Taman Ayun is situated in a beautiful park with trees and ponds, near the village of Mengwi in the south of Bali at about 8 km southwest of Ubud and 18 km northwest of Denpasar.

Pura Taman Ayun was built in 1634 by the Raja of Mengwi, I Gusti Agung Putu. It is a socalled 'Pura Kawiten' or family temple, a special temple where the deified ancestors of the Raja Dynasty of Mengwi and important gods of other temples are honored.

 

The temple is boardered by broad canals and it can only be entered via a bridge leading to a richly ornamented 'candid bentar', the gate which gives access to the outer courtyard (jaba) of the temple.

From this candi bentar a straight, paved footpath leads through 

the well maintained park past a square pond with a fountain exactly in its center. This fountain has nine water jets, four of which are positioned according the cardinal points, another four according the sub-cardinal points and the ninth in the center, symbolizing the Dewa Nawa Sanga, the nine main gods of Balinese Hinduism.

The footpath leads on to a second candi bentar which gives access to the 'jaba tengah', the more elevated, second courtyard of the temple.

Inside the jaba tengah one finds the walled 'jaba jero', the third and most holy courtyard of the temple in which the most important shrines are located, among others a number of five, seven, nine and eleven tierd meru's. The jaba jero is only accessible during important religious ceremonies, such as the 'odalan' - the day on which the inauguration of the temple is commemorated.

source:http://www.wonderfulbali.com/

Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot Temple is located in coastal side of Beraban countryside, Kediri sub district and Tabanan Regency. It is situated in 30 Km in west side of Denpasar town and about 11 Km in south side of Tabanan town. The temple is built on the rock with 3 acre size and reachable in a few minute by walk, because it is just 20 meters from the coastal lip. This temple is very famous among tourist destinations in Bali with spectacular view of sunset. At some nooks of coral reef around Tanah Lot Temple there are holy tame snake in black and white color where according to the local society believe that it as a deity property and as the guard of the temple from the bad influence.

Philosophy

The word of Tanah Lot is consisted of two words that are Tanah word intepreted as a reef looking like gili or isle. Lot or Lod has meaning the sea. So Tanah Lot is meaning the small island floating on the sea. The location now is called as Tanah Lot has been used at a Meghalitic environmental condition, hence the structure of Tanah Lot Temple built at irregular reef plain of its angle which is only consisted of one plain yard as Jeroan.

Function 

The Function of this temple can be realized from the function of main temple building which is located in the temple main area. In this place, there is a main temple to worship the god in form of Dewa Baruna or Bhatara Segara, the sea power. The media of worship to this god is the temple building with 5 storied meanwhile the 3 storied temple building in north part of this area is purposing to worship to Sang Hyang Nirartha.

In order to know the status of Tanah Lot Temple can be realized from the temple history, function and also incoming devotee existence pray when temple ceremony is held. In this case can be realized as follows: 

• Tanah Lot Temple as dang Kahyangan(the big Holy Temples in Bali ), because the history and the Penyiwi (The people taking care of the temple) are from the local people from Tabanan regency and surrounding area 
• Tanah Lot temple as Segara Temple, because its function as sanctum to worship the Bhatara Segara, the God with manifestation as the ocean Power Deity.

The unique animal can be seen in this temple area is the snake which are generally can be met in the coast. Part of its stomach there are no athwart skin, there is only small skin, but this sea water snake very noxious but snakebite case are very seldom happened, because the sea water snake generally very passive. 

What to See in Tanah Lot 

As a favorite tourism destination in Bali, Tanah Lot owns a magnificent view in particular at the sunset time where the sun slows down to the earth stomach. Every visitor who is paying a visit to this place will be marveled to see the beauty panorama of Tanah Lot. Beside of this temple, there are other temples which can be seen on your visit to Tanah Lot like Batu Bolong Temple, Batumejan Temple and Enjung Galuh Temple.

source : http://www.balistarisland.com/

Earthquake in Bali February 12 2010

Here a short report that I got from The Bali Times' Breaking News.

Large Quake Strikes off Bali

February 12, 2010

LEGIAN

The Bali Times

A powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck Bali early on Friday morning, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage. The quake occurred at 1.43am, 210 kilometres northwest of the Nusa Dua  tourism area on the island’s southern tip, at a depth of 10 kilometres below the seabed, the state-run Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said. There was no potential for tsunami generation, it said. A similar-size temblor hit the island in September last year, killing two people and causing minor structural damage.

source : http://www.thebalitimes.com/

Culture of Bali

Good Morning everyone......

I was read an article about culture of Bali. It tells about everyday life in Bali and about their customs and religion.

People in Bali mainly life on agriculture with rice as the staple food. The other crops, among others, are coconut, maize, soybean, cassava, coffee, clove, vanilla,etc. Beside that, Bali also known for its variety of tropical fruit, such as mango, banana, jack fruit, watermelon, salak, and many others.

Everyday live in Bali, merge with social duties and religious obligations while the art reflects an unnoticed integration of environment, religion, and community in which individual is a part. The organization of villages, land cultivation up to the creations of art communal effort. A village in Bali is the central place for its people while a family is, which is grouped into Banjar, the group unit of several families.

About Bali's religion, almost people in Bali is Hindu. Hindu teaching to reach peace and harmony of life guided by the Weda as a holy scriptures. Hindu Dharma is special blend of Hinduism, Buddhism, and ancestor worship that has been flourishing over countries.They believe in One Supreme God called, Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, with His there Manifestation as known Trimurti that is Brahma the creator, Wisnu the Preserver, and Shiwa the transformer.

Religion is inseparable from the everyday life, from the simple daily rituals to the lavishly semi annually temple festivals. No opportunity is lost to worship God in an unending series of ceremonies that stretches from birth up to after death of the people. There are there things guiding the spiritual life of the Hindu Balinese people which are:

Tatwa tells about the Panca Crada, the five principle beliefs or cradas that are belief in the existence of:(Braman: the Godhead), (Atman: the soul), (Samsara: reincarnation), (Karma: the law of cause and effect), (Moksha: unity with God/Nirvana) 

Susila, moral codes, put emphasis on their thing e.g.: Positive thinking, Positive talking, Positive action. Known locally as " Trikaya Parisuda". Related to those moral codes also can be mentioned "Tat Wam Asi", freely translated into "I am you" or "you are me" which controls and prevents somebody form committing (intentional) wrongdoing. 

Upacara, are those religious ceremonies classified into five classification e.g.: 

Dewa Nyadnya: Ceremonies related to the worship of God. 

Rsi Nyadnya: Related to the prophet, priests or priest hood.

Pitra Nyadnya: Related to the dead.

Buta Yadnya: Sacrifices to placate the negative (butas). 

As the out-come of the tatwa among other you can see a lot of temples dedicated to Brahman, God the almighty, and temples dedicated to the ancestors, the souls of the dead relative. The belief in samsara creates the opinion that having children is important to give possibility for the soul to reincarnate. Family planning is successful in Bali because there is also a set of rules spiritually controlling the birth of too many children. That is in the "duties of parents" which includes the necessity to look after children well which parents cannot do if they have too many.

source: http://www.balivision.com/