Places of Interest in Bali

Places of Interest in Bali: Bali is the island of beaches, rice fields and ancient Balinese Hindu Temples. Everyone visitor to Bali is bound to encounter the sound of bamboo flutes, cymbals, stringed instruments, gongs and drums. The source of the music will probably be a temple ceremony, a gamelan orchestra, aprocession carrying offerings to the sea or to the temple - or a body carried to the place where it will be cremated. Walking a long the streets, visiting a boutique or wandering a hotel: offering to the gods are everywhere to be seen, consisting of beautiful wickerwork made of bamboo or of palm leaves filled with rice or exotic flowers. This is because Bali is indeed the Island of the gods.

Places of Interest in Bali. The inhabitants of Bali do not worship a single god but many different gods or divinities: the forces good and evil, light and darkness, heaven and the underworld, mountain and the sea. It is these last two that form the central pairing in Balinese religious belief and around which wich the other pairings are arranged. The mountains is Kaja, divine and holy, bringer of fertility, and residence of gods and the spirits of ancestors and deified natural forces.

Kelod, the sea, on the other hand, is home to demons and evils spirits, teh forces of the under world. In between in the earth where people live. Remembering this, the lay out of Balinese farmsteads and villages immediately becomes understandable. Every village has at least three temples that are arranged on a (purely imaginary) axis from the mountain to the sea. The Pura Puseh, the temple of origin, is dedicated to the deified ancestors, the founders of the village, and as such it stands on the Kaja side, nearest to the holy mountain. The Pura Desa stands in the centre of the village and acts both as village hall and temple. Finally The Pura Dalem, the temple of the underworld, dedicated to Durga, the goddess of death, stand on the Kelod or seaward side of the village, and is where people come to be in contact with the forces of the underworld.

Places of Interest in Bali. But there are also the number of other centres of worship in the village in addition to these three temples. These centres of worship often reflect the various trades of the villagers. For instance, the fishermen have a temple for the gods of the sea and rice farmers have a temple dedicated to the rice gods where people present their offerings to the rice goddess. As well as these, there are family temples and shrines built in special places such as at the confluence of rivers, springs and the lake. The number of Temples in Bali is enormous: Bangli, Batur Lake, Bedudu and Pejeng, Besakih Pura, Bratan Lake, Craftwork Streets, Denpasar, Goa Gajah(Elephant Cave), Gunung Kawi, Klungkung, Luhur Batukau Pura, Mengwi, Pejeng, Sangsit, Sanur Beach, Tanah Lot Pura, Tenganan, Tirta Empul Pura, Tirtagangga, Ubud, Ulu Watu Pura. Read also related post about Bali, Holidays in Bali, Places of Interest in Bali posted by World Magazine.

Posted in: Sights of the World