From the Mountains
to the Sea
Like all old Balinese realms, Tabanan has a mountain-to-the-sea
axis - an ordering of the physical landscape that mirrors the
ordering of the cosmos, with major points marked by temples. Each
former Balinese kingdom thus has six major temples, the so-called
sad kahyangan, consecrated to the six most significant features
of the landscape - the forest, the mountains, the sea, the lakes,
the earth and the rice fields. In a similar way, there are six
cardinal temples for the whole of Bali. Two of these six are to
be found in Tabanan: the seaside sanctuary of Tanah Lot and the
ancestral shrine of Pura Luhur high up on Mt Batukau.
Temple in the sea
About 20 km west of Denpasar on the main highway, one arrives
at the town of Kediri, where a large sign at the main intersection
announces a turn-off to the southwest toward Pura Tanah Lot -
the famous seaside temple to the south. Tanah means earth and
lot means south or sea (usually written lod) thus something like
'Temple of the Earth in the Sea" is intended. It is actually
constructed atop a large, jagged outcropping of rock just off
the coast. It is accessible only during low tide. The temple itself
is quite modest, consisting of two shrines with tiered roofs (7
and 3), a few small buildings and two pavilions.
Poisonous, black sea snakes live between the rocks and in caves
along the coast. They guard the temple, but give the site a reputation
of being "dangerous." Nevertheless many Balinese love
to sit on the beach or on a bluff overlooking the temple in the
afternoon, watching the tides change and enjoying the silhouettes
of the temple meru against the brilliant setting sun.
Like so many other temples in Bali, Tanah Lot is connected with
the famous brahman priest, Danghyang Nirartha, who wandered from
Java to Bali in the 16th century. On one of his journeys he decided
to sleep in the beautiful spot, and then afterwards advised the
Balinese to erect a temple here. As mentioned above, this is one
of the sad kahyangan or six most holy temples for all of Bali
as well as for Tabanan district.
On the way back to the Kediri intersection, stop in at the village
of Pejaten, famous for its pottery. These range from traditional
roofing tiles, now painted in bright reds and greens, to replicas
of glazed Chinese ceramics. The latter are the result of an initiative
taken by Dutch potters during the 1980s. Already in the 1970s
a Chinese painter from Tabanan, the, late Kay It, introduced the
production of terracotta tiles decorated with figures of gods,
goddesses and wayang heroes in relief. These were mainly used
for interior decoration of restaurants and shops in the tourist
areas of South Bali.
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