Hindu Temples

One of the things that we saw the most of in Bali were Hindu temples. They were everywhere- as we drove down the streets of the towns nearly every block had a temple. They were most often close to the homes, probably each family or family group had a nearby temple. In the more urban parts of town there would be a small alter or sculpture of a God next to a business and usually you would see an offering placed in front of it. After the Ubud monkey forest, we went to two other temples. I don't know the name of the first, it was between Ubud and Denpasar, it was a fairly large temple, and we were required to wear sarongs in order to enter it.

All of the temples had a large facade and doors that lead to the inner portion of the temple. The doors were always closed- they were entrances for the Gods that the people are worshipping. Usually they were very ornately decorated with sculptures and wood carvings. The orange that you see in all of the pictures is the color of the brick that forms the walls.



Inside the temples were many alters with pagodas on top and many statues representing the different Gods. They were often labeled, just not in English.

This is an ornate wall in one of the rooms.

The temples were open to the outside air so they were subject to the heat and the humidity, so often there was a lot of green moss/ mold growing around. There were also pavilions in the temples that were obviously used for ceremonies, some had more artwork, even paintings in them, others had musical instruments similar to xylophones in them. One had people selling something, but we didn't go over and find out what.

Here is an inner court with a turtle god of some kind. When we walked up, a couple of turtles jumped off the side of the island and into the water.

The Balinese people are well known for their arts- one of which is wood carving. These ornate doors showcase that talent.

The other big temple that we visited was the Taman Ayun Royal Temple in Mengwi Badung. It was built in the 1600's and here they worship their royal ancestors. It is one of the more notable temples in Bali because of the multi-tiered pagodas on top of the separate alters. Before we entered we were reminded that women are not always "clean."

Here is the main entrance to the temple. In this temple, we were not allowed to go into the inner court, but instead we walked around the outside along the wall where we could look into the inside and see all the alters.

We were, however, allowed to walk up the steep bell tower.

A view of the inner court showing some of the pagodas.

After being in the country for several days and seeing how many temples and offerings the Balinese people make, it is clear that they are a very religious people. It was good to be reminded that God knows all of his people and that there are multiple ways to find Him in this life.