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Just 3 km from Candidasa is Tenganan, the old village in the district, Karangasem Regency. It is flanked by hill that is Kauh on its east and west. In its north are dry field and rice fields and in the south is Pasedahan village. It is about 66 km from Denpasar to the east or about 15 km to the west from Amlapura. As an ancient village, Tenganan pegeringsingan is identical with religious activities. Many temple festivals performed in this village that attracts visitors to come. The most famous one is “Mekare-kare” or “Perang Pandan”. This is a ceremonial fight or war using thorny pandanous leaves as the weapon. This festival usually takes place in relation to the celebration of “Sasih Kelima” or the fifth balinese month. Read more…

This is basically a story about the struggle between good and evil. Good is personified by the Barong keket, a strange, funloving creature in the shape of shaggy semi lion. Evil is represented by Rangda, a witch. Ultimately, the two characters engage in battle, at which pont the Barong’s keris-bearing followers rush in to attack Rangda. The witch, however, uses her magical powers to turn the keris knives in upon their owners, who fall into a trance and start trying to stab themselves. The Barong uses magic to protect his followers from the knives. In the end, the Barong triumphs and Rangda retreats to recuperate her strength for the next encounter. All that remains is for a priest to help the keris dancers out of their trance, with the help of a little holy water. The Barong and Rangda dance is a very poweful performance and is not taken lightly by those involved.

Kecak is the most unique Balinese dance which is not accompanied by any orchestra/gambelan but by a choir of seventy men it has its origin in an old ritual dance “Sanghyang” or trance dance. In the Sanghyang dance a person in a state of trance communicates with the deities or ancestors. They use the dancers as a medium into the dance. Briefly the story runs as follows:  Due to a wise prince of Ayodya Rama the legal heir to the throne of Ayodya was exiled from the realm of his father Dasarata. Accompanied by his wife Sita and his younger brother Laksmana they went into a forest called dandaka. While they were in the forest the demon king Rahwana found them and lusted after the beautiful Sita. Accompanied by his Prime Minister Marica, they made a trick to steal Sita. Using his magic power Marica transformed himself into golden deer. Disguised as a golden deer the succeeded in luring Rama and Laksmana away from Sita. Rahwana making use of this opportunity kidnapped Sita and took her to his palace Alengka. Discovering the deception Rama and Laksmana set out to rescue Sita from clutches of the demon king assisted by the huge army of monkeys under the command of their king (Hanoman). Rama succeeded in getting his wife back safely.

The huge state temple of Pura Taman Ayun surrounded by a wide moat, was the main temple of Mengwi kingdom, which survived until 1891 when it was conquered by the neighboring kngdoms of Tabanan and Badung. The temple was originally built in 1634 and extensively renovated in 1937. It’s very large and spacious, and the elegant moat is an unusual feature. The first courtyard is a large, open grassy expanse and the inner courtyard has a multitude of Merus (multi-tiered shrines).  In a beautiful setting across the moat from the temple is a rather lost-looking arts centre. Mendwi kingdom also built Puncak Mangu temple, a big temple behind the mount Mangu across the ridge of south Lake Beratan and Batukaru and Tanah Lot temple were supposed to have been built by Mengwi Kingdoms.

Cockfights are a regular feature of temple ceremonies - a combination of sacrifices, sport and gambling. Men keep fighting cock as prized pets, carefully grooming and preparing them for their brief moment of glory or defeat.

At the festival, the cock are matched, a lethally sharp metal spur is tied to one leg, there’s a crescendo of shouting and betting, the birds are pushed against each other to stir them up, then they’re released and the feathers fly. It’s usually over in seconds a slash of the spur and one rooster is down and dying. After the bout, the successful gamblers collect their pay-offs and the winning owner gets to take the dead rooster home for his cooking pot. When traveling in rural Bali, you will know there’s a cockfight nearby when you see scores of vehicles and scooters parked near a temple but nobody in sight. The men are usually backed behind the compound.

The temple is located at the east of Yeh Embang Village, Mendoyo district, Jembrana regency. It is about 10 km from Negara and can be reached by any cars. For those whose are more interested in tourist sights than beaches, there are several stops along the road west from Pulukan. About 4 miles west of Medewi, near the village of Yeh Embang ; a sign for Pura Rambut Siwi indicates a small road on the left near apopular truck stop. The road leads to a shady grove less than half a mile away, where the temple sits on a bluff overlooking the ocean. There are a number of temples throughout Bali commemorating miraculous events in the life of the 16th century Javanese priest, Danghyang Nirartha. This one contains a relic, a lock of the sage’s hair (rambut) that is venerated (siwi). The story goes that when Danghyang Nirartha first arrived from Java and was traveling in the western wilderness on his way to present himself to Bali’s king in Gelgel, he heard of a terrible epidemic in the Village of Gading Wani. Danghyang Nirartha went there and banished the disease. The grateful villagers begged him to stay and settle there, but Danghyang Nirartha felt called to Gelgel, and left them a lock of his hair as a protective token. It was here that Danghyang Nirartha was given the honorific “Pedanda Sakti Wawu Rawuh” which means ‘the newly arrived powerful high priest.  

The village of Batur used to be down in the crater. A violent eruption of the volcano in 1917 killed thousand of people and destroyed more than 60,000 homes and 2000 temple. Although the village was wiped out, the lava flow stopped at the entrance to the village temple. Taking this as a good omen, the village was rebuilt, only to have Batur erupted again 1926. This time the lava flow covered all but loftiest temple shrine. Fortunately, the Dutch administration anticipated the eruption and evacuated the villagers, partly by force, so very few lives were lost. The villages were relocated up on the crater rim, and the surviving shrine was also moved up and place in the new temple, Pura Ulun Danu Batur. Construction on the new temple commenced in 1927. Spiritually, Gunung Batur is the second most important mountain on Bali only Agung outranks it so the temple here, one of the island’s nine directional temples, is of considerable importance.

It is located at Braban village, Kediri District, Tabanan Regency. It is about 13 km from the closest sity of Tabanan, about 30 km from the main city of Denpasar and 40 km from Athena Garden Villa. It can be reached by motorcycle  and road fairly good.

The spectacular Tanah Lot is possibly the best known and most photographed temple on Bali. The tourist crowed here are phenomenal, especially at sunset, and the commercial hype is terrible. Tanah Lot sunset tours are heavily promoted in all tourist areas. The temple perched on a little rocky islet, look superb whether delicately lit by the dawn light or starkly outlined at sunset. But can it ever live up to the hype!

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The Village of Trunyan lies on the bank of Lake Batur or on the west foot of Abang Hillof Kintamani District.

It is a village inhabited by the “Origin’s” of Bali aga with its unique cultural aspects. This village is attainable only by motorized wooden boat from Kedisan village, crossing along Lake Batur in 30 minutes. The name of Trunyan is derived from the words “Taru” and “menyan” the smell of a fragrant tree of incense which grows in that village. The villages consider that the tree is very important because the corpses of the dead person are just laid down on the open grave under the tree and left the faces open; where as their bodies are simply covered by white clothes, surrounded by “Ancak Saji” this method of burying corpses is called “MEPASAH”.

Located at the northern part of Sangeh Village, Abiansemal district Badung Regency. It is about 21 km from Denpasar or 30 km from Athena Garden Villa and can be reached by car easily with a good road condition. In the 17th century during the golden period of Mengwi kingdom, I Gusti Ketut Karangasem, son of Gusti Agung Made Agung (King of Mengwi) founded a temple in the midst of nutmeg tree forest, later, it was called Bukit Sari Temple. The nutmeg tree forest with extent of 10 hectares is a holy territory that is securitized by Sangeh Customary village and its vicinity. In the middle of such green and dense forest, lives over 600 tame and friendly monkeys that all the time appeal to visitor. Part from functioning as sacred place, the forest along with the monkeys comes to be a fascinating tourist object that is worth visiting.

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