April 5th, 2005
(Bat Cave Temple) is one of the nine directional temples on Bali and is devoted to the diety Naga Basuki. We visited the Bat Cave Temple on our way up to Padang Bai and got our first taste of a Public Temple.

We had to pay a minimal sum to enter the temple and we had to 'rent' sarongs and sashes to enter as well. Entry fee was 3000Rp which is about equivalent to 30 US cents. The sash and sarong rental was 5000Rp, again, about 50 US cents. This temple is said to be one of the smallest and least impressive temples on Bali, but it is one of the oldest and of great significance to the Balinese. In the back of the temple there is a huge cave that opens to the temple grounds and it is filled, literally jammed packed full, of bats. These bats (fruit bats) are supposed to provide the sustenance for the legendary giant snake, the diety Naga Basuki. It stinks of bat guana and you can see all the droppings covering the cave opening and temple shrines thrush roof tops but none the less, the sheer numbers of bats was impressive.

What we learned though, was that if you didn't shrug off the men waiting at the entrance, that you would be shadowed and given a tour, then when you were ready to leave, you would get a hand thrust out to you asking for more of a donation b/c you had a 'tour'. Our tourguide offered us the same information, over and over and over...we now know that this is 'one of the nine directional temples and is a public temple'....( If you go to Bali, take a guide book, read up on your temple before you go in, and head out on your own). It will be cheaper and less annoying.

What I have learned doing this blog post is that Balinese Temples all have a basic layout and they all follow a consistant pattern, with individual structures oriented along a mountian to sea axis. Degrees of sacredness are reflected in the proximity to the mountain.



Even though the Balinese don't really trust dogs, they are everywhere and they don't seem to mind allowing them free roam of where ever they want to go. This dog seemed pretty healthy, probably b/c she ate all the offerings after they were placed out, but none the less, I liked seeing the 'temple dogs'. This was at the kori agung which is a grand gateway of the temple, and is usually reserved for gods and priests, and she went in just before us.



And perched herself to watch us from the bale gong which is a pavilion where ritual gamelan music may be played. I'll show you instruments of the gamelan music in a later post.



I believe this is the snake diety, Naga Basuki.



And you can see how they incorporated the snake diety into the railing going up to the second level of the Temple. As well, here is Buffy in his sexy sarong! Out in the distance you can see the sea and the 4 small shrines in the background are called Pelinggih or 'seats of the gods'.



The meru shrine has 3, 5, 7,9 or 11 tiers, depending on the importance of it's deity. It symbolizes the Hindu holy Mount Meru, but can also represent other sacred peaks. This one has 11 tiers. The dark fiber used for the roof layers is made from sugar palms, and it actually resembles hair. The 11 tiered Meru is a shrine for deified kings, ancestral spirits and nature gods.



Coconut shells laid out to dry. The coconut shells are used for burning in ceremonies, such as cremations and festival dances. We also saw coconut shells used for creating the coals for making satay. mmmm satay!



This is the opening to the cave and again, you can see several pelinggih just at the opening.



As we got closer to the cave opening we could indeed see the sheer numbers of bats clinging to the opening walls. This is from the Left side.



This is from the right side. Look at all the bat guana coating the roofs of the shrines.



We weren't really sure how far back the cave went. We couldn't go in there, but you really wouldn't want to as the stench from the bat pooh was pretty strong. As well, it is said that this cave leads all the way to Besakih which is a grand complex of 22 temples spread over 1 sq. mile on the slopes of Gunung Agung. (the mountain I showed you in the Waterworx post)



More upclose and personal. You can actually tell the difference between the males and the females if you just take a look. The center bat is most definatly-male!



More bats just hanging out. Fruit bats don't even eat mosquitos, let alone suck the blood of anything! But it sure would be nice for them to eat mosquitos! These fruit bats are about 8 inches long in the body, but had a much larger wingspan.



Here we are infront of a shrine with the cave behind us, all donning our sarongs and sashes.



Offerings to the legendary giant snake.



And when we left the Bat Cave Temple to walk back over to the car, we had a group of young woman hawkers just waiting for us so they could try and sell us their wares. First, they tried to give you bead necklaces... or rather they forced you to take them...even putting them on you and then they would try to get you to come and see their other items for sale. It was so hard to get away, and as you can see, we all abandoned Jeremy, left him to the wolves. : )



Don't make eyecontact! Or we'll never get out of here!

© December 6, 2008