Besakih Temple (Pura Agung Besakih) and how to visit

Description and is it worth a visit

Pura Agung Besakih Temple

Pura Agung Besakih (Pura Agung Besakih) or simply Besakih Temple is the grandest, most important, most significant and possibly the oldest temple in Bali. It is simply 100% mandatory to visit. In our opinion, you can even skip the more famous and popular temples of Uluwatu or Tanah Lot among holidaymakers in Bali, but you can't miss the Demons in any way. The temple is really very big, the view of it against the background of the volcano is magnificent, and there is always something going on, so you can not just get acquainted with the architecture, but also see or even participate in the rituals conducted by local believers. Now we will tell you in detail how and why to visit it:

What you need to know about visiting Besakih

Pura Besakih, like most temples in Bali, is Hindu. But do not be surprised that you will see here special elements that are usually present in Buddhist temples, we are talking about swastika symbols. In fact, the swastika is also used in Hinduism along with Buddhism and some other religions, only to a lesser extent. But unlike Buddhism, the right-sided swastika is used here.

This is a large temple complex, consisting of 23 temples located on an area of 15 hectares!!! But not all the territory is accessible to tourists, however, as in almost all the temples of Bali. But even the part that is open to tourists is enough to get impressions, take beautiful photos and enjoy the views of the volcano mountain.

However, the closed part is actually also available to tourists who really want it. The fact is that the closed part is intended for believers who come to pray and perform rituals, and, naturally, crowds of wandering tourists with cameras will interfere. But you can go to this part too in order to pray, for this you just need to buy a basket with offerings, they cost from 100,000 rupees (rate temporary unavailable/span> rubles). In any case, it is impossible to shoot in the closed part, and if you behave openly as a tourist who came to take a look, and not to participate in the prayer ritual, you may also not be launched. Your faith doesn't matter to you coming here. Everyone here understands this perfectly well, but they are treated with understanding, and they will even help and tell you what to do with these offerings and how to conduct such a conditional prayer. In principle, this is not surprising, because there are several times more tourists who visit Besakikh than local believers.

History of the Besakikh Temple

It is believed that Besakikh was built more than 1000 years ago, but the exact date and even the period of construction are unknown. Moreover, it has been accurately established by researchers that some elements of the temple are already more than 2000 years old. But in general, historians believe that Buddhism and Hinduism began to develop actively on the island only in the VIII century AD. So there is a possibility that the temple in this place was founded even before the rapid development of Hinduism in Bali, and then it was transformed into a new religion, but this is not certain.

The place for the temple on the slopes of Mount Agung was not chosen by chance. After all, mountains occupy a special place in Balinese cosmology, are the focus of the divine. Mount Agung is the highest of the island, considered the navel of the world and the place from where Hinduism began to spread throughout Bali.

In the XI - XV centuries, Besakikh was almost forgotten, not mentioned in any document. But in the XV century, the political capital moved to the center of the island, after which Besakikh again became a significant place, perhaps even a state temple. It was used by residents not only for prayers and rituals, but also as a place to hide during natural disasters.

In 1917, there was a strong earthquake, as a result of which a considerable part of the temple was destroyed. Everything has been restored, but the old buildings have been lost, i.e. almost everything that you will see today is no longer ancient buildings.

In 1963, another element struck the temple, which led to a tragedy – a volcanic eruption. The celebration of the big spring festival Eka Dasa Rudra (Eka Dasa Rudra), held once a century, was to be held in the temple.

Shortly before the celebration, an increase in soil temperature was recorded at the foot of the volcano (recall that the temple is located on the slope of the active volcano Agung). However, despite the warnings of the priests and proposals to postpone the celebration, they decided not to cancel the spring festival. On March 18, 1963, the volcano began to erupt, spewing ash and lava flows. The Besakikh temple itself was not damaged, lava flows bypassed it. But about 1,700 people died in the neighboring villages higher up the slope, entire villages were destroyed.

Now you know all the most important things you need to visit, and now you can see some beautiful photos from the temple, and at the end of the article practical information about the opening hours, cost and how to get to the Besakikh temple.

Besakikh is popular and there's always something going on

View of Besakikh

The main entrance to the temple

In pura Besakikh

Temples inside the complex

There are a lot of beautiful and interesting things here

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