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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
In the eastern provinces of Bali the road from the capital Denpasar to Karangasem passes a small exquisite lake surrounded by palm trees. Behind the lake rise a number of dramatic steep hills framing it towards the north, while beyond it the Indian Ocean sweeps to the horizon. In the distance through the blue haze lie the “islands of exile”, the biggest of which is called Nusa Penida, while closer inshore a group of small rocks juts vertically out of the sea. It is one of the most evocative tropical scenes I know. The lake, as befits such a setting, is sacred. Purple lotuses cover its surface, and the two temples to Shiva and Hariti look down from the hill. It is the holy precinct of Tjandidasa.
1 Place names are given by the spelling on the military maps, or failing this as spelt by locals. “Gunung” means mountain, “Bukit” is hill, “Gili” is a small island, and “Nusa” a larger one. “Pura” means temple.
2 Modern Balinese houses and some temples are very exactly oriented to the sun, particularly around Ubud, where they look to the mother temple at Besakih below the huge volcanic mountain Gunung Agung as being to their north, though it is to the north-east. Besakih is surrounded by 8 subsidiary puras each representing one of the eight points of the compass, as Miguel Covarrubias describes in The island of Bali. However, none of them is on an exact cardinal alignment with the mother temple. These nine temples, more or less in order of importance (there seems to be some dispute about this), are Besakih, Lempujang on the east coast, Andakasa and nearby Sileyukti on the south coast, Batu Karoe in the centre west, Batur, Ulu Watu near the new international airport, Tanah Lot, and Pedjeng. But I am told that in earlier times there were only six temples of major importance, not nine, and that the last three on this list were added fairly recently (after the Majapahit invasion?). This suggests that the emphasis on the cardinal points may be a recent innovation overlaying a more ancient topographical tradition. The fact that none of the axes at Tjandidasa are cardinally oriented, but are all topographically oriented may add weight to this. Is it possible that in very early times the sites were set out to the landscape, and that as newer concepts came into the island the cardinal points became more important without obliterating the earlier methods ?
3 The temples are set out from a complex set of proportional rules, where the sizes and the relationship of the parts depend on the classification of the temple. The basic measures used stem from the human body: the length of the priest's foot, the distance between his outstretched fingers, the size of a knuckle. These variable yet human lengths are combined according to the strictest categories, where insight is often as important as the rules. Even numbers and exact symmetry are seldom used, and to every precise proportion a small increment is added to prevent it being too regular.
4 Ida Made Djelantic was in charge of rebuilding this in 1956/7. He told me he instructed the craftsmen to use the old footings exactly as they were, and to copy the earlier dilapidated work in every respect.
5 Dutch military map 1:50,000 scale, HIND 1119 sheet 63/xliv-B First bilingual edition. Glogor is 350m. high, Loewger half as high, and Shiva Tjandidasa 50m.
6 Bali, ed. by the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, 1960, 38.Google Scholar
7 See Eitel, E. J., Feng-Shui, or the rudiments of natural science in China, London, 1973.Google Scholar
8 See Watkins, A., The old straight track, London, 1925Google Scholar; Michelle, J., The view over Atlantis, London, 1969.Google Scholar
9 In reading the letters and books by early travellers in Bali one has the distinct impression that there were no wide roads as now, but just narrow winding tracks through the fields and jungle. The present roads and the single-lane bridges were built by the Dutch after they conquered the island in 1908—a bridge near Tjandidasa is dated 1911. Therefore the long straight edge to the lake on the northern side may have been built by the Dutch when they drove the road through here. The shrine S may have been where the small tree now is immediately north of it, and the ground level outside the Hariti temple may have been lower than now, as it is inside the enclosure. One more example of the circumstances of history adding to the complexity of the geometry—though in this case without sympathy.
10 Bagus Oka tells me this may be named after a Chinese God.
11 Note that S is not exactly on the axis to Gili Mimpang. In fact it runs through the tree behind the shrine, and continues to the edge of the platform in front of the carved figure of Hariti. Hence my suggestion in note 9, that the shrine was moved forward when the road was built, and perhaps the Hariti statue was moved back when the tree collapsed. Today's gurus may not be as aware as their predecessors.
12 Bali, 12—there are over 20,000 temples in Bali, and over 4,660 of these are major sites.