Pemangku: Temple Priest
Friday, October 5th, 2007 by Sidarta WijayaThousands of temples that scattered all over the island of Bali can be compared to thousands of living organisms. They need to be taken care of and this arduous task is the responsibility of thousands of pemangkus, or temple priests, who devotes their lives toperseverance of the temples. Each temple in Bali has its own pemangku, a pemangku is the guardian, overseer, priest, in short, the one who responsible for the needs of a temple and its congregation.
A pemangku can be easily recognized among the crowd of worshippers by his white attires and his special headdress which covers the upper part of the head (headdress for lay man does not cover the upper section of the head). He usually sits higher that the rest of the temple congregations. Most pemangkus are men, but there is no gender restriction, and one sometimes sees a woman in this role.







