Pura Samuan Tiga, an exceptionally unique temple situated in the village of Bedulu, 25 km from Denpasar, 5 km from Ubud, and only 400 m from Elephant Cave (Goa Gajah) sanctuary. Built in 10^th century in the reign of King Chandrasangka Warmadewa, this sacred temple was the royal temple of ancient Warmadewa dynasty. As suggest by its name, Balinese believe that Pura Samuan Tiga is a venue for the great meeting of the gods, deities, and saints – the word “samuan” means “meeting” and “tiga” means “three.”

This sacred temple is flanked by a meeting of two rivers – river Pande and river Tegending – on the east side and a reminiscent of an ancient pool on the west side and sacred trees such as banyan, pule and curiga which grow around the temple serve as giant umbrella. Unlike other Balinese’s temples that consist of three courtyards, Samuan Tiga temple has seven courtyards separated by walls and split gates, connected only by stairs that leading up to the innermost courtyard, the meeting hall of gods, deities and saints.

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At one time the island was populated by pure Indonesians, an ancient people who filed and blackened their teeth. They lived in small communities, family clans ruled by a council of elders who acted as the priests of their religion. Their cult centred in the worship of the powerful spirits of nature, and especially those of their ancestors, with whom they continued to live, a great family of both the dead and the living. Occasionally, by means of mediums and sacrifices, they brought their ancestral spirits down to this earth to protect them. They buried their dead or simply abandoned them in the jungle to be carried away by the spirits, and it is possible that they even ate parts of the bodies in order to absorb the magic power inherent in their ancient headmen.

The pure descendants of these people, calling themselves Bali Aga or Bali Mula, the “ original “ Balinese, still live, isolated and independent, in the mountains where they found refuge from imperialistic strangers. Hidden in the hills of east Bali, near Karangasem, lies the village of Tenganan, where the most conservative of the Bali Aga preserve the old traditions with the greatest zeal. Tenganan is a rabidly isolated community, socially and economically separate from the rest of Bali, almost a republic in itself. It is shut off from the world by a solid wall that surrounds the entire village, which is meant to keep outsider away, and is broken only by four gates, each facing one of the cardinal points. Of these gates, three open to the gardens and plantations of the village, but the main gate is so narrow that a stout person has difficulty in squeezing through. Such is the obsession for in Tenganan that there is an official specially appointed to sweep the village after the visits of strangers, to obliterate their footprints.

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