Ulun Danu Bratan Temple may seem like floating on the surface of the Lake Bratan, as a matter of fact, it is situated on a small promontory jutting out from the western shore of the lake, flooded periodically by the rising lake. This sacred temple is a historical monument of peaceful amalgamation of Buddhist and Hindu in Bali. this half-Hindu, half-Buddhist temple was built by the king of Mengwi in 1633 A.D, dedicated to Dewi Danu, the Goddess of Lake.

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Paying homage and praying to a temple is not just an act of devotion to God for Balinese, it is more than just a religious activity. In socio-political context praying in a temple for a Balinese is also an act to justify his positions in the society, his position in a clan, his position in a village, etc in short praying to the temple is an act of justifying his identity.

Taman Ayun Temple

Justifying identity through worshipping in a temple is possible since most temple membership in Bali is exclusive, that is, only those who are member may worship there. One cannot as in Islam and Christianity, stop in at any temple and pray; for this privilege, in Bali someone must in some sense regular member of the congregation of the temple. From more 20,000 temples in Bali not more than five percents are public temple, where everybody can pray and pay homage and the rest of them are members only. (There are five types of temple in Bali: public temple, territorial temple, functional temple and clan temple).

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Thousands of temples that scattered all over the island of Bali are not just built for a single purpose. The function of a temple can be determined by the characteristics of the temple that totally depend on the bond that bind the temple congregations to the temple. The bond may be a social, political, economical, or genealogical bond.

The social bond can be in the form of territorial bond, and teacher – student bond. The political bond is created base on the need of the king to unite his people and territory. The economical bond is created based on the similarity of the profession, for example farmer, trader, fisherman, etc. Genealogical bond is established based on kinship or clan.

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Holy water, the most important part of a Balinese ceremony, no ceremony is considered to be complete without the presence of Holy water. Holy water can be obtained either from natural sources or from the peranda (high priest). The natural resources of holy waters range from klebutan (spring), tukad (river), campuan (meeting of two or more river), loloan (estuary), danu (lake), and segara (sea).

Klebutan, spring is the most popular holy water source for temple anniversary, and rites for God. Not all spring is fit as holy water source, spring that is used as a holy water source is usually located on the sacred spot or near a temple. A Beji temple or at least a shrine is built near the spring that is used as a holy water source. Balinese who want to get a holy water from this spring must present a set of offering to this temple or shrine and ask permission from the the God who resides in this temple or shrine.

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Pura Jati is located lakeside of Batur. Before Temple Ceremony of Pura Ulun Danu, it is always to conduct procession to this temple to take holy water for ceremony. It has ample parking lot and also big Wantilan. They show that this temple is prepared for a lot of prayers come all over Bali. Adjacent to this temple is Pura Pasek Kayuselem. Tourist can also use this access to climb Mount Batur.

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Whether Subandar is or not another name for For Jaya Kesunu’s wife is highly debatable. The fact that Subandar is an important figure in Bali is beyond question. There is a large shrine dedicated to Ida Ratu Ayu Subandar located in the extreme northeast corner of the outer courtyard of Pura Dalem Balingkang. Inside of it is a long megalith that is considered to be very sacred and in the shape of a barong landung. At any rate, there seems to be some connection between Subandar and the Balingkang stories. With this in mind, let us examine the other Subandar phenomena in Bali.

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