The Anniversary of Alas Kedaton Temple
Every year thousands of temple ceremonies are held in Bali but only few of them are held in unique way and one of them is the anniversary of Alas Kedaton Temple. But before we proceed to the uniqueness of Alas Kedaton Temple’s anniversary it is better to shed some light on Alas Kedaton Temple.
Alas Kedaton Temple is situated in the Alas Kedaton Monkey Forest in Kukuh Village, Tabanan Regency. Alas Kedaton can be reached with 40-minute drive from Kuta. The best we to get to this monkey forest from Kuta is to go through Kerobokan towards Tanah Lot then turning right towards Tabanan and continuing through the main east-west road, and heading north. As other monkey forest in Bali, Alas Kedaton also has a temple in it that is named Pura Dalem Kahyangan Kedaton but popularly called Pura Alas Kedaton (Alas Kedaton Temple).
The anniversary of Alas Kedaton Temple is held once every 210 days like most of the temple in Bali but unlike any other temple in Bali the anniversary of Alas Kedaton Temple does not use fire and penjor decoration, elements that are essential in the temple ceremony in other places in Bali and the anniversary of this monkey forest temple is finished before the sunset or before the night is come while in other temple in Bali the anniversary is usually held until late at night.
Other interesting rituals in this temple anniversary are mepeed and ngerebeg ritual. These rituals are similar to a parade in the west. Mepeed is a ritual in which the devotees put on their best clothes and carrying the offerings in a line on their way to the temple while ngerebeg is a parade in which the devotees circulate the temple. This year the anniversary of Alas Kedaton Temple was held on June 1, 2010.