Half Day Mengwi Tanah Lot Tour

Half Day Mengwi and Tanah Lot Temple Tour

Taman Ayun Temple

The name of Taman Ayun literally means the garden of mind. It was probably the temple was designed not only as religious purpose, but also as an art that could be uses as the place of relax and refreshing the soul of the king as well as the people who worship the god and homage of the ancestors.

Seen physically, the temple confirms the specific views and careful choice of location from where the environments are lower and on the west side of the temple location is a river which is blocked at the southern end of the temple to form a wide pool bordering the west part of the temple, and exactly across the pool is the palace.

The temple is located in the village of Mengwi, now a town, around 18 kms north west of Denpasar city. If one wish to find this temple she/he can take the main road of Denpasar – Bedugul through the town of Kapal, then arrive at well known cow market of Beringkit, from here the temple is only around 5 kms to the direction of Bedugul. Exactly at the cross road of Mengwi town turn right, one will soon see the Temple.

The outline of the temple as the common temple of Bali is divided into 3 yards. The first is the outer yard, is considered the common place, less holy, the central yard for the place of preparing material of rituals, and the jeroan yard where all sacred constructions and place of ritual are existing.

The total size of the temple proper is 250 x 100 meters that covers the 3 yards, not including the pool. Some wrote that the outline of the temple consist of 4 yards they separate the outer yard with 2 shrines dedicated to the ancestor spirits through the temple of Nusa island and Batu Aya.
The Jeroan yard, is considered the holiest place of the temple. For Taman Ayun, the jeroan has 25 shrines, as the main shrine is dedicated to the god as the power of irrigation called Ulun Sui, a meru with 11 superimposed roofs.

There are another 11 merus for a praying related to some temples outside Taman Ayun so people can pray immediately without specifically come to the respective temple, such as the temple of Gunung Agung, Sakenan, and Batukara, while 2 merus with 9 roofs praying to the temples of Batur and Beratan temples.

At the central yard are exist 6 shrines, and at the first yard found 13 shrines including now a big meeting hall called wantilan. This meeting hall can be used for various purposes with capacity more then 200 persons. It is a design based on bali traditional activities with higher place for performance stage. Border between courtyard is separated by gates constructed in red bricks and decorated with beautiful carving of bas relief. Central yard has beautiful zoning with garden.

Tanah Lot Temple

The name of Tanah Lot temple in tourism bibliography about Bali is almost never absent. Among those temples as a tourist visit it is probably Tanah Lot is second most popular after Besakih. The name Tanah Lot is probably from ” tanah laut ” means land in the sea.

It is the fact that the strong sea abrasion has separated the temple area with Bali mainland, so it looks that the temple nests on a small hill of rock bulging up on the ocean. Despite the fact that strong hit of sea wave but the site is still standing while the whole side have disappeared by the raged waves of hundreds of years.

Pura Tanah Lot is located at a village called Braban, included in the administration of Kecamatan Kediri Kabupaten Tabanan. The location is 30 kms from Denpasar city, and 11 kms from the town of Kediri. The town of Kediri lies on the main road between Denpasar city to Tabanan city which is also the main road of southern area of Bali from east island to the west.

Big bus can reach the parking lot that is especially constructed by local government on the beach where are also found some restaurants, shops and art shops. On the east side of parking area there are shops and restaurants, from here visitors have to walk on foot around 300 meters to the beach. On the beach again some drink stalls along the direction of east west and they put some wooden or bamboo chairs on the beach where visitors can relax waiting for the sunset.

The beach on the area is steep drop cliff continuously under abrasion of strong sea water. On the edge of the sea below is very fine black sand mixed with sparkling quartz. This black sand is used to make decoration such as mirror frames, photo frames or building decorations due to its sparkling reflection under light.

Now only 3 villages that responsible for the temple those are all nearby villages of Braban, Kelating, and Tibu Biyu, and still as the temple for Mengwi palace. The ceremony is performed every 6 month, based on Hindu-Java calendar which is already printed out during November every year.

For tourists, it is not only the traditional magic of the temple is interesting, but the location in the natural setting, especially during the sunset, the temple changes into silhouette against the sunsets above Indonesian ocean.