Hotelupwell.com – The island of Bali holds the intertwined charm of culture and nature. The combination of these two things is one of the main magnets for attracting tourist interest, both domestic and foreign. Known as the Island of a Thousand Temples, you can easily find thousands of Hindu temples or places of worship in various sizes, large or small.
Understandably, of the approximately 3.32 million population, according to data from the Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration of the Ministry of Home Affairs, around 86.8 percent of them follow the Hindu religion. Temples are often built to blend with the natural beauty of the surroundings, so some are located at the end of steep cliffs with views of the open sea or at the foot of mountains.
This is in line with the sacred orientation of Balinese Hindu society, namely kaja-kelod or towards mountains and beaches. For example, Pura Besakih, the largest place of worship for Balinese Hindus. This temple, nicknamed the Mother of Temple, is a worship complex covering an area of 12 square kilometers consisting of one main temple, namely Pura Penataran Agung and 17 smaller temples.
Located at an altitude of almost 1,000 meters above sea level (masl), Besakih Temple is southwest of Mount Agung, the highest mountain on the Island of the Gods which has a peak of 3,142 meters above sea level. Administratively, Besakih Temple is in Besakih Village, Rendang District, Karangasem Regency. The distance is around 53.3 km or two hours by land from Renon in Denpasar, the capital of Bali Province.
The journey to Besakih Temple will pass through the panoramic view of Bukit Jambul, one of the natural tourist attractions on the border of Karangasem and Klungkung Regency. The name besakih is taken from Sanskrit, namely wasuki. Meanwhile, in Old Javanese, it is basuki which means ‘safe’.
Besakih is also linked by the Basuki dragon mythology as a balancer to Mount Mandara. There are no official records regarding who founded the temple, although there are several versions of the community story. This was revealed by a cultural researcher from Australia, who works at the National Museum of Ethnology Leiden, David J Stuart Fox in his book Pura Besakih: Temple, Religion, and Society in Bali.
In the 470-page book, the Australian National University graduate explained that Fox got one of the stories about the founding of Besakih Temple from the book Het Adatrecht van Bali by Dr VE Korn in 1932. Fox said, based on the story from Korn’s book, there was a religious figure (pedanda) in the Gianyar valley who claimed that the founder was Resi Markandenyan from Java.
This temple was completely completed in the 15th century and inside there are many relics such as sarcophagi, menhirs and pyramid-like terrace structures. Some of them are the Gaduh Sakti Selat Inscription dated 1393 Saka or 1471 AD, and the Batu Madeg Inscription. Then the Penataran Besakih A Inscription (1366 Saka/1444 AD) which mentions the location of the Besakih Temple in the hulundang ring basuki or the village upstream or the holiest place.
Besakih Temple will be one of the tourist destinations for participants of the G20 Summit on 15-16 November 2022. Because of this, the government has been planning the area around the temple since 2021.
President Joko Widodo ordered the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing to improve the Besakih Temple area. A number of supporting facilities were built in the Manik Mas area, such as a four-story parking building covering an area of 55,201 square meters and capable of accommodating 66 large buses as well as 1,369 cars and 2,000 motorbikes. Different entry and exit routes have also been created, so that there is no accumulation, including regulating road circulation for vehicles.
Also established were 18 large kiosks and 12 small kiosks and in the Bencingah Area there were 358 trader kiosks on a building covering an area of 7,587 m2. Both areas are equipped with a 64 m2 viewing deck and 113 clean toilet cubicles. This arrangement costs a budget of IDR 508.1 billion from the 2021-2022 multiyear APBN and lasts for 540 calendar days.
Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono confirmed that the arrangement of the Besakih Temple area would not touch the main building area which is used as a place of worship. “The most important thing about arranging this area is to increase the comfort of visitors who worship and travel,” said Basuki, quoted from the PUPR Ministry website.
Basuki hopes that, through the Besakih Temple structuring activities, the function and vitality of the area can increase security, convenience and comfort. Not only for the local community, also for visitors, both from a religious and tourism perspective.
Apart from that, the arrangement of the Besakih Temple area is expected to provide a new perspective for summit participants regarding sustainable cultural preservation carried out by Indonesia and can be emulated by G20 member countries.
