Bangli Regency Sight Seeing

The region of Bangli, up in the higher elevations of central-eastern Bali. embraces some of the island’s most spectacular scenery. This is a relatively remote region, with a population of only 188,000— second lowest of Bali’s eight regencies after tiny Klungkung.

The overwhelming majority still derive a livelihood from agriculture, growing rice, corn, sweet potatoes, cassava and cabbages on non-irrigated fields, as well as coffee, tobacco, vanilla, citrus, passion fruit and cloves, much of it for export. Tourism is not well-developed here, with the notable exception of Kintamani and other towns up on the crater of Mt Batur, which on account of its breathtaking views has become one of the island’s major tourist stops.

Amongst the Balinese, Bangli is renowned for its black magic, or “knowledge of the left” as the Balinese put it. This is difficult to verify, as practitioners keep their black arts a secret. More in evidence are the large number of successful trance healers, called balian. who follow the “knowledge of the right.” Bangli’s healers have an island-wide reputation, and one will often see clients arriving from other areas of Bali, bearing offerings dressed in their ceremonial finery.

Ulun Danu Batur Temple

Lake Batur, Bali’s largest lake, is the source that feeds an underground network of springs throughout the southern-central flanks of the mountain. Homage is paid here to the life-giving grace of the lake at Pura Ulun Danu Batur. The original temple is down by the lake, but during the l920s it was built a new on the western rim of the crater near the town of Kintamani. Click here for more informations.

Penelokan

A paved road follows the crater’s rim around its southern and western circumference. From the south, the first stop is penelokan which means “look-out,” and indeed the views from here are stunning. Enterprising people are capitalizing on the panorama and there are swarms of peddlers and a string of shops, restaurants and small hotels all along the road to Kintamani.

Kintamani

The village of Batur/Kalanganyar borders the town of Kintamani, an administrative center in the district of Bangli. This was formerly a way station over the mountains that separate Buleleng (the old colonial headquarters of the Dutch) from the rest of Bali. The second hotel built in Bali was in Kintamani but the place still looks like a frontier town: wooden huts and no-nonsense little cement boxes for the municipal offices. What one notices most is the delicious air and the vistas the crater to one side and all Bali extending to the sea on the other.

Up the road going north is a market, busy every three days on Hari Paseh in the Balinese calender. This is interesting to visit to see the variety of produce from surrounding mountain farms oranges, corn, vegetables. fruit and the usual vast array of scented flowers, dried fish, tools, livestock, pots and baskets, plus a big clothing market. You may also see men cuddling big furry Kintamani puppies, highly prized all over Bali.

Penulisan Temple

A few km past Kintamani on the right is the entrance to the temple Pura Tegeh Kuripan, also called Pura Penulisan, the highest construction on the island (1,745 m) until a TV tower was installed next door few years ago. This temple is a powerful place ancient, royal and remote.

A long steep flight of stairs rises through the eleven terraces of the temple complex. The pyramidal form and the large stones that are still venerated there suggest that this place has been holy for many centuries.

From Pura Panarajon on the uppermost terrace, you can sometimes see as far as the north coast of Bali and the mountains of East Java. The proportions of the courtyard and various balai are modest but the atmosphere is heavy with the solitude of hallowed kings. There are many sacred statues including lingga and mysterious fragments housed in the open pavilions. Of particular interest is a royal couple bearing the ininscriptions “Anak Wungsu” and "Bhatari Mandul" dated Saka year 999 (A.D. 1077).

Mandul means “childless” and although it is impossible to know who this refers to, one interesting conjecture is that she was the Chinese Buddhist princess Subandar, whose shrine Stands in Pura Ulun Danu, and that her barrenness was caused by a curse from a siwaite wizard.

Trunyan Village

Of the lake villages, Trunyan is surely the most famous, and becoming notorious as a place not to visit after all. The village is virtually inaccessible except by boat, and on arrival the villagers will wade out to meet you and clamor for money. In Trunyan, it’s okay to beg, yet the properous residents have re-built their houses in modern materials (cement block and zinc). Traditional architecture is rare.

Still, the place is interesting to some. In the Pura Gede Pancering Jagat is a unique, four-meter guardian statue, Da Tonte or Ratu Gede Pancering Jagat, but it is stored out of view in a closed meru. The people of Trunyan do not cremate their dead, but place them exposed under a sacred tree by the lakeshore that has the remarkable property of preventing the decomposing corpses from smelling. Tourists are aggressively solicited to visit the graveyard and see for themselves. This is further down from the village itself and you may ask to skip Trunyan and go directly to the gravesite or kuburan.

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