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Visiting Sanggeh Monkey Forest Bali

Bali seems to be wealthy when it comes to ‘monkey forests’ and today I took a trip to probably the most famous, the Sanggeh Monkey Forest (Bukit Sari).

Getting there from Kuta you could take the Sunset Rd to Kerobokan then head up to Sempidi, Kapal, Mengwi, Abeansemal and then hit Sanggeh. The drive is 21 km from Denpasar.

The road is a minor road and you might have to ask directions if you run into one of those famous 3 or 4 way junctions when the map says 2-way.

Close to Sanggeh I passed a temple called Pura Dalem Hyangsoka. You might remember from an older article that each village has 3 temples (Pura Puseh, the temple of origin, Pura Desa, the village temple and the Pura Dalem, temple of the dead). Down the road came small groups of women carrying large stacks of offerings on their heads. These offerings are called banten and contain an assortment of fruit and rice cakes. They are built around a central skeleton of the trunk of a young banana tree.

The offerings are left at the temple for a while and the family who made it are allowed to take it home and eat the contents.

I rode a couple of kilometers further up the road and stopped for a drink. The lady who owned the road side shop told me it was the odalan and that accounted for the temple ceremonies. An odalan is the anniversary celebration of a temple. The odalan will be held either every 210 days if following the wuku calender or 365 following the saka calender and lasts for 3 days.

The hope of the community is that the Gods will come down to Earth and observe the devoted villagers entertaining and worshipping. The procession that I observed is the start to the days events and the offerings will be received by the village priest (pemangku), before ceremonies begin.

I lingered a short while and rode off to the Monkey Forest. The place is hard to miss with temple structures close to the street and a parking area across from it. Outside in the parking area locals were trying their best to sell t-shirts and drinks while others got on with making canang (offerings). Admission is 3,000rp and that entitles you to wander around and check out the forest, the monkeys and the temple. The Balinese believe that Hanuman, the monkey king tried to kill an enemy called Rawana by crushing him between the 2 halves of Gunung Meru. A piece of the mountain landed on Earth and the monkeys have been the guardians ever since. The temple was built in the 17th century.

The staff at the Monkey Forest wear co-ordinated Balinese clothing and one of them followed me around until I asked him to stop. “I will protect you against aggressive monkeys.” he said. ‘I need someone to protect me against the aggressive tours guides’ I thought.The forest is quite small in area but has some huge nutmeg trees which can reach 40m in height. A curving footpath takes you though the forest and around the main footpath again. You can do this walk in 15 minutes.

I did see some small monkeys on the main footpath but they were not aggressive, neither were the ones in the forest. Guides will tell you to watch your hat and glasses which is a good idea. I took mine off and put them in my bag.

The center piece of the Monkey Forest is Pura Bukit Sari, a lovely atmospheric place which like most of Bali’s temples is deserted most of the year apart from the tourists. I am not an expert on temples but did notice one strange thing, 2 kul kul (drum towers). The towers are used to ritually summon members of the banjar and usually the kul kul tower is placed in the kelod end of the temple.

Visitors are not permitted to enter the candi bentar (split gate) which marks the entrance to the temple. I simply snapped a few shots over the gate.

My guide book says that the Monkey Forest is best visited late in the afternoon to avoid crowds. I was the only customer at 3pm so I felt special.

I asked the attendants when the forest opens in the morning and one of them said 7am. It closes when there are no more people.

I thought the place was impressive for the size of the trees and the coolness of the temple. The monkeys were rather weak.