Location location location when it comes to temples in Bali

Sitting at my table at the Sailfin restaurant on the beach in Kuta I have a direct view of the beach and the breaking waves. Just down from my window is a small Balinese temple which has a few scattered canang, the small square trays of offerings. Balinese temples can seem bare and unattractive on many occasions, only coming to life during an odalan, or temple ceremony. One of the constants with Balinese temples is their auspicious location, whether it be cliff-top, mountainside, river side or in the middle of a village. The location always means something.

One of the magical aspects of Balinese Hinduism is that during times such as Galungan and Kuningan the temples are inhabited by the spirits of ancestors and the Gods. In fact a special throne for the Supreme Being is located in the center of the inner-compound of temples.

The focus on divine and the importance of the location, over all the stuff going on around it really give the Balinese a power that can only be extinguished by them. It means whatever is built next to the temple, a Four Seasons, a Hard Rock Hotel, a Sailfin it does not matter, because the ancestors and the Gods understand as do the people where the Holy place is. You can imagine them sitting down in some of these places hundreds of years ago, long before tourism was on the scene. They were special then and nothing has changed.

In the small temple down below Sailfin a small rectangular compound features a decorated entrance, a pair of shrines and a single meru (thatched roof). A table provides an extra place for offerings.