The Mother Temple of Besakih, or Pura Besakih, in the village of Besakih on the slopes of Mount Agung

Mount Agung

Mount Agung or Gunung Agung is a mountain in Bali, Indonesia. This stratovolcano is the highest point on the island. It dominates the surrounding area influencing the climate...

 in eastern Bali, is the most important, the largest and holiest temple of Agama Hindu Dharma in Bali

Bali

Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...

., Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 and one of a series of Balinese temple

Pura (Balinese temple)

A pura is a Balinese Hindu temple. and the place of worship for the adherents of Balinese Hinduism in Indonesia. Most of the puras are found on the island of Bali, as Hinduism is the predominant religion in the island; however many puras exist in other parts of Indonesia where there are significant...

s.

Architecture

The temple is actually a complex made up of twenty-two temples that sit on parallel ridges. It has stepped terraces and flights of stairs which ascend to a number of courtyards and brick gateways that lead up to the main spire Meru structure, which is called Pura Penataran Agung. All this is aligned along a single axis and designed to lead the spiritual upward and closer to the mountain which is considered sacred.

The symbolic center or main sanctuary of the complex is the Pura Penataran Agung and and the lotus throne or padmasana is the symbolic center of the main sanctuary and ritual focus of the entire complex. It dates to around the seventeenth century.

A series of eruptions of Mount Agung in 1963, which killed approximately 1,700 people
also threatened Puru Besakih. The lava flows missed the temple complex by mere meters. The saving of the temple is regarded by the Balinese people

Balinese people

The Balinese population of 3.0 million live mostly on the island of Bali, making up 89% of the island's population. There are also significant populations on the island of Lombok, and in the eastern-most regions of Java The Balinese population of 3.0 million (1.5% of Indonesia's population) live...

 as miraculous, and a signal from the gods that they wished to demonstrate their power but not destroy the monument the Balinese faithful had erected.

Festivals

Annually there are at least seventy festivals held at the complex each year since there is a yearly anniversary celebrating almost every shrine. This yearly cycle is based on the 210-day Balinese calendar system.

It had been nominated as a World Heritage Site

World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

as early as 1995, but remains unvested.

Further reading

• I Nyoman Darma Putra and Michael Hitchcock (2005) Pura Besakih: A world heritage site contested in Indonesia and the Malay World, Volume 33, Issue 96 July 2005, pages 225 - 238
• Stuart-Fox, David J.(2002) Pura Besakih: temple, religion and society in Bali KITLV, Original from the University of Michigan (Digitized 5 Sep 2008 into Google Books) ISBN 9067181463, 9789067181464 . 470 pages