Types of Temples in Bali

There are four kinds of temples existing in Bali (1) Ancestral Temple, (2) Village Kahyangan or Kahyangan Tiga temple, (3) Swagina temple, and (4) Kahyangan Jagat temple. The four kinds of temples have two main functions: To pray to God as the soul of macrocosmos, and to pray for God in His role as the holy soul of living creatures (Please, read previous edition aticle).

1. PuraKawitan (Ancestral Temple)
The ancestral temple is a Hindu family temple. There are generally five grades of such family temples in Bali: (1) sanggah or merajan kemulan, (2) kemulan agung, (3) paibon, (4) dadia, and padharman. The name of Merajan kemulan, according to basic regulations defined in Ancient Masnuscripts of ‘Lontar Siwagama’, is a holy structure built on the upper site of every house or home of the first generation of the family.
If the family grows to occupy at least 10 groundyards, the developed family will build a new temple termed as kemulan agung (grand temple of origin), while others call it merajan gedong pertiwi or merajan agung. Merajan kamulan functions as place of ritual to unite the original family members, while merajan agung is to unite family members who have speadout over ten houseyards.
If the family grows larger to occupy 20 ground units, they would build a common place of prayer called ‘Pura Paibon’, a kind of mother temple for the greater family. A family with membership dispersed in 40 groundyards would be advised to build a new place of worship called in Balinese a pura dadia or pura panti, otherwise also named ‘pura batur’ temple. This temple is quite different from ‘Pura Batur Kahyangan Jagat’ (Universal Batur Kahyangan Temple) located in Kintamani Tourist Resort, Bangli.

2. Pura Kahyangan Desa
This is a triple temple consisting of three partial temples distributed in territories belonging to a traditional village, lately popular as desa pekraman village throughout Bali. The triple Kahyangan Tiga temples are respectively (1) Pura Desa or Pura Baleagung, (2) Pura Puseh and (3) Pura Dalem.

3. Pura Swagina
Swagina is a word synonymous to ‘profession’. Thus, this temple is a place of worship used by people active in profession. Take the example of wet-rice field peasants who commonly own ‘Pura Subak’ and ‘Pura Ulun Swi’, both denoting a temple having a function in keeping irrigation water ever flowing. The fishermen gather around ‘Pura Segara’ beach temple and traders perform a ritual in “Pura Melanting” market place temple to honor the goddess of prosperity known as Dewi Laksmi. There is still a specific temple known among Balinese as Pura Alas Angker to the advantage of locals in eternalising forests existing in the surrounding area.

4. Pura Kahyangan Jagat
‘Pura Kahyangan Jagat’ is a temple visited by Hindu adherents in general without differentiating family of origin, place of birth, or profession. Anybody adhering to Hindu religion may make use of the temple as a place to perform a ritual. The establishment of this universal temple has made use of four basic conceptions: (1) Rwa-bhineda, (2) Catur-loka pala, (3) Sad-winayaka, and (4) Padma bhuwana principle. Characterization of temples into four divisions is basically important for the development of friendly relations in the Ancestral Temple or Pura Kawitan, territorial human good relations in ‘Pura Kahyangan Desa’, close professional relations in ‘Pura Swagina’, and universal friendly relations in ‘Pura Kahyangan Jagat’. Each of the four places of ritual will be discussed in the next publication of this magazine.
Some readers may ask where ‘Pura Dang Kahyangan’ belongs. ‘Pura Dang Kahyangan’ is a hermittent temple housing ‘resi’/sacred man in the past, but it is also counted as belonging to ‘Pura Kahyangan Jagat’.
All temples discussed above have its socio-religious dimension. This implies spiritual values as a base for restructuring the social system, including human relations within a family up to general social intercourse. The target is to develop harmonious human relations of dynamic characters. It is productive because of the dynamics of the harmonious relations in giving birth to a continuous and balanced growth of spiritual and material values needed in developing a good society.(by Ketut Wiana and Berata Ashrama)