The Island of a Thousand Temples (5)
Socio-cultural Dimension of Temples in Bali

The Pura, the place for dedicating rituals to God, in the thoughts of the Balinese Hindu community, does not only have a religious purpose. It also has an equally significant socio-cultural function. This aspect is reflected in four phases of the development of harmony; (1) harmony in family life by means of the ‘Pura Kawitan’ (family temple), (2) territorial harmony via ‘Pura Kahyangan Tiga’ (territorial temple) found in every ‘Desa Adat’ (traditional village), (3) professional harmony by way of ‘Pura Swagina’, and (4) universal harmony through ‘Pura Kahyangan Jagat’ (universal heavenly temple).

Harmony among adherents of the Hindu religion is a social basis for a journey guiding mankind towards a secure and peaceful communal life of balance and continuity, towards achieving the goal of a stable and confident religious life.

Family Harmony
Men have duty to ‘develop’ or ‘realize’ harmony at the family level before looking towards the wider social circle – society from levels of sub-village and village up to national and international levels. Within the context of leadership, for example, this social dimension sends a message to every Hindu, to prove firstly his or her ability to give guidance to the family before looking to do the same wider social circle. One cannot seek to gain a position of leadership or authority ahead of putting one’s own family in order.
‘Pura Kawitan’ or family temple is the site for developing family harmony. ‘Pura Kawitan’ in Bali physically appears in stages, starting from the lowest stage in the house grounds dedicated to prayers coming from the house owner’s family, until the tallest shrine which can be seen by at least 80 family units. These structures of the ‘ Pura Kawitan’ are in order of rank: (1) ‘Sanggah’ or ‘Merajan Kamulan Taksu’ (ranked lowest), (2) ‘Merajan Gede’ or ‘Kemulan Agung’, (3) ‘Pura Ibu’, (4) ‘Pura Dadia/Panti’, and (5) ‘Pura Pedharman’ (ranked highest).
Family harmony flourishes in the ‘Pura Kawitan’ from core family harmony up to that of the clan (termed in Balinese as asoroh). Such a system can develop harmony in a number of ways. Some people have developed harmony through spiritual group discussion among family members, while others make use of such-called arisan gatherings to collect money from those present. Dana punia monetary contributions and family cooperatives have been another way of developing harmony among family members.
Money collected in general through dana punia gatherings, is useful for supporting school fees, while the cooperative is a medium for economic development by making use of the principle of solidarity among family members. People hope to make common progress by realizing various positive programs towards building peace and harmony both in small families and to bigger families. By working together to build peace and harmony the relationship between family members is strengthened.

Territorial Harmony
Mpu Kuturan (a Hindu priest) advised the community to establish the ‘Kahyangan Tiga Temple’ in every Desa Pakraman or traditional village, and every banjar ( a part of Desa Pakraman) to build a ‘Ratu Penyarikan’, a shrine or place for prayer towards the development of territorial harmony in this temple.
Development of good character is guaranteed through prayer to God, manifested as Dewa Tri Murti, and territorial harmony is attained. One of the functions of Dewa Tri Murti is to control three basic character traits of human beings, the tri guna (triple favors), are sattwam, rajas, and tamas.
Sattwam (good traits) is of advantage in combination of its defense and development by prayer to Dewa Wisnu, while rajas (active and ambitious character) would be advantageous if it moves toward positive direction by praying to God manifested as Dewa Brahma. Tamas (lazy character) is to disappear by praying to Dewa Siwa or Rudra. Otherwise said, there would be a hope that sattwam advantage will emerge in form of a check to guna rajas and guna tamas by prayer to God manifested as Dewa Tri Murti.
Just by developing good traits, human beings would be capable of building territorial harmony leading further to the building of aspects of common existence in the resort ‘Desa Pakraman’ village.

Professional Harmony
Every person in general keeps a profession to preserve one’s own living. Consequently, he makes use of belief in God as fundamental for strengthening the existence of his profession as a means to attain success in conform to norms of his profession. That is the reason why there is always a site of worship to God in every resort of Bali in response to human need to develop a profession.
There is a site in market to promote trading profession to preserve the latter’s existence through ‘Pura Melanting’ temple by honoring God here. One of the temple dimensions is to open opportunity for traders to cooperate each other toward realization of good atmosphere in trading.

Universal Harmony
Prayer to God in universal temple of ‘Pura Kahyangan Jagat’ — ‘Pura Besakih’, ‘Lempuhyang Luhur’, ‘Andakasa’, ‘Gowa Lawah’, ‘Luhur Uluwatu’, ‘Luhur Batu Karu’, ‘Pucak Mangu’, ‘Batur’, and ‘Pura Pusering Jagat’ — is in effect to develop universal harmony without discriminating ancestral origin, one’s own village of origin, and sorts of profession. In other words, everybody may honor God in ‘Pura Kahyangan Jagat’ temple without discrimination.
Thus, we end treatise on four-tiered harmony developed into four characters of sites of prayers in Bali. Further treatise is to follow in order to clarify dimension more intensely.
(By Ketut Wiana and Berata Ashrama, editor)