The Island of a Thousand Temples (9)
The Concept behind the Establishment
of the Hindu Ancestral Temple

Every houseyard of Hindu Balinese in this island has a sacred building considered as ancestor site of ritual. The sacred building bears the name of Kamulan Taksu – some call it Sanggah Kamulan or Merajan Kamulan, generally placed at the keluwan (Uranus) corner of the houseyard.

Keluwan, according to Hindu belief, is a holy site located on upper ground. There is a combination of directions towards mountains and sunrise. This concept originates from the point of view of the agrarian community. According to their belief, a mountain is a water reservoir, letting its contents flow to wet rice fields and dry agricultural land. This has strengthened agrarian view that the mountain really is playing the role of the source of life. This is the reason why it is sacred.
The case is similar to that of the sun having a nature of conditioning life by creating mountains and enabling God to bring about life to mankind. Hindu adherents pose their sites of worship to God and their ancestors through the unity of mountain and sun directions in the space of their own houses’ courtyards. This concept on location choice in the direction of mountain and sun has had a bearing on different sites selected by Hindu Balinese of the north and south sides of the island in determining the location of shrines.
The mountainward direction for North Balinese is in effect equal to south direction, while to people living in South Bali it is the northward direction. This thought leads Hindu Balinese of the South Bali to build Kamulan Taksu on the northeast corner of their houseyard, while those living in North Bali place it in southeast corner of the houseyard in line with the sense that mountainward direction in Balinese is kadia – having its origin from the word adi combined with ka prefix and a suffix. Adi (Sanskrit) means prominent/high-ranked.
Tabanan Regency’s people apply a specific way of locating Kamulan Taksu, slightly different to that practiced in Badung Regency, Denpasar (Municipality), and Gianyar Regency. Tabanan’s Hindu people locate the Kamulan Taksu temple according to the direction of sight towards Mount Batu Karu, on the northwest point of their houseyards. Those having houses located on the West of the street going through their home areas would build their Kamulan Taksu in the northeastern corners of the houseyard grounds.
Differences in site arrangement of sacred buildings at their respective home among people of North and South Bali, between those living in the areas of Tabanan, Badung, Denpasar (City) and Gianyar, relate to the concept of the toward-mountain and toward-sunrise combination of directions. Consequently, in Hindu belief, the spirit of worshipping God has always contained human desire of procuring good living in the world. There have been also variations concerning the question of how many building structures (pelinggih) should be in an ancestral temple. An ancestral descendant family may keep just one Kamulan or Padma Sari, while others have two ancestral building structures (Kamulan and Taksu), and there are ancestral groups owning three shrines (Kamulan, Taksu and Padma Sari). There are even people who each have up to four sacred buildings consisting of Kamulan, Taksu, Padma Sari or Padma Capah, and Ngarurah.
The Kamulan is in effect the main pelinggih, housing Dewa Pitra Partistha, built on the eastern side of the space dedicated for ritual events.
Instead of the Palinggih Kamulan, Palinggih Taksu, there is the alternative of installing on the northern side of the house space, while the people of North Bali locate it on the southern part of their houseyard space. Formerly, in some parts of Bali, such as Klungkung, there were several Kamulans built by Hindu Balinese, but a trend has developed in this island to suffice with just Kamulan or Sanggah Kemulan in one houseyard space, in accordance with the Lontar Siwagama ancient manuscript.
If a family size expands to include more areas for independent housing, or some members of a family can build a dwelling house ground, a need would rise to install a new Merajan Kamulan taking the form of Pelinggih Kamulan Taksu. If a family expand to need ten houseyard space units, installing a larger Sanggah/Merajan Gede or Kamulan Agung is advisable as a site of worship for the whole grand family.
A bigger development of a minimum of 20 family units would call for a larger housing space in need of ‘Pura Ibu’ central temple, while family units living in 40 space units would install Pura Dadia or Pura Panti. An even larger growth of family units would mean a need of owning Pura Batur and Padharman and the like (See detailed article on structure of Pura Kawitan temple written in this magazine previously).
Thus, all the sites dedicated to prayer to God and one’s ancestors have a principle background need of a dynamic and systemic mobilization of family unity towards common and productive harmony, governing the whole families both of smaller and larger size in a gradual process.
(By Ketut Wiana and Berata Ashrama, editor)