Besakih Bali Land Tour
Let us take you to north-east Bali. We will start this Bali trip at 08:30 am from our hotel in Padangbai and our first stop will be at Tohpati Bali village, where we will show you two of Indonesian national cultural heritages – batik and traditional weaving, also called Ikat. Originally from Java, batik is a technique used to create colorful fabrics by applying wax on a fabric with a bamboo pen called “canting”. Ikat is a form of weaving and it literally means to tie or bind. The final products are cloths with complex patterns used by tribes for expressing their ethnical origins.
Our second stop will be the town of Klungkung, where we will visit the remains of the king’s palace from the 17th century and Kerta Gosa pavilion that used to serve as the court. This beautiful site is relatively unknown and overlooked by tourists in Bali. The main building is situated on the moat, making it look like it is floating, and has ceiling covered with traditional Balinese paintings.
Learn more about Besakih land tour
From here this Bali tour will take us to Besakih – the biggest and most important temple complex in Bali, hosting more than 86 temples of various sizes and importance. It is located 1000 meters high under the holy mountain Agung and its origins date back to the 8th century.
Besakih temple is also known as the Mother temple and it is one of the busiest temples on the Bali island. Surrounded by rice fields, mountains, hills, and tropical nature, this historical site is certainly worth the visit. After visiting the complex, we will take a refreshing lunch break and then start heading back to our diving resort in Padangbai.
We will make one more stop along the way – in Sidemen village to marvel at the vast picturesque rice fields with busy farmers, so you can experience the typical and authentic life at Balinese countryside.
Men and women should wear appropriate attires when entering the temples. Males should wear several essential items such as udeng (headpiece), a shirt (usually white), kamen (long woven clothes to cover the legs, looks like a Dhoti), saputan (a cloth that covers kamen from the waist to thighs), and umpal (a waistband). The clothes for females are similar, only without udeng and instead of white shirt, females usually wear kebaya with a sash wrapped along the waist and a sanggul (hair bun) with flower decoration.
- The word Batik could be translated as “writing beautiful dots on the cloth”.
- Batik is popular also outside of Indonesia. For instance, celebrities as Kate Middleton, Heidi Klum or even Nelson Mandela have been seen in batik clothing.
- Most of Indonesian government offices and schools have batik as a dress code on Fridays and there is even National Batik day.
- Even though weaving is relatively popular in Asia, the technique called double ikat can be found only in Bali.
- Paintings on the ceiling of Kerta Gosa building in Klungung describe types of punishment in ancient Balinese kingdom and even the process of reincarnation.
- Name of the famous temple Besakih refers to the dragon which was believed to reside on the mountain.
- The Besakih temple hosts more than 70 different religious ceremonies each year.
- Balinese people even decorate the temple differently for various ceremonies such as full moon celebration.
- Every morning Balinese people leave offerings wrapped in banana leaves in front of their gates to establish peace with spirits.
- Cremation is one of the most important ceremonies where the soul of the dead person is released.
