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On the way from Ubud to Amed - in the footsteps of departed souls

Writer's picture: JWJW

Updated: Oct 17, 2023

The car ride between Ubud and Amed takes about 3 hours (varies depending on traffic of course). Our driver Agung took us to 2 places worth seeing along the way.


Tirta Gangga

This area of the Water Palace in the east of Bali is incredibly beautiful and invites you to take a walk. The palace was built in 1946, destroyed in 1963 during the eruption of the volcano Agung and then rebuilt.


The highlight of this place is not the palace, but the grounds surrounding it. The complex is 1.2 hectares in size and very lovingly and detailed designed. You will find a beautiful garden with water pools (including large koi), small bridges and beautiful plants.


You can even virtually walk around in the water pools on a path, looking at the large fish up close.


In the center of the area is an 11-story fountain. The water comes from sacred springs above the former palace and fills the basins. The temple got its name because of this - Taman Tirta Gangga means "Sacred Water of the Ganges".


Tip: From the parking lot of the area you have a beautiful view over rice fields to the volcano Agung - a great photo spot 😊

Anyway, this place is worth a visit. We arrived there just before sunset and I can recommend this time for a visit. On the one hand, you have a very nice atmosphere with the sky, which is colored in different colors and on the other hand, there were few tourists on site which made a visit very relaxed.


Goa Lawah Temple

This temple is also called bat cave temple, because directly at the temple area is a small cave, where you can find a lot of bats. They hang in huge numbers very close together and you can watch how some of them fly and look for the last small free space in this tumult. Partially they hang on the wall already felt one above the other. It is an interesting spectacle and you should plan enough time to watch them.


However, the Goa Lawah temple is not only known for its bat cave, but is of enormous importance among the Balinese for another topic - namely for ceremonies after the cremation of deceased family members.


For the Balinese (or for those with Hindu beliefs), when a family member dies, the goal is for the body to be cremated and the ashes then dispersed in the sea. According to their belief, the spirit can then more easily leave the body and nothing stands in the way of transformation for rebirth into a new life. Unfortunately, there the cremation is very expensive (info, which we received, the equivalent of about 400€) and many Balinese have to save for years to raise this money. So if a family member dies, this is usually buried once first in a cemetery in a grave (each place has its own cemetery and the burial should cost there as good as nothing).


When the family has then saved up the necessary money for a cremation, the physical remains are taken out of the grave again and cremated. Usually there is a kind of collective date for cremations per locality (for reasons of cost). The families of the deceased relatives then travel to the sea to scatter the ashes together.


A month after the cremation, it is then traditional for them to drive relatives to the Goa Lawah temple for a ceremony. Families from all over Bali come to this temple for this special ceremony. You may ask why exactly to this temple? For the Balinese, Goa Lawah Temple is special because of its location. It is located right between the highest mountain (volcano) in Bali called Agung and the sea, so it is seen as a kind of spiritual connection between the living on land and the departed souls on the water.


When we visited the temple, we were able to witness a ceremony of this kind. The families bring offerings in the form of large baskets with flowers and food. These are blessed and then taken back by the families and placed at home at the family temple.


Through these backgrounds, which we have learned, the temple visit was exciting for us. It was something special to watch such a ceremony from the sidelines and to get the background information from a guide.


A few more words about reincarnation....

After visiting this temple, our interest was piqued and we questioned our driver Agung further about cultural/religious background.


Hindu's believe in karma, hence the attitude of "Do good and good will come to you." This is one reason why the crime rate in the country is very low and the community spirit is tremendously strong. For example, if someone in the community doesn't have a job right now and can't afford food, other members of the community will share some of their food. No matter where you need help - your community is there for you and everyone supports each other (I find this very nice when I think about the fact that in Austria you sometimes don't even know the name of your neighbor anymore). This is also true when it comes to rebirth. It is believed that if you do a lot of good in your current life, that you will be reborn into a better next life.


What is still very exciting - according to the belief all living beings can be reborn. And animals can theoretically be reborn as humans and humans as animals. There are special ceremonies for animals in Bali and through these ceremonies, the animals might get this special meaning in some cases that they are lucky to be reborn as a human. Again, a human being would be reborn as an animal if he doesn't do much good in his life, because the animal life is considered by the Balinese to be much inferior to a human life.


Some Balinese also believe in rebirth, that it is most likely to occur within one's own family. For example, one driver told us that his daughter looks very similar to his deceased mother and also has similar interests and talents. For this reason, he is convinced that his daughter is the reincarnation of his deceased mother's soul. One may believe in it or not - in any case I can imagine that with this belief one can possibly process the death of beloved relatives a little better, since the topic of reincarnation means an exciting new beginning of a past life. And there are no limits to the individual interpretation. 😊

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