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The spectacular cliff-top temple of Uluwatu is considered one of Bali’s most important places of worship for followers of the Hindu religion. Located on the island’ most southern coastal tip, the temple of Uluwatu offers visitors dramatic ocean views and a deep rooted spiritual ambience.

Essentially Uluwatu Temple is dedicated to the spirits of the sea and is believed to be amongst the very first temple compounds established on Bali during the 11^th Century. Its name is derived from two syllables – ‘ulu’ meaning end and ‘watu’ meaning stone, hence the name roughly translates as temple at the stony end.

There are two legendary figures in Balinese-Hindu religious history associated with the temple. The first was a wandering Javanese sage by the name of Empu Kuturan, who was believed to have arrived on the island of Bali riding upon the back of a deer. Kuturan was renowned for renewing the customs, ethics and religious ceremonies that had long been in a state of decline. He was said to be a talented builder of shrines and created structures that resembled Chinese pagodas, which are called meru. When Kuturan arrived in Bali there was possibly a small temple already atop the cliff at Uluwatu, but he was responsible for adding several shrines to complete this enchanting complex of worship.

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Thousands of temples that scattered all over the island of Bali are not just built for a single purpose. The function of a temple can be determined by the characteristics of the temple that totally depend on the bond that bind the temple congregations to the temple. The bond may be a social, political, economical, or genealogical bond.

The social bond can be in the form of territorial bond, and teacher – student bond. The political bond is created base on the need of the king to unite his people and territory. The economical bond is created based on the similarity of the profession, for example farmer, trader, fisherman, etc. Genealogical bond is established based on kinship or clan.

Based on aforementioned bonds, temple in Bali can be categorized into four groups:

Public Temple
Public temple has general function as the holy place to venerate God with all His manifestations. Public temple is worshiped by all devotees of Hindu in Bali. Temples that can be categorized into this group are Besakih, the mother temple of Bali; Sad Kahyangan, six main temples of Bali; and Caturlokapala, four great temple of the world (world means Bali).

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More than 20,000 temples are scattered all over the island of Bali. All these temples are linked one and another create hundreds of temple networks based on the function of the temple and the clan of their congregation (network of clan temple). Each network has a central temple from which the network starts. The central temples can be everywhere; they are not localized in one area.

The function based temple networks involves only functional temples, or temple of professions, such as Melanting temple (temple of the trader), Ulun Suwi or Ulun Carik Temple – Ulun Suwi temple is an irrigation temple that belong to a subak (traditional water management group), and Banuan temple (dry fields temple).

The melanting temple network consists of thousands of melating temples that spread all over Bali. Each traditional market in Bali has its own Melanting temple (temple of trader) from which the traders and businessmen ask for fortune; these temples create melanting temple network with its central temple located in west Buleleng, near Perancak.

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Paying homage and praying to a temple is not just an act of devotion to God for Balinese, it is more than just a religious activity. In socio-political context praying in a temple for a Balinese is also an act to justify his positions in the society, his position in a clan, his position in a village, etc in short praying to the temple is an act of justifying his identity.

Justifying identity through worshipping in a temple is possible since most temple membership in Bali is exclusive, that is, only those who are member may worship there. One cannot as in Islam and Christianity, stop in at any temple and pray; for this privilege, in Bali someone must in some sense regular member of the congregation of the temple. From more 20,000 temples in Bali not more than five percents are public temple, where everybody can pray and pay homage and the rest of them are members only. (There are five types of temple in Bali: public temple, territorial temple, functional temple and clan temple).

The kinds of identity that can be justified through worshipping in a temple are member of a territory, an association of certain profession in certain area, and member of a clan.

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In the car park at the entrance to the temple Balinese of all ages offer their services as guides. Usually they speak very little English and know only the main facts about the temple. If you do hire a guide the price should be agreed in advance (about 10,000 rupiahs).

The temple, laid out on terraces and built mainly of dark-colored lava stone, may strike visitors as unimpressive - unless they come at the time of the annual temple festival, in which tens of thousands of Hindus from all over the island and from farther afield take part. There are more colorful and more elaborately decorated temples on Bali, but to the Hindus none is so important as the Pura Besakih, the “Mother of All Temples”.

In addition to its annual “birthday” festival (the odalan festival) the Pura Besakih is the scene of Bali’s most important temple festival, the Eka Dasa Rudra, which is celebrated every hundred years.

The festival last took place in 1979. This was a departure from the usual timing, and for good reason. The festival was due to be celebrated in 1963, but the preparations were interrupted by the eruption in that year of Gunung Agung, previously thought to be extinct. Over 2500 people were killed and many villages in the surrounding area were destroyed. The Eka Dasa Rudra festival, therefore, was put off until 1979.

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