Man from Bangli Builds Lavish Temple

instead of buying gas stove

 

Any visitor to Bali is sure to notice the innumerable temples that grace the Island of the Gods, though it may not be obvious to the casual observer just how important these temples are to the Balinese.

 

From the most grandiose like Besakih to the most humble family home temples these places of worship - connection to the divine and to one’s own ancestors, all resonate with a distinct vibration of deep inner beauty. Some temples also have distinct outer beauty deliberately crafted to represent the greatest of worldly possibilities for connection with the divine.

 

One would expect important temples like Besakih or even Tirta Empul to be lavishly decorated with the finest materials as so many different people go there to pray and support the upkeep of such temples. Even a village temple is used by hundreds of people and thus worthy of having attention given to its outward appearance. Nor is it surprising to see family temples of wealthier families replete with gilded ornamentation and finely carved wood and elaborately sculpted stone.

 

But it is not a matter of how important a temple is, how wealthy the family that prays in it nor how many people pray in it that makes a temple worthy of being constructed with the utmost care to detail, beauty and craftsmanship. Rather, as Bangli native Bli Rempuh explains, it is the importance given to the unseen world and one’s ability to prioritize such matters that determine how beautiful a temple appears. This is not to say that very powerful temples always have gold leaf and the finest roofing and such, only that sometimes Balinese people will give great priority to the quality of a family temple as a sign of respect and honor.

 

One example of such a case is the family temple that Bli Rempuh and eight other of his family members recently built in Bangli. Bli Rempuh himself is actually from Desa Deso and so was his family temple. However, a few years back when the Balinese tangerine market was booming, he dedicated himself to tending his plantation some distance from his village.

 

At first, he spent most of his days on the plantation and his night in a simple bamboo shack, cooking over a wood stove. As the years passed and his family grew he added a few more buildings like the simple gazebo and extra rooms made of concrete. He would still return to his home village to pray regularly and for other community activities but over time as many others from his village also moved to their plantations these visits were less frequent.

 

Entering Bli Rempuh’s family compound next to his cattle stables tucked away amongst the lush surrounding forest, the space is distinctly inhabited and -despite the fierce barking dogs, quite welcoming. The buildings are however extremely modest as one would expect of a remote village. The main wall of the central thatched bamboo-walled house is well worn by the seasons and smoke emerges from the equally modest kitchen where his wife cooks over a wood-burning stove. There is nothing lavish or ornate and there is little no decoration or many objects at all, except for a few offering baskets stacked on the rickety outdoor shelf, some portable chicken coops scattered here and there, and the odd bucket. 

 

Behind the family compound is an additional Balinese tangerine garden and to get to it, one passes the new family temple. It is hard to say if it is the contrast between the humble appearance of Bli Rempuh’s home that makes the temple stand in such grander, but what is certain is that this is no ordinary family temple.

 

 “When business was good we started saving money to build a proper family temple here. We brought in the finest craftsmen from Karangasem to sculpt the black stone and wood carvers from Gianyar for the ornamentation of the shrines. The black palm hatch is the best we could find and tightly bound together so that it will last long. We didn’t have to have so much ornamentation and gold leaf but we thought that we are only here on earth for a short time so why not honor our ancestors and the divine powers that have given us life as best we can”, explained Bli Rempuh.

 

When asked why he chose to put all his money into the temple instead of buying a car or saving for his children’s education he responded in his distinctly matter-of-fact and humble manner: “well, the way I see things is that everything on this earth comes to us through the grace of the unseen powers that be, so if I don’t start by honoring these then everything else will be harder to do. I guess you could call it an investment”, he said chuckling but then added: “I get my greatest joy from my family and I believe that business will pick up again one day. Of course, I would like to have a nice car and send my kids to a good school – but first things first”.

 

Bli Rempuh is not alone in prioritizing spiritual matters over material ones, this is in fact one of the things that Bali is known for. Although ceremonies and their accompanying offerings do contribute significantly to the local economy, the amount of effort, time, and attention that goes into prayer on the Island of the Gods can certainly not be attributed to economic incentives as it just does not add up– at least not in the way that economics is most commonly understood.

 

Written by Gabrielle Thibaudeau, Published in November 2018 by Bali Post International