30 JUN 2011 THUR - BALI - 5. Pura Tanah Lot Sunset

Tanah Lot is a rock formation off the Indonesian island of Bali. It is home of a pilgrimage temple, the Pura Tanah Lot (literally "Tanah Lot temple") and a popular tourist and cultural icon for photography and general exoticism.

Tanah Lot means "Land in the Sea" in Balinese language. Located in Tabanan, about 20 km from Denpasar,

the temple sits on a large offshore rock which has been shaped continuously over the years by the ocean tide.
Tanah Lot is claimed to be the work of the 15th century priest Nirartha. During his travels along the south coast he saw the rock-island's beautiful setting and rested there. Some fishermen saw him, and bought him gifts. Nirartha then spent the night on the little island. Later he spoke to the fishermen and told them to build a shrine on the rock for he felt it to be a holy place to worship the Balinese sea gods.

The Tanah Lot temple was built and has been a part of Balinese mythology for centuries. The temple is one of seven sea temples around the Balinese coast. Each of the sea temples were established within eyesight of the next to form a chain along the south-western coast. However, the temple had significant Hindu influence.
At the base of the rocky island, poisonous sea snakes are believed to guard the temple from evil spirits and
intruders. A giant snake purportedly protects the temple, which was created from Nirata’s scarf when he established the island.

In 1980 the temple’s rock face was starting to crumble and the area around and inside the temple started to become dangerous. The Japanese government then provided a loan to the Indonesia government of Rp 800 billion (approximately USD $130 million) to conserve the historic temple and other significant locations around Bali. As a result, over one third of Tanah Lot's "rock" is actually cleverly disguised artificial rock created during the Japanese-funded and supervised renovation and stabilization program.

we saw people in the temple, wanna go up too:

asked the people there, they asked us queue up... so we joined the queue... it's holy spring water:

done with this 'ritual'... still cannot go into the temple lei lol:
[i then remembered i read somewhere that some of such temples not open to public... also some only for locals in the 'appropriate praying attires'...]

st & i still remember vividly the sunset we watched in Phuket - Patong Beach about 5 years back... we always say that is the best sunset! after watching this, we conclude that this is just as nice, they are different, cannot compare :)

this is the rice wine that i read about which i wanna buy home, thought to get it on the last day when we get the 'oleh-oleh'... BUT i could not find it on the last day :(