– MAY 29, 2015

Its time to go visit Tanah Lot.  Its not within walking distance of Legian, so we have to hire a driver to navigate the ridiculous streets of Bali traffic.  Here’s a pic through our taxi windshield.  The cars follow the street lines, but the scooters go into any lane they want (sometimes even right in front of on coming traffic).

As the legend goes, during the Majapahit Kingdom in East java, a holy Hindu priest named Dang Hyang Nirartha was well respected by the King.  The King ordered the priest to spread the word of Hinduism east of Java.  The priest arrived at Bali in the 15th century and the King there allowed him to enter his lands and spread his teachings.  The priest built many temples with the local people across the island.

The priest arrived at Beraban village.  The village people here practised monotheism and the village head protested the word of Hinduism.  The village was split amongst the two camps and eventually the priest was forced to move on from the village.  The followers of the priest protected the priest by moving part of the rock where the priest meditated to create a small floating island which is today Tanah Lot Temple.

“Tanah” means earth.  “Lot” means sea.

The village head eventually confessed the magical power of the priest and turned into a faithful follower.  Today Tanah Lot has become a large tourist attraction in Bali.

 

 

 

There were some other smaller temples in this same area.

There are many beautiful sculptures in the temple surroundings.

The grounds also had an art market which was extremely similar to the tout shops everywhere in Legian.  However, they also had an animal farm where you could get pictures with some of the creatures from Bali.

 

Then we posed with a much bigger snake.  It was all muscle and holding it in place took some effort.

 

More cool stuff to come in Bali!

<><><><><><><><>

For more photos of our adventure go to our flickr account here.