The district of Karangasem in the east is one of the least populated and less touristy areas of Bali island.
Geographically the district has one of Bali's most famous sights...the sacred Gunung Agung and the whole area around this famous mountain is one of the most beautiful that I have seen.
It is possible to see the peaks of the mountain early in the morning from almost every corner of the island. When you're standing on top of it you can even see Mount Rinjani on Lombok island, the city of the Lion King Singaraja in the north and Sanur in the south.
The Gunung Agung is in Bali religion the same as the Mount Olympus for the Greek. This is the place where the gods live and the Balinese refer to it as the 'bellybutton of the world'. They always sleep with their heads towards the mountain and their feet towards the sea, where the demons and bad spirits live.
Because the Balinese believe that the gods and good spirits live in the mountains they have erected the most important temple on the slopes of Gunung Agung. It's called Pura (temple) Besakih and belongs to every Hindu Balinese on the island.
Once every 100 years there's a ceremony called Eka Desa Rudra where the Balinese restore the balance between men and nature in the Pura Besakih. The last time this ceremony took place was on 8th March, 1963 actually 16 years too early...because some say President Sukarno organized a meeting on the mountain and wanted to impress a conference of international travel agents with the ceremony.
9 days later the mountain erupted and killed thousands of Balinese and destroyed vast areas of land, around 100.000 people lost their homes and their source of income. The entire island was covered in ash and crops were wiped out everywhere. The strange thing is that the temple was not destroyed by the lava but only covered in black ash.
Because of the eruption some Balinese even had to transmigrate to other Indonesian islands and start all over. Since the Balinese are very superstitious they believed that Sukarno was punished by losing all his powers two years later.
The ceremony took place another time and this time in 1979 and now the Balinese sacrificed an elephant, a tiger, eagle and 77 other animals to honor the gods and restore harmony. The ceremony was a huge success and Besakih became the mother temple again.
The temple is constantly enlarged by several communities such as the royal families, the Brahman families (the highest cast on Bali) and every other cast on Bali island. The three major temples stretch out over a distance of 1 km and are called Pura Penataran Agung (devoted to Sanghang Widhi Wasa), Pura Kiduling Kreteg (devoted to Brahma) and Pura Batu Medog (devoted to Vishnu).
If you want to pay a visit to the Gunung Agung and Pura Besakih the best time is to leave early before all the big tourist buses arrive. It's perfect when you're there at 8am and you have clear views over the rice terraces, mountains and the ocean...it's really worth it.
Try to return before 12 am when the clouds come together near the summit of the mountain and you can't make any of those stunning photos anymore.
Matt Verbaan loves to give you practical travel insights and his experiences of traveling to every corner of the beautiful island Bali. All his travel stories and tips are found on his website http://www.bali-travel-life.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_Verbaan
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