PENULISAN The main road continues its ascent to a hillside in the clouds where, symbol of modern civilization, Bali's television aerial, claims its high-tech place beside the long fligh of steps rising to the mountain sanctuary of Pura Tegeh Koripan. The highest temple in Bali at 1,745 meters, Pura Tegeh Koripan is actually a complex of temples at which a circle of surrounding villages worship. The sparsely adorned bales shelter lines of fine statues; portraits 1 of Balinese kings, queens and divinities; and linggas.  Several statues bear dates of the 1 lth century, another that of the 1 5th century. It is thought that this temple was the mountain sanctuary of the old Pejeng kingdom, just as Pura Besakih was the state mountain sanctuary for the later Gelgel dynasty. The clouds often wrap them selves around the high peak, but on clear day, the view from Penulisan en compasses half the island: from the crest of Mt.Bratan in West Bali to the Java Sea. This temple is the farthest point north on this tour, but one can continue north to Singaraja.  On the return trip south of Penelokan bearing right, you pass three villages striking in their uniformity. The identical rooftops and continuous high walls are seldom seen in the more relaxed organization of typical villages. Although such conformity could only come from old communities where individualism is still minimal, the true explanation for their construction is the eruptions of Gunung Agung and Mt. Batur in 1963. Because the soil was poisoned by the volcanic ash, all occupants of this region had to be evacuated to emergency camps, set up all over the island. When the people resettled upon their land, they rebuilt their entire village at the same time. Thus all the buildings look alike. You are now entering territories that were settled by the Bronze-iron Age, which began about 300 B.C. and continued well into-the, first millennium A.D. The great bronze drum figurines are still preserved in temples as sacred heirlooms, or have been found in the rice fields and entered private collections. From the 10th century till the Majapahit conquest in 1 343, this area was the heartland of the kingdom of Pejeng-Bedulu. Its kings issued decrees written on plates of bronze, from which scholars have been able to reconstruct the history of the kingdom. These inscriptions, found all over Bali, tell of village and state affairs. Both Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced, and priests served as advisers to the kings and as members of the royal court of justice. Many inscriptions describe the founding of monasteries within a village territory and the freeing of that village from certain state taxes to pay for the monasteries' up keep. The ruins of these monasteries survive to this day, many bearing relief cut into rock. Statues of gods and kings dating from these centuries are also of Pejeng, and various axes, jewelry and preserved in dozens of temples. |
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