Tanah Lot means "land in the sea" which is quite accurate for a temple built directly on the rock located, but away from the shoreline. The temple is the work of 16th century architect Dang Hyang Nirartha, who saw the rock during his travels along the south coast of Bali and decided to rest in there. Fishermen saw him and brought some gifts. Nirartha spent the night in the island and told the fishermen to build a shrine in there, as he felt it was the perfect place to worship the Balinese sea gods. The main deity of the temple is Dewa Baruna (sea god) but Nirartha himself is also worshipped there. The temple is one of seven sea temples around the Balinese coast. Each was established within eyesight of the next, to form a chain along the south-western coast, isnt't it cool?
In 1980, the temple's rock face was starting to crumble and the area around and inside the temple started to become dangerous. But the Japanese Government provided a loan of US130$ million to their Indonesian counterparts, to be able to conserve these temple and another locations around Bali. Nowadays, more than 1/3 of Tanah Lot's rock is actually cleverly disguised artificial rock created during the Japanese-funded and supervised renovation and stabilization program. すごいですね。
We came at high tide, so it was not possible to walk over. Still we had the opportunity to taste the famous Luwak coffee, but about that we'll talk tomorrow...
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