There are many temples In Bali. Every traditional village or Pakraman village in Bali has three village temples called Kahyangan Tiga Temples. The term Kahyangan Tiga, etymologically comes from two words, namely “kahyangan” which means a holy place and tiga means three, so the term kahyangan tiga means 3 holy places.
These three holy places or Kahyangan Tiga Temples are
- Bale Agung Temple
Bale Agung Temple or Pura Desa is a place of worship of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe. The temple is usually placed in the center of the village, normally at one corner of a big crossroads (catuspata). - Puseh Temple
Puseh Temple is a place of worship of Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the entire universe and everything in it. The word puseh comes from the word puser which means center. Ceremonies related to the fertility are carried out in this temple. - Dalem Temple
Dalem Temple is a place to worship Lord Shiva in the form of Goddess Durga as the guardian of the universe and as God who “recycle” everything in the universe or destroy what He has created. The word Dalem literally means far or difficult to reach. It is called so because Lord Shiva is difficult to reach by humans because He is niskala or intangible and wyapi wyapaka nirwikara which means pervasive, ubiquitous and unchanging.
In some traditional villages in Bali, sometimes the placement of Pura Puseh is combined with Bale Agung Temple or Pura Desa so that it looks like it is one temple but in fact there are two temples there.
The Balinese civilization owes a lot to Mpu Kuturan or also called by the name Mpu Rajakerta. He was the main architect of the the unified simple Pakraman village concept (traditional village with three temples Kahyangan Tiga for Trimurti Gods), he also introduced the sacred meru building that now colors the face of the whole Island of Bali. At an important meeting that took place at Samuan Tiga temple in 11th century, he merged religious sects of Bali into a simpler unity of Hindus. Initially in Bali there were many sects with various beliefs so that they were prone to conflict. There were at least 9 sects embraced including Shiva Sidhanta sect, Vaishnava, Brahma, Rishi, Buddhist, Bhairawa, Ganaptya, Sora and Pasupata. This meeting was attended by religious leaders, religious sects and Siva-Buddha priests and was held at Samuan Tiga Temple in Pejeng, Gianyar Regency. In the meeting all participants can express their thoughts freely.
We can find Kahyangan Tiga temples in every village in Bali. The number of traditional villages in Bali is 1456, so the number of Kahyangan Tiga temples is three times the number of those traditional villages, it is 4368 temples.
In some villages, there are other temples based on grouping of genealogy such as the so-called kawitan temples, sanggah, temple for profession group or social institutions such as subak temple. Subak is traditional Balinese irrigation system, a farmer unit whose rice fields receive water from the same irrigation source.
In every Hindu Balinese house, there is a place of worship called “Sanggah” or “Pamerajan”. The word Sanggah comes from the word sanggar which means a holy place,
Etymologically it is derived from the words sa and angga (sa means one and angga means body). So it means one body or singularity of spiritual and physical unity to be able to concentrate the mind before Hyang Widhi or God.