Goa Garba

Goa Garba is located in Banjar Sawa Gunung, Pejeng Kelod village, Tampaksiring, Gianyar, Bali. It is situated 400 meters above sea level, lies under the Pengukur-Ukuran Temple, above the Pakerisan River.  On this site there is a hermitage carved out of the cliff, which was believed to be the meditation place of Mahapatih Kebo Iwa. It is a natural site that exudes calm. Even to this day, Goa Garba is frequented as a place of meditation. It is estimated to have been built in the 12th century during the reign of King Jaya Pangus.

The story about the existence of Goa Garba was inseparable with Mahapatih Kebo Iwa. In the Kingdom of Bedahulu, there lived a very strong person named Kebo Iwa, the descendant of Arya Karang Buncing. When Kebo Iwa aspired to be the Mahapatih of the Kingdom, he had to demonstrate his powers before he was permitted to assume the position. His abilities were tested by a number of figures in the kingdom considered to have magical powers. Nobody was able to beat Kebo Iwa, not even the prime minister, Ki Pasung Grigis.

Goa Garba is a pasraman (a place to learn Hinduism). It is believed to have once been a place to test one’s power if they wished to be a leader. Goa means “cave” and Garba means “in the belly of the earth”. There are two paths leading to Goa Garba. Visitors can choose whether to enter the site through the main path of the Pengukur-Ukuran Temple, or the one that leads directly to the entrance to this historic site.

Upon entering the cave, visitors will find several large rocks. On one of these stones lies a footprint larger than that of an average adult. Locals believe it was the footprint of Kebo Iwa. There is a small area that where water, which comes from the nearby hot springs, can be seen dripping from the surface. When meditating here, people will sit facing east, toward the splashing water. The dripping water is symbolizes the God Vishnu.

Ritual Purification

Ritual purification is a feature of many religions. The aim of these rituals is to remove specifically defined uncleanliness prior to a particular type of activity, and especially prior to the worship of a deity. This ritual uncleanliness is not identical with ordinary physical impurity, such as dirt stains; nevertheless, body fluids are generally considered ritually unclean.

Most of these rituals existed long before the germ theory of disease, and figure prominently from the earliest known religious systems of the Ancient Near East. Some writers remark that similarities between cleansing actions, engaged in by obsessive compulsive people, and those of religious purification rites point to an ultimate origin of the rituals in the personal grooming behaviour of the primates, but others connect the rituals to primitive taboos.

Some have seen benefits of these practices as a point of health and preventing infections especially in areas where humans come in close contact with each other. While these practices came before the idea of the germ theory was public in areas that use daily cleaning, the destruction of infectious agents seems to be dramatic. Others have described a 'dimension of purity' that is universal in religions that seeks to move us away from disgust.

Trip for those who like adventure

This is my first adventure to climb a mountain Batur-Kintamani, I often take tourists (guests) to climb but I have never accompanied them, usually I take a nap in the car at the time the the guest is gone, but this time I wanted to have a new experience. Before I left I was really perplexed and also I felt scared. “Would I be able to make it to the top?”, because until this time I had never climbed. But my fears were overcome by my wish to know ‘what does it feel like at the top (summit) and what is up there’? This question chased away my fear.
The three of us left Kuta at 2 AM, the feelings of fear returned to the point that I was thinking of not going along to climb. But the feeling of wanting to know was greater so the fear disappeared. We more or less covered the distance from Kuta in an hour and a half because there wasn’t much traffic so that we could speed up a bit ( go fast) in order to arrive more quickly.
.Finally we arrived at our destination. At the start of the climb there were two trails; the one closer to Pura Jati was for those who wanted to climb to the summit starting from a further distance but a less steep ( flatter) trail. We started our climb from the other trail on the eastern slope of the trek. The air was very cold ( tiang bingung yen ‘begitu’, so cold, very cold, rather cold?) and it was also very dark. After we met out guide, we started to climb. Before I proceeded onward, I thought “was there anything that we needed that was at the bottom? Food? Drink?”. We started to trek in the dark of the night so our guide brought us a flashlight. I was in the first group that left. I was afraid my fears would again show up because before we had traveled 30 minutes, I was out of breath because the trail was becoming steep and rocky. My friends and I walked rather slowly. Below us I was able to see a light that was moving. The closer the light got the more it moved…..the shining light was like a butterfly, the longer the time, the closer it got. Because I was hiking rather slowly, finally that group of tourists with the light went ahead of us. The farther they went the more they were lost in the dark of the night so that all that was seen was the shine of their lights.
Batur

The longer I walked, the more I was out of breath. I started to think about stopping because I was really tired, and my legs were feeling really heavy. Luckily, my guide was giving us encouragement, ‘Keep going, don’t give up’. Our guide kept saying we were already getting close. The color red was already starting to appear in the eastern sky, and I myself slowly walked with the remaining energy I had. The conditions were getting clearer and I began to be able to see around me. The beauty was beginning to appear, before I could only see darkness. The feeling of exhaustion started to be healed by the view that was so beautiful.
The sun began to appear, …finally I myself arrived at the summit….I was so happy..the feelings of exhaustion disappeared as I was able to see the view from the summit. It was a really really good feeling….the view was so astonishing… beautiful very beautiful. The beauty of the view was worth the exhausting efforts!