Roadside Lunch
After seeing Taman Ayun Temple we left for Tanahlot Temple with Putu. It is about an hour away from Mengvi. It was afternoon. So we asked Putu to stop the car at some place where we could have a meeting and have lunch. We had prepared the food in our service apartment in the morning and took it with us. Putu stopped the car under a roadside canopy at a green spot. Two wooden posts were kept here. We had our dinner sitting on them. It was like having a well-deserved picnic. There were two hand carts standing nearby, on which some vegetables and fruits were being sold. The same woman was watching both those stalls. When we sat down to eat, the lady came to see what we eat and how we eat! It was the same curiosity that the people of India expressed by seeing the firangis walking on the streets.
Fault in the intention of the onion seller
After having our meal, we went to see a cart standing there. There was only onion in the name of vegetable, that too of very small size. I understood from him with great difficulty what an onion is. The woman showed me a weight of one kilo and took out twenty thousand rupees. There was a small onion worth a hundred rupees a kg, but I decided to buy it. Just after the woman had weighed the onion, her male partner (possibly husband) came there and typed on the calculator and told me that it would cost 40 thousand rupees for this onion. I nodded in disapproval and left the fried onion there. The lady got very angry with me and called me an idiot. It was probably the only English word she knew and didn't know when she might have learned it! She probably couldn't understand what her husband had bullied! I smiled looking at the woman and sat in Putu's car.
Tickets worth three lakh rupees to see the temple
After walking for about an hour we reached Tanahlot. The ancient Tanahlot Hindu Temple is located in the Tabanan Regency area of the island of Bali, under the sea but very close to the coast. Putu told us that one has to enter here with a ticket.
There was a ticket of sixty thousand rupees for each person. We had to buy five tickets, so three lakh rupees were spent. It was a strange experience. Tickets do not have to be taken for entry to any temple in India, but the Indonesian government was taking so much ticket from domestic and foreign tourists to enter the temples. Perhaps the income from tourism plays a very important place in the income of the Indonesian government. Or being a Muslim country, a ticket has been imposed on Hindu temples.
The Unique World of Merchants from Bali, Java and China
The temple complex begins with a grand and huge pylon gate, in which the statue of a long-bearded sage with a Pitambar bearing is installed in the upper pillars. We had to walk about a kilometer to reach the beach from the pylon gate. Hundreds of businessmen from Bali, Java and China are sitting in this entire route. More than one painting of Hindu deities can be seen at these shops. This world of Hindu Gods and Goddesses, depicted in bright colours, sharp nose-maps and emotional postures, is seen completely isolated from the earth.
10 Rudraksha worth six lakh rupees
Here also the prices of goods were many times higher than in India. We asked at a Chinese shop the price of a rosary of about 10 Rudrakshas which is worn on the wrist of the hand like a bracelet. In India, this garland can be bought for a maximum of 20 rupees, but there we were told the price of this garland is six lakh Indonesian rupees i.e. three thousand Indian rupees. Here too coconut was being sold for 20 thousand Indonesian rupees.
Saraswati in knowledge posture
A white colored statue of Saraswati in this market also came for sale, which would stun any Indian. In this Balinese style statue, Goddess Saraswati is standing on a lotus flower holding a Veena in one hand, Veda in the other, Binjoura flower in the third hand and Gyan Mudra in the fourth hand. Near the feet of the goddess stands the swan with its wings open.
Unique Style Door
From where the road ended, a series of stairs started to lead to the sea. It is here that the entrance to the distinctive style of Bali is built. The structure of the pillars on both sides of this gate is as if a shikharaband temple has been ripped right in the middle and both the parts have been shifted to the two sides of the road. This gate also has a grand decoration of bamboo.
Indian Sage Statue
Here, on the banks of the sea, on some small pillars, different types of statues are kept. One of these statues appears to be of a jatt-clad Indian sage with thick Rudrakshas lying around his neck and arms. In one hand he holds flowers and in one hand the hand bell played before the deity. On the head of the sage statue, there is a round-topped crown. Today, a devotee had made this sage statue wear a Pitambar, due to which the beauty of the statue seemed to have increased manifold.
Samudra celebrated Gulangan in Tanahlot
When we reached the shore of the sea, we came to know that there is a tide in the sea at this time, so going to the temple is not allowed. We had to be content standing on the mainland of the island, looking at the temple located on the island, about 100 meters away. The waves of the sea were returning after hitting that island. It was as if the ocean had also moved to touch the steps and walls of the temple on the festival of Gulangan. Due to such obstruction of the sea, we felt as if the tickets of three lakh rupees went in vain.
Holy water not found
Putu told us that when you go to the temple through the sea, then take holy water from there, sprinkle it on yourself and bring it with you too. This was exactly what the people of India do when they go to take bath in the rivers and bring the Ganges water with them. Now since we could not reach the temple, it was no longer possible to even get holy water.
Mass worship on the beach
When we reached the shore of the sea, we saw magnificent yellow umbrellas standing on a platform about 150 feet long, 40 feet wide and about 4 feet high, on top of small permanent temples about two-and-a-half feet high. Was taunted. Worship material was offered in front of these small shrines in small trays or plates made of banana and coconut leaves and bamboo. The entire platform was covered from all sides by a luxurious long yellow cloth. Hundreds of men and women were sitting in front of it, dressed in traditional new clothes. Some priests were sprinkling holy water on the devotees while reciting mantras. Yellow and white were the only colors in this whole environment.
All the men were sitting in Sukhasana i.e. cross-legged. Most of the women were seated in Sukhasana like him, but some women were sitting with knees bent, knees and feet like Buddhist monks. It was very thrilling to see this mass worship. All the work was being done without any sound, without any hustle and bustle. Here the parents did not bring their young children with them. The men wore putu-like caps, the front of which was tied with knots to give an Indian crow-like shape.
The worship area was surrounded by iron lattice. Hundreds of domestic and foreign tourists were roaming around it, but the devotees were absolutely sure of their side. Outside this lattice many women were standing in their stalls where puja thalis were being sold.
Greetings with folded hands
All the men and women were saluting the deities with folded hands and applying them to their foreheads in between the worship of the deity, this posture of namaskar was exactly the same as that of Indian Hindus bowing down to the deities in temples.
Dog Shopping
It was only four o'clock in the evening but the brightness of the sun started to diminish. We were also feeling tired. So we decided to return to Mangvi. This route passed through Kuta which is one of the main towns of the island of Bali. We asked Putu to go to some big general store so that we could buy some vegetables and milk. If we were in India, by now we would have had tea two or three times on the way, but there was no such shop where tea was sold. There was coffee in a restaurant in Taban area but that too without milk and sugar. It was neither possible nor enjoyable for us to drink it.
After walking for a long time, Putu stopped the car in front of a big mall in Kuta. According to Putu it was a mall but according to India it was nothing more than a medium sized general store. Here we got to see many types of green vegetables. Potatoes, onions, tomatoes, milk, fruits were also in abundance. There were many types of onions and potatoes kept, whose label on the container had its price as well as the name of the country from which the vegetable had come. It was no surprise to us that most of the vegetables came from New Zealand, the Netherlands, Australia and Mumbai. Even bananas were foreign. Bananas from the island of Bali were very small in size, sour-sweet in taste and relatively less soft. Apples were of many types and were imported from many countries of the world. All these vegetables and fruits, which came from abroad, were available at many times higher prices than in India.
We bought vegetables and cans of milk for the days ahead. These milk cartons had pictures of milch animals, but along with milk powder, many types of proteins and vegetable oils were also mixed in them.