A reference on culture: A pura is a Balinese Hindu temple,[1] and the place of worship for adherents of Balinese Hinduism in Indonesia. Mother Temple of Besakih is the most important, largest and holiest temple in Bali. Many puras have been built in Bali, leading it to be titled “the Island of a Thousand Puras”
The term pura originates from the Sanskrit word meaning “city”, “walled city”, “towered city”, or “palace”, which was adopted with the Indianization of Southeast Asia and the spread of Hinduism, specially in the Indosphere. During the development of the Balinese language the term pura came to refer to a religious temple complex, while the term puri came to refer to palace, the residence of kings and nobles, similar to Javanese kratons.
The Balinese temples are arranged according to the physical and spiritual realm of Balinese people, which corresponds to kaja-kelod sacred axis, from mountain tops the realms of gods, hyang spirits, the middle fertile plain the realm of humans and other beings, all the way to the beach and ocean, and the many realms in Indonesia.
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