Village temples … are linked together in a given area by hereditary ties or because of allegiance to a princely house or to that of a Brahmana high priest. Thus to the head temple on the day of its yearly festival will come the members and the priests from a number of tributary temples round about, bearing their gods in procession, accompanied by their gamelan orchestras, with spears and banners and all ceremonial regalia, and bringing also the Barong and the Rangda. (Jane Belo 1949: 40)
At Campuan, in the gorge just west of Ubud, above a fork in the River Wos, is the temple Pura Gunung Lebah. The name means literally ‘low mountain’, ‘below the mountain’ or ‘the mountain below’. It is held in local lore to be especially sacred but it does not fit unambiguously into the conventional scheme of local temples. It is specific neither to desa nor to any one clearly defined group. The ayahan is performed by a group of subak around Ubud and the people of Banjar Taman Kelod, working on behalf of Puri Ubud. [15] Its major palingih (sitting-places for visiting deities) are two pagoda-like towers (meru)—a seven-tiered one for the resident deity of Gunung Lebah and a five-tiered one for Bhatari Sri Batur (the goddess of Mt/Lake Batur).
At the beginning of anniversary ceremonies (odalan), processions arrive from Ubud and from a circle of villages approximately centred on the temple. These people bring their barong (gods in the form of large animal puppets) and other sacred objects, most of which were made, donated by, or in some other way connected to the puri. In explaining their relationship with the temple, they refer to these connections and also to Rsi Markandeya and his travel up the Wos Valley.
Pura Gunung Lebah has a range of associations and meanings, constituted in different ways. It is (a) the pura masceti (regional irrigation temple) for a group of subak, (b) a royal temple of the puri, and is associated (c) with a group of villages, including Ubud, and their barong, (d) with the travels of Rsi Markandeya, (e) with the Wos Valley as far as Taro, and is finally (f) a visiting place (pasimpangan) for the goddess of Mt/Lake Batur. These connections are articulated through the temple but are not organised around a single consistent set of ideas. They are constituted variously through more or less defined groups of people, through the static form of land and the dynamic of flowing water and through hazily remembered mythologies and the regular visits of gods. [16]
Many of the desa connected to Pura Gunung Lebah are themselves linked in similar ways to others around Ubud and eventually to others all the way up the Wos Valley. The net result of these linkages may be described as a network of villages and temples within a more or less defined region. This network takes the form not of a single grid but of several imperfectly overlapping ones constituted variously in the dimensions of topography, hydrology, irrigation, mythology, history, barong migrations and temple connections. The following sections summarise these ‘layers’ of linkage.
Pura Gunung Lebah sits on the lower end of a ridge (bukit). This narrow ridge, never more than two kilometres across, runs uphill, between two deep, forested ravines in which flow the east and west arms of the Wos, until it flattens out onto the plateau flanking the crater of Gunung Batur. On either side of this double valley run the parallel ridge roads through the major villages and court centres of Peliatan-Tegallalang-Pujung and Sayan-Kedewatan-Payangan.
Along the central ridge are a series of villages strung along a narrow road. The gradient is gentle and easily traversed and the distances between settlements are generally no more than a kilometre. The intermediate sawah (irrigated rice fields) are traditionally worked by families of both, or even other, villages, and there are few obstacles to up-down-bukit travel. Irrigation and sawah ownership tend to cross village boundaries and collective maintenance and management of the irrigation system necessitates a degree of cooperation between upstream -downstream neighbours.
Balinese irrigation is gravity-fed and flows from mountain lakes and springs. Because of the depth of the river gorges, water is channelled from sources far upstream of the fields it irrigates and can be used only within the valley in which it originates. This basic hydrological form configures irrigation, like the land itself, into a set of long, narrow systems that depend on cooperation between upstream and downstream users of the system. [17]
Within the Wos Valley, the rice fields along the bukit from Bankiangsidem to above Taro are irrigated from dams on the two inner arms of the Wos. Although these subak are within the area associated with Pura Gunung Lebah, they do not relate to it as their pura masceti. Conversely, the primary congregation of the temple in its function as pura masceti are subak, which are physically located outside the bukit but draw their water from a dam on the Wos. Land and irrigation are separated ritually and the area served by Pura Gunung Lebah in its function as an irrigation temple does not correspond physically with the area with which it is connected in other ways.
Throughout the Wos Valley, the Markandeya story is trundled out routinely in response to questions about the foundation of local villages and temples. The details vary and village people frequently refer to Puri Ubud or to published versions for the ‘complete’ or ‘correct’ story. [18]
Although not all the places mentioned in these stories are confined, even in the most parochial versions, to the bukit, the story serves to identify the poles of Campuan and Taro and an axis between them and to identify these with the foundations of Balinese civilisation. To its inhabitants, this area is known by such names as Ujung Taro, Bukit Taro, Gunung Taro, Gunung Raung or Bukit Gunung Lebah and is replete with material evidence of Rsi Markandeya’s exploits, mostly in the form of temples.
Barong, ‘at once the most familiar and the most obscure’ figures in Balinese tradition (Spies and de Zoete 1973: 93) are known to everyone but understood only in contradictory ways by relatively few people. [19] They are essentially creatures of place, associated with desa and their territories, which they patrol seasonally to prevent the entry of unwanted influences. As Mead (1970) observed, they are subject also to a season of migration during which they might wander promiscuously performing as their will or habit takes them. They also practice a third, more regulated kind of migration: mutual visiting, along with other sacred objects (pretima), at temple ceremonies. It is through these visits that contemporary ritual links between villages in the Wos Valley are most readily traced.
For example, at the odalan of Pura Jemeng in Sebali, in addition to three barong from local temples, others are (usually) brought from Keliki, Lungsiakan, Ubud and Bentuyung. Likewise, reciprocally, the resident barong at Pura Jemeng attends odalan at the home temples of all these barong and at Pura Gunung Lebah. Keliki is immediately up-bukit of Sebali, with which it has close historical links. Some of these barong also travel, along with others from the area, to Pura Sabang Dahat, on the lonely plateau above Puakan. Every Manis Galungan, many barong, mostly from Bukit Taro/Gunung Lebah, present themselves at this temple and report to other local temples before making their own ways back down the bukit.[20] For the month after Galungan, reciprocal visiting continues between barong in the area.
Most other desa have similar networks of related villages and temples which, can be traced by the travels of their barong. Taken together, the dominant pattern of connection is along the kaja-kelod axis within the bukit, but there are also some trans-bukit links to Ubud and others to apparently random temples elsewhere.
A bale agung (lit: ‘great pavilion’) is a raised pavilion in which the gods associated with a village assemble. In old-style villages, it was oriented along the central kaja-kelod axis in the centre of the village and was large enough for living village members to occupy together with their deified ancestors at monthly meetings.[21] In new-style villages, it is large enough only for the gods and is situated in the middle courtyard (jaba tengah) of one of the village temples. In either case, it is linear in form and oriented kaja-kelod. [22] Furthermore, it is directional, having a head (ulu), which may consist of an enclosed timber cabinet containing sacred objects, a seat, or a (usually painted or carved) timber panel. The most important offerings are placed at this end and in old-style bale senior members of the village sit at this end. In the majority of bale, this head is oriented, like the heads of other entities of higher status or purity, kaja, uphill. [23]
The bale agung that forms part of the Pura Agung Gunung Raung complex in Taro, widely believed to be the longest and the oldest in Bali, is oriented in the opposite direction, with its head downhill, towards the sea! So also are the bale agung of Sebali/Bankiangsidem, Keliki Kawan, Keliki/Yehtengah, Kelusa and Bresela. This is an extraordinary reversal of convention, affecting the majority of bale within the bukit, although there are significant exceptions. [24] So, while within the area of Bukit Taro-Gunung Lebah there is a dominant pattern of reversal of normal orientation of bale agung there are also sufficient exceptions and anomalies to cast doubt on any easy generalisation.
Local explanations of this pattern of reversal are confusing but reflect a certain logical consistency. [25] Bale agung in this area, associated with Rsi Markandeya and Gunung Raung, are oriented not to the central mountains but to Gunung Lebah, which is the pusat (BI: centre), puseh (navel, origin) or puncak (peak, summit) of this area. When I pointed out to local people that ‘Gunung’ Lebah seemed to me to be at the lowest rather than the highest point of the bukit, I was referred to the mystery contained in the name ‘Gunung Lebah’: the low mountain or the mountain at the bottom.
On what grounds can Gunung Lebah be described as a puncak? According to some, because Rsi Markandeya appeared first at Campuan and then travelled kaja along the bukit this was the pusat and therefore also the puncak. [26] There is, however, sufficient uncertainty and contradiction in accounts of the direction of his travels that this explanation seems incomplete at best.
More philosophically sophisticated exegeses, by priests and princes, invoked the principle of the unity of high and low, mountain and sea, Brahma and Visnu. Just as the waters may be seen flowing from the mountains down to the sea, they also return, unseen to the mountain lakes (Schulte-Nordholt 1991: 157). The orientation to Gunung Lebah thus reflects the reversal at a niskala level of ordinary sekala orientation. [27] A further variation of this explanation was that the location of Gunung Lebah is at the central point on the whole mountain-sea axis and was thus the pusat or puncak of the whole (inherently reversible) system.
Logically unsatisfying as these explanations might be, the point in each case is clearly that within the boundaries of Bukit Gunung Lebah, ordinary sekala topography is in certain respects subordinate to a localised niskala topography of which Gunung Lebah is a peak or summit.
Throughout my inquiries, wherever bale agung were oriented kelod, wherever Rsi Markandeya was said to have been, wherever barong were linked, and especially throughout Bukit Gunung Lebah, there was evidence of the patronage and influence of Puri Ubud. This involvement took forms such as renovation of temples, support of local dance/music groups, advising on matters of tradition and providing rationalised interpretations of local mythical history. In return, the puri were deferred to on matters of tradition and invited to ceremonies in local pura. They also called on such villages to provide ritual labour or performances at Ubud temples or puri.
Local people speak of this relationship as an appropriate continuation of long tradition. Members of the puri regard it as their hereditary obligation: leadership, guidance of the community and protection and sponsorship of traditional cultural forms. The geographical spread of this involvement does not, however, correspond with any precision to the area controlled by the puri in pre-colonial times.
Puri Ubud also assume a central position in the network through their controlling role at Pura Gunung Lebah. It is not uncommon for local puri to take over responsibility for pura masceti within their area of politico-ritual jurisdiction (Lansing 1991: 131). Pura Gunung Lebah is, like other irrigation temples, a visiting place (pasimpangan) of Pura Batur, whose principal deity has jurisdiction over all water flowing through this part of Bali (Lansing 1991: 74). Although the puri (and the local subak) have links with this temple, other aspects of the network described however do not extend directly to Batur.