Tirta Empul Temple: Holy Water

Tirta Empul Temple is a holy spring water Hindu temple in Gianyar, Bali. The spring water is said to have healing power. Many come here to pray and bathe in the pools.

We came here driven by our hired driver, Abang Gusti. He had picked us up at our hotel after our breakfast. The entrance fee was 15,000 rupiah per person. I was not sure he was supposed to take us around the place. However, he was kind enough to show us around since we looked lost. He also told us a bit about this place. We communicated in Bahasa Malaysia and well, we understood his. So, communication was not a problem.

Finally, we got the shot of this beautiful door architecture (near the entrance) before we left the temple. The strong sun had hindered us from taking a good photo at first.

Against the sun...what a bright sunny day!

Well, he also became our photographer throughout the trip. We had actually became friends. He was friendly enough and even invited us to visit his village in Jatiluwih. We were indeed very pleased and  grabbed the opportunity to visit a real local Balinese home. This will be in another post.

The hill next to the temple

The fish pond (before we reached the main pool)

Koi fish from the fish pond

A lovely shot of water lily at the fish pond

I like this temple as it is peaceful and historical. It was quite quiet due to lack of tourists and worshipers maybe because we came in the morning around 10 . However, we were lucky to see a bunch of ladies performing the bathing rites and prayers in the holy pool. 

The main pool

The worshipers were required to go into the pool with a tray of prayer stuffs and joss sticks.They are required to wash themselves at the flowing water fountain starting from the left to the right. Then, they were supposed to go to another two other pools at the next section to perform the same rites.

Some worshipers performing the bathing rites and prayers

Abang Gusti had asked us to participate but we did not bring any spare clothes to change. So, we could not. Then, we followed what he did to get some blessing. He squatted at the edge of the pool and reached his hand to the flowing holy water. Then, he washed and patted his face and head with the water. 

Follow Abang Gusti's method to get the blessing (without getting wet)

I spotted this beautiful dragonfly by the pool and could not resist to capture its picture.

A gecko running past us

Besides the pools, there was a holy pond with rippling water. The water came from underground. The pond was filled with green algae. We learned that the water in the holy pond came from the same source as the holy bathing pool.

The holy pond

Reflections of the surroundings onto the pond

Rippling water

We talked with Abang Gusti for some time and then, we left the temple to go for our lunch at Kintamani. 

Entrance Fee:
15,000 rupiah per person.

Verdict:
Must visit. Go in the morning to avoid the crowd.