Pura Kahyangan Tiga: The Three Village Temples
How every Balinese village keeps cosmic balance with three temples honoring Brahma, Wisnu, and Siwa
Pura Kahyangan Tiga is the group of three principal temples that must be established in every desa adat (traditional village, also called pekraman) in Bali. These temples represent the worship of the god Brahma (Pura Desa/Bale Agung), the god Wisnu (Pura Puseh/Segara), and the god Siwa (Pura Dalem/Pradana), symbolizing the Trimurti (the Hindu trinity) and maintaining the balance between human life, nature, and God according to the teachings of Mpu Kuturan. The presence of the Kahyangan Tiga temples in Bali dates back to the reign of King Udayana (963-1011). At that time, many Hindu streams of belief, or sects, were flourishing in Bali — nine among them being Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Sidhanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora, and Ganapatya. These sects not only gave rise to differences, but often to disputes and disagreements that ended in division over matters of belief. Unwilling to see his people disturbed and torn apart by this problem, King Udayana assigned Mpu Kuturan to convene a meeting with Bali's Hindu religious leaders. The meeting produced the decision that within every village community, Kahyangan Tiga temples must be built as sacred places to worship the Trimurti (the gods Brahma, Wisnu, and Siwa), known as the unified trinity of the highest gods in Hinduism. The Trimurti embodies the cycle of life: birth, life, and death. In Hindu belief, this cycle of life is never broken, for it is a law of nature and a law of God. These three natural laws are also called the Trikona (triangle), depicting creation, preservation, and return — the embodiment of the Trimurti.
The Kahyangan Tiga temples are found in nearly every traditional village in Bali because they are the concrete implementation of Balinese Hindu teaching contained in the concept of Desa Mawa Cara. This concept establishes that every village has its own customs, traditions, and religious spatial arrangement, yet each must uphold the core standards of spirituality — one of which is the presence of these Kahyangan Tiga temples. The placement of the three temples relates not only to religious function; it also marks the village's spiritual boundaries and spatial order. Pura Puseh is generally placed in the kaja direction (toward the mountains, upstream), Pura Desa/Bale Agung in the center, and Pura Dalem in the kelod direction (toward the sea, downstream), following the Balinese concept of sacred-profane spatial orientation.
The primary function of the Kahyangan Tiga temples is as places of worship of Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, the almighty God, and all of His manifestations, in the pursuit of safety, peace, and prosperity. As three sacred sites founded by Mpu Kuturan together with the Hindu religious leaders of King Udayana's era, they naturally carry three distinct functions.
1. Pura Desa Pura Desa is the temple that worships Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa in His manifestation as the god Brahma, in his function as creator of the universe. It is called Pura Desa (village temple) because it is generally placed at the center of the village, on one corner of the catuspata (the great crossroads). Pura Desa is the central site for ceremonies held for the benefit of the village, such as the Ngusaba Desa ceremony and the pasamuhan batara (gathering of the deities) held after the melis purification ceremony that precedes the Panyepian observance. In some parts of Bali, Pura Desa is also known as Pura Bale Agung — a name most likely taken from the Bale Agung pavilion that stands in the temple's first courtyard. Pura Desa has a layout divided into three sections, but more commonly the first and second are merged into one, so that it appears to have two courtyards: the jaba sisi (first courtyard) and the jaba jeroan (second courtyard). Both courtyards are enclosed by walls with entrance gates known as the candi bentar (split gate) and kori agung (grand roofed gate).
2. Pura Puseh Pura Puseh is the place of worship of Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa in His manifestation as the god Wisnu, in his function as preserver. The word puseh derives from puser, meaning center — here carrying the sense of the center of the world's welfare, bringing prosperity and happiness to humankind, which is why ceremonies connected with the fertility of the world are held at the Puseh. The layout of Pura Puseh can be divided into two sections, like that of Pura Desa: the first courtyard, called the temple's jabaan, and the second courtyard, called its jeroan. The first courtyard holds several structures, such as the candi bentar, bale kulkul (drum tower), pawaregan (kitchen), bale gong (gamelan pavilion), apit lawang (gate-flanking shrines), and candi kurung (arched gate).
3. Pura Dalem Pura Dalem is the place of worship of the god Siwa in his function as pemralina, the dissolver of the universe. The word dalem literally means far, or difficult to reach. It is so named because in reality the god Siwa is difficult for humans to reach, for he is niskala (immaterial, beyond the senses) and wyapi-wyapaka (all-pervading). Pura Dalem is built facing toward the southwest of the village, because that compass direction is ruled by the god Rudra, the aspect of Siwa whose function is to dissolve all that lives. The Kahyangan Tiga may take the form of three separate temples, but may also consist of just two, where Pura Desa and Pura Puseh are united in one — usually called Pura Puseh-Desa Bale Agung.
Each temple belonging to the Kahyangan Tiga group has its own piodalan (temple anniversary). A temple's piodalan is determined by the day the temple was consecrated; the consecration day is usually an auspicious day chosen on the guidance of a priest and is thereafter fixed as the piodalan day. The word piodalan derives from wedal, meaning born, with the prefix pa- and the suffix -an, meaning place of birth or birth. The timing of the piodalan differs from temple to temple: some are held every six months, or 210 days, while others are held once a year. Ceremonies at the Kahyangan Tiga temples are performed periodically on particular days, such as the monthly observances called rerainan, whose days fall according to the temple's piodalan day and also on every full moon (Purnama) and new moon (Tilem). The ceremony held every 210 days is the piodalan day itself, with rites larger than the rerainan. Larger periodic ceremonies include the karya ngusaba, the karya mamungkah, and others. The piodalan and the larger periodic ceremonies at the Kahyangan Tiga temples are officiated by a pendeta (high priest), while the small ceremonies called rerainan are officiated (completed) by the temple's own pemangku (lay temple priest). In some villages the ceremonies are completed by a jero Gede, a kind of pemangku. When the priest performs the worship, the krama pura (temple congregation) is already assembled in the inner courtyard to pray. Once the invocation is complete, the priest leads the congregation's prayers through to their conclusion.