Pura Dalem Jagaraga

Every Balinese village has a pura dalem, a temple of the dead dedicated to Shiva in his role as destroyer and to his consort Durga. Villagers come here after a death so that the soul can move on rather than wander the earth. Jagaraga’s version, also known as Pura Dalem Segara Madu, stands out for its carvings, which mix the usual demons and deities with scenes of the colonial world.

The temple lies in Jagaraga, a few kilometres inland from the coast road east of Singaraja. It is easy to combine with the other carved temples of the area.

The front wall is the place to start. On one side, Balinese villagers fish, climb coconut palms and fly kites; on the other, the Dutch arrive by car, by boat and by aeroplane, an attack by land, sea and air. Inside the gate you will find a carefully labelled Ford Model T carrying armed men, a warship with a huge fish beside it, and a crocodile devouring a man.

The inner courtyard, the jeroan, centres on the padmasana, an empty lotus throne for the supreme god, flanked by pavilions. At its foot are the cosmic turtle and serpents that support the world in Balinese belief. Look too for the winged lion, the emblem of Buleleng and of Singaraja, whose name means “lion king”. A local guide or caretaker may offer to explain the carvings for a donation, and the stories are well worth hearing.

Jagaraga is about 11 km east of Singaraja, a short turn inland from the coast road near Sangsit. Visit by hired car or scooter from Lovina or Singaraja, and pair it with Pura Beji Sangsit and Pura Meduwe Karang. Bring a sarong and sash, and leave a donation.

Before the colonial wars the village was called Sukapura, and its temple of the dead was surrounded by a pool known as the segara madu, the “sea of honey”. As the Dutch threatened, the village took the name Jagaraga, loosely “be on guard”.

In the 1840s Jagaraga became the stronghold of the Buleleng kingdom’s resistance, led by the chief minister Gusti Ketut Jelantik. A Dutch expedition was beaten back here in 1848, but a larger force took the fortified village in 1849, and North Bali passed under colonial control. The pool and the old temple were wrecked in the fighting.

The temple was rebuilt afterwards in a style unlike its neighbours. Its cars and aircraft cannot date from the war itself, and were evidently carved in the early decades of the twentieth century, when the carvers set their memories of conquest alongside the new machines of the colonial age.