Now that some of the infrastructure had been accomplished it was time to start some “real” building.  Wayan said that the temple would be the first thing that would be built.  We assumed that the temple or temples would be similar to the ones that were already there only new and in much better shape.  We were both aware that the word temple could apply to the small individual ones that Balinese have at their homes or it could apply to a large structure such as the ones found throughout Bali.  Wayan said that that was to be done first in order to appease the spirits of the mountain top as we were in the process of making it look quite a bit different than it had in it’s pristine state.  The spirits had to have a new home before anything else could be done.

Time passed and money was sent and we wondered how the temples were coming along since it had been a while. We assumed that those would be make very quickly.  We asked Wayan to send some pictures of how things were going and to our great surprise we discovered that the spirits were going to get a much larger, nicer, and more beautiful home than they had had before.  I was somewhat upset at first as I thought it was a lot of money for a temple and I was ready to get building the resort itself.  I was worried about the cost and the functionality of the temple and the space that had been used on our little mountain top.  Would tourists really care I wondered?  Why didn’t Wayan discuss his plans with us so we understood what was going to be built.  Carmen; as  usual was unphased and right away understood the significance of the building and the depth of Wayan’s spirituality.  She tried to calm me and said that it wasn’t just a temple; it was also storage and office space and that the temple needed to be there because religion and spirituality are such a very important part of life in Bali and if we were really going to have a place of tranquility in Bali a temple had to be a part of that.  A part of me knew that long before Carmen did as I had spent so much time there over the years, but being the pragmatic person that I am I needed to be reminded of a few things. Okay I said; nothing we can do about it now.  It is a beautiful building and I tried to understand the depth of Wayan’s faith and the importance of being respectful of the land that we were in a sense desecrating.  It had to be done right and I believe now that it was.  The next post will give a glimpse into the eight hour ceremony that was done at the completion of the temple.  The spirits had to be moved from the old to the new.

While I had spent close to eight years in Indonesia and had seen a lot of buildings being built, I had never really paid a lot of attention to how it was done.  This was the first time that I had seen what it takes to make a building with hand tools. I found it fascinating and I hope that the over 200 pictures of the temple building will fascinate you too.  Enjoy and I promise that the next post will not be in three months, but much sooner than that.