Goa Lawah is one of my favorite temple in Bali. When I was in Goa Lawah Temple, I felt the same atmosphere like when I was in Uluwatu Temple. Its so refreshing. I also felt a similar serenity just like when I was in Uluwatu Temple. I guess this is because both of the temple is located beside the sea. So I am a little bit curious about next “sea temple” that I’ll visit next time. The View in Goa Lawah is also really great. You can see a lot of beautiful big trees around and even inside the temple! The architecture is also awesome.
Goa Lawah is located in Pesinggahan village, Dawan District, Klungkung Regency, Bali. This temple was built in honor to Lord Maheswara and Lord Naga Basuki. The Lords who will always keep the balance of bad and good, mountain and sea, spiritual and nonspiritual life, and all of stuff that related to “yin and yang”. This temple is also one of Sad Kahyangan Temple. if you don’t know what is Sad Kahyangan Temple, you can check on my previous article about Uluwatu Temple. The name of the temple is based on something unique that inside this temple. This temple named Goa Lawah because in the temple there is a cave which has a lots of bat inside. Goa means cave and lawah means bat. Thats why this temple named Goa Lawah. Even though the bat make a lot of noise, I still felt very calm inside the temple. I really love to visit this temple!
According to Usana Bali Lontar and Babad Pasek Lontar, Goa Lawah Temple was built around 11th Century AD on the initiative of Mpu Kuturan. Balinese people who is Hindu believe that this cave connected with the Goa Raja (Raja Cave) which is located in Besakih Temple. But the tunnel which connecting the two caves collapsed due to the really strong earquake that occurred in 1917. We as a Hindu in Balinese also believe that Goa Lawah is a place for Naga Basuki’s Head and The tail is in Goa Raja. Because the body of Lord Naga Basuki is too long and need a lot of space.
In front of the cave there are some sacred place which was built to do Nyegara Gunung Ceremony, an activity of the Hindu community in Bali which is for closing ceremony for Atma Wedana (Nyekah, Memukur or Maligia). But, you also can just come here for praying not because of that ceremony. This temple is also always open. So you can come here everyday anytime. After I arrived in Goa Lawah, I put my offering in front of the sacred place and waited for the priest to do the ritual. The priest has a job as an intermediary between the prayer and God. The priest will tell the God that the prayer bring offering to the God using mantra.
After I prayed in Goa Lawah Temple, I went to Segara Temple for praying which is located in front of the Goa Lawah Temple. To go get this temple, you just need to cross the main road. This temple was made to honor Lord Baruna, the lord of the sea. The view is really beautiful but the wind will always blow hard. It makes me light up the incense hardly. If you want to pray here I strongly advise you to light up your incense in Goa Lawah Temple first.
The last things I want to tell you are if you don’t have enough time to prepare offering to bring to Goa Lawah, you can buy it in front of Goa Lawah Temple, a lot of people sell it here. Also, if you are hungry, beside the beach or in front of the temple, there are a lot of people who sell a lot of food like pork satay, fish satay, meat ball, young coconut ice, a bunch of snack etc.
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