Tanah Lot Temple

Tradition links Tanah Lot to Dang Hyang Nirartha, a Hindu priest from Java who travelled along Bali's southern coast in the 16th century. According to the story told by Wonderful Indonesia, he rested on a rock island called Gili Beo, sensed it was a holy place and, after being asked to move on by the local leader, shifted the rock out to sea and founded a temple there to honour the sea deity. He is also credited locally with creating a guardian sea snake from his sash to protect the temple.

By the 1980s the rock face was crumbling. A major conservation programme funded by a loan from the Japanese government stabilised Tanah Lot and other important sites in Bali, and a substantial part of the rock seen today is reinforced artificial material.

Tanah Lot sits in the customary village of Beraban, and the temple is part of a chain of sea temples along Bali's coast that Balinese Hindus believe protect the island. Local families bring offerings here, and the temple's odalan festival brings pilgrims from across Tabanan. Visitors are expected to dress modestly, keep off the shrines and give way to worshippers and processions.