Friday, April 1, 2011

Pura Besakih, Indonesia



I got this from a friend traveling to Indonesia. Thank you Caitlin! It shows Bali's largest Hindu temple, Pura Besakih, on Mt. Agung, which is the principal volcano of Bali. Mt. Agung erupted in 1963, killing over 1500 people, but missing this temple by meters. This was taken as a signal from the gods that they wanted to demonstrate their power, but not destroy the monument the faithful Balinese had erected. It was nominated as a UNESCO site in 1995 but hasn't been given world heritage status. Whoever decides these things ought to read this guy, who's been there:

By then, I had enough of Pura Besakih. Divine intervention had me that I was not up for it. When the guide offered to bring me to a pura devoted to Dewa Iswara (or God of Lightning), I politely refused and insisted on returning down to the parking lot. Enraged the God of Lightning probably was that it rained cats and dogs as soon as I stepped out of the Besakih complex. I got myself drenched and had only my indifference to blame.


"Ucapan Selamat" means "greetings," but I can't find any information on this particular stamp. Unfortunately Indonesian cancellations always seem to be so hard that they often damage the card on the other side! It's not too bad on this card - but even though you can see the imprint of the cancellation on the picture side of the card, you can't really see the ink of the cancellation on the stamp!

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