Much of inland southwest Bali lies in the shadow of the massive Gunung Batakau (sometimes spelt Batukaru; 2276m), the second highest mountain on the island (after Gunung Agung) and one of the holiest. All west Bali temples have a shrine dedicated to the spirit of Gunung Batukau, and on the lower slopes of the holy mountain itself stands Pura Luhur Batukau, Bali's directional temple (kayangan jagat) for the west and the focus of many pilgrimages. Gunung Batukau and its hinterland is the wettest region of Bali, and the dense tropical forest that clothes the uppermost slopes has now been designated as nature reserve, a particularly rewarding area for bird-watching. Lower down, on the gentler slopes that effectively stretch all the way to Tabanan, 21km southeast of Pura Luhur, the superior soil provides some of the most productive agricultural land on the island.

PURA LUHUR BATUKAU

Usually silent except for its resident orchestra of cicadas and frogs, Pura Luhur Batukau does full justice to its epithet, the "garden temple". The grassy courtyards are planted with flowering hibiscus, javanese ixora and cempaka shrubs. and the montane forest that carpets the slopes of Gunung Batukau encroaches on the compound's perimeters to the north, east and west. Monuments are encrusted with moist green moss, and a web of path fans out to solitary shrines set further into the forest. Batukau's bird population finds plenty to feed on here, so you are likely to see a fair number of forest dwellers, including bright green woodpecker like barbets, scarlet minivets, olive-green grey-headed flycatchers and possibly even scarlet-headed flowerpeckers in the temple treetops.

Pura Luhur Batukau is thought to have become a holy site in the eleventh century, and was subsequently consecrated by the rajas of the kingdom of Tabanan who made it into their state temple and dedicated shrines here to their ancestral gods. In 1604, however, the rival rajas of Buleleng razed the shrines to the ground and, although devotees continued to worship at the ruins, the temple was not fully renovated until 1959. Many of the thatched meru now standing inside the inner sanctuary still represent a particular branch or member of the ancestral family of the rajas Tabanan. The most important shrine, though, is the unusual seven-tiered pagoda which is dedicated to Mahadewa, the god of Gunung Batukau. To the east of the main temple compound,a large square pond has been dug to represent and honour the gods of nearby Lake Tamblingan, which lies immediately to the north of Gunung Batukau. Only Batukau's priests are allowed access to the tiny island shrine in the middle of the pond, which they reach by means of a makeshift raft on a pulley.