Goa Gajah is an 11th-century ruin about 4 kilometers east of Ubud. This area is regarded as a place where dynasties flourished from the 8th to the 14th centuries, dotted with ruins and temples.
Although Goa Gajah and the surrounding ruins may not be in par with the world's famous ruins on a scale, yet it is a valuable historical asset in this area, especially the Goa Gajah cave entrance and the statues of the goddess are wonderful. It should be registered as a World Heritage site.
Goa Gajah is a ruins, but like other Bali ruins, it is still treated as a temple and holy place, and it is necessary to pay attention to clothing, such as not putting out shin when entering Goa Gajah. If you visit with shorts or short skirts, you will be instructed to wrap your waist at the entrance and lend you the cloth.
From the parking lot lined with souvenir shops, go down the hill to Goa Gajah ruins. Is it the bathhouse that jumps into your eyes first. Six goddesses lined up, and water spouted out of the spear that was in hand. I was surprised that this wonderful bath was discovered in 1954. Click on the picture of the bathhouse below to see an enlarged photo. It is about 3 megabites.
When you enlarge the goddess statue, it looks like the following. Not very beautiful by modern standards?!
Another one. Isn't this more beautiful? If I write such a thing, the goddess' punishment is likely to hit me.
The overall atmosphere of the Goa Gajah baths looks like this.
One of the highlights of Goa Gajah, besides the bath, is a cave temple with a huge facial mouth. A photograph with a person is posted so that you can see the size. This big face is said to be the witch Randa in Bali or Pashpati (paspati), one of Hindu Shiva's incarnations, but I would like to take the Randa theory without scientific basis. why? I've seen many Hindu temples, but Goa Gajah seems to have a different atmosphere than ordinary Hindu temples.
Inside the cave are a small room where monks lived, a ganesh statue, and a linga in the photo below. These three lingas are the symbols of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. But I wonder if this temple has been here since it was built.
The main sites of Goa Gajah are baths and caves, but a path like a promenade extends from these facilities. If you follow that path, you will find a truly peaceful scenery of Bali.
As we proceeded further, we descended into a swamp, where some of the broken ruins were rolling as stones.
