Goa Giri Putri - A Temple Unlike Any Other
Photo by Paolo Nicolello
While I was living in Bali I made quite regular trips to the neighboring island of Nusa Penida. Penida island to me coming from mainland Bali, is what cottage country would be to a city dweller - a place to venture out to and escape from the hustle and bustle of civilization . As mentioned in my previous post, Nusa Penida is home to some of the best scuba diving spots in the Bali area and is home to some if not all the most spectacular beaches, you’ll ever see. Oh and it’s also so much more. Nusa Penida is laden with secret caves, epic sunset watching spots, quaint beautiful little villages, lush jungle, kelp farms and more. You won’t find a McDonalds or large streets in Nusa Penida. It’s truly untouched, in comparison with its big sister Bali. Sounds like Paradise? It very much is, at least on the surface. However most visitors to the island are largely unaware of it’s ‘dark’ past.
Nusa Penida has often been called ‘Black Magic Island’ among the local population. This is largely due to its spiritual history. In Hindu Buddhist beliefs, the island is home to dark spirits, including Macaling - the spreader of disease. Even though history dictates that Macaling’s evil powers were diminished through cleansing rituals, the legends still have a strong hold on the area. The Balinese tradition believes in the balance of universal forces, both light and dark, good and evil. And as such, even places like Nusa Penida and its resident spirits of shadow hold an important place in the Balinese way of life. In the 18th century, the island also served as a penal colony for criminals.
It is considered a right of passage for a Hindu Buddhist to make a pilgrimage to the island of Nusa Penida to visit Goa Giri Putri Temple - a Temple unlike any other, and the star of this week’s blog. Goa Giri Putri Temple is perhaps one of the most incredible natural wonders I have had the privilege to visit thus far in life. It’s name - Goa means ‘cave’, Giri means ‘hill’, Putri is a symbol of strength.
The temple lies within a 30 minute scooter/motorbike ride of Toyapakeh Harbour - the main gateway for boats coming to the island. I decided to pay a visit to the temple during a scuba diving weekend and convinced my dive buddy Lou to join me. We really didn’t quite anticipate what we were in for. After arriving at the foot of the mountain housing the temple we rented a sarong for Lou and a sarong sash for me (as all Balinese temples require for visitors to cover their legs). We proceeded to make what felt like an arduously long climb, up hundreds of steps three quarters up the hill to a small clearing where we were met by two smiling priests. I had no idea what to expect so I assumed that we were already in the temple, as in, there was nowhere else to go and it was just on the side of the mountain. You see, I hadn’t actually researched where we were going, I just took up my friend Nick Kimman’s suggestion to visit what he dubbed an absolutely ‘magical place’. As we dropped $5 donations into a little box in the clearing, one of the priests made a motion with his hand towards the rock wall to our right. There were a couple of massive boulders perched up against the wall and I was a bit confused as to why he wanted us to go that way. “Enter temple”, the man said. Lou walked over to the boulders. “I think we are supposed to go down this hole”. What?! I walked over to the boulders. Between the largest boulder and the rock wall was a ….. hole.
A literal rabbit hole. Lou kneeled and lowered herself into the crevice. This was going to be interesting. When Lou’s head disappeared I cautiously stepped into the crevice and started lowering myself in, my heartbeat rapidly accelerating - I won’t lie. I lowered myself in two meters deep and down at the bottom saw a crawlspace, which Lou was already making her way through. We were both giggling nervously as we made our way through twenty feet of crawlspace about a meter high on hands and knees with literally a rock mountain hanging over our heads. It was extremely unnerving to say the least. Toward the end of the crawlspace I felt the air change into musty fog. It felt like I was in a cloud. As I crawled out of the rabbit hole and stood upright I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was standing at the foot of what must have been a 60-80 foot high and 310 meter long misty dark cave of absolutely gargantuan proportions. We were … quite literally, inside of a mountain.
I giggled in absolute awe of the space. It’s moments like these that I truly cherished my life and all the choices I had made that led me to this point. Being able to explore a sacred temple inside a mountain - I felt like Lara Croft (The Tomb Raider), or Indiana Jones. Truly, what was in front of me was absolutely breathtaking.
As we slowly made our way through the foggy path inside the cave we didn’t encounter a single soul. Remarkable. It seemed we had this enormous cave all to ourselves. The air was warm and thick with humidity. The path was dimply lit by battery operated spotlights. The whole place looked like one of the film sets I would work on back in Toronto. I think building and painting film sets for over a decade had taken some of the awe out of my ability to take in sights like this. It just didn’t seem real. We passed an altar to the Chinese Goddess and heard voices around the corner. Peeking through the altar I saw two Balinese men perched up on a rock. They saw us and motioned for us to come over with friendly faces. They were dressed in traditional white ceremonial garb. One of the men held a basket containing fruit, and various items of food - traditional temple offering fare. The man looked at me with doe eyes and proceeded to grab items from the basket and offer them to me. I thought it rude to refuse so I accepted a tangerine and we sat with the two men making casual conversation about where we had come from and where we were going. As I finished my tangerine, an egg was offered, I accepted. After the egg I was offered a pack of cookies. It seemed like our new friends really wished for us to stay and keep chatting with them but I was ready to explore further. We bid the men farewell and thanked them for the food (they ended up gifting us with nearly half the basket). “I’m pretty sure that guy on the left is in love with you, did you see the way he looked at you”, Lou burst into giggles. “Oh stop it, they were just being nice”, I gave her a gentle bump with my shoulder.
Lou and I walked the length of the temple, coming out to a small clearing on the other side, facing the jungle. The cave opening was much larger than the literal hole we crawled through to get in. I wasn’t ready to leave. “Lets go back, I want to meditate, this place feels super charged”, I motioned to Lou. We tracked back through the dimply lit fog inside the cave and I found a stone to sit on. I closed my eyes and retreated in meditation. I want to say that I was surprised as to what happened next, but feeling how special this temple was, I wasn’t really all that shocked when I was able to drop into trance and clear my mind within mere seconds of sitting down. After about a minute I felt electric jolts running up and down my spine. The energy in this place was something else. As a clairsentient, I was picking up on all sorts of frequencies. I felt surrounded by really powerful spirits. I wouldn’t say that all of them carried energy that I would necessarily describe as ‘light’. Some of it felt quite dark, but I wasn’t frightened. The Balinese celebrate the balance of the two forces - light and dark. Present in all beings in this universe and beyond. After about fifteen minutes I opened my eyes and took in the space again. Honestly, I didn’t want to leave. Lou and I met up and walked around some more before finally heading back to the entrance crawlspace. The shape of the cave reminded me of a large long intestine, with fairly flat caving walls on either side, but as we headed for the entrance we noticed a dark opening in the right wall, like a passageway of sorts leading out of the main area. Of course I had to go and see what it was. We slowly approached the opening. It was pitch black but I could see that it led downwards. I leaned in as Lou grabbed my hand. “Hey, I don’t think this is a great idea Dee”. "
“You know what? The shape of this opening really reminds me of a woman’s ….”, as I spoke those words a chill ran through me and in the same second I heard a deep menacing guttural grunt coming from the hole”. I stood with baited breath and turned to Lou. She stood there absolutely pale. “Did you hear that”, I asked her, already knowing the answer. She nodded. “I think we better go, I think I know how this movie ends”, I studdered. We picked up the ends of our sarongs and ran towards the crawlspace, sliding through with record speed. My heart was pounding. “What was that??!” “I think something is down there”. We crawled up the rabbit hole and out into the blinding sunlight both laughing like maniacs. “Christ … that was …. what was that …”
All I knew was that whatever we heard, it didn’t sound at all human. It was what I felt in my body when I heard that grunt that still gives me chills. On the other hand, what an epic way to end a trip to a dark temple hidden inside of a mountain. I couldn’t have written the ending better myself, haha. Really, if you are ever in Nusa Penida, you must see the Goa Giri Putri Temple. It’s unbelievable, powerful and completely otherworldly. Maybe skip the mysterious dark hole in the wall on the way out and stay on the dimply lit path. I guarantee it’ll be a memory you’ll never forget.
In Partnership with Tropical Nomad Coworking Space