My Experience in an Indonesian Temple

I had heard that there are many temples in Indonesia but this was not one of the famous ones, I actually stumbled on it by accident while touring a village outside Ubud. It had no ticket booth, just a stone gate and the faint smell of incense. I hesitated at the entrance but a man standing in the courtyard signaled that I should come in, he didn’t speak English so we resorted to sign language as my Indonesian did not extend beyond ‘halo, selamat siang, selamat malam and apa kabar”

He pointed to a sarong and sash, mimed wrapping it around my waist and nodded when I did. I sat and had a good meditation. No one tried to sell me anything or asked where I was from. I was just a person sharing a quiet space for a moment. I learnt that you don’t always have to understand a place to fully respect it and benefit from it, you can be changed just by sitting still in it.