In Reply to: Temple Ceremony Visit posted by tby on Thursday, 4. November 2004 at 12:55 Bali Time:
As you probably know already, temple anniversaries are called 'odalan'. They are held every 210 days, if set by the Pawukon calendar (most), or once every lunar year, if it is set by the Saka calendar. The date for the two temple anniversaries you are referring to, Pura Dalem Samparangan and Pura Agung, happens to be December 15.
The odalan celebrates the anniversary of its dedication. It usually lasts three days, but sometime a week or longer. Few last one day.
During the odalan, you would want to visit the temple in the middle of the afternoon, when the women bring the offerings and the people come to pray. You could also go into the late evening, around 8:00 or 9:00, because usually it is when there will be dances. These dances are also offerings.
If you are going to enter the temple, you must dress appropriately. If you just want to see the dances, since they are held outside the temple, no special dresses are required, but it does not make much sense to me not to dress properly in any case.
Any tour agent can organize the visit to the odalan, but all you need is a car and a driver to go there. Just make sure the driver knows the location of the temple. But even if the driver does not know, is not about to let you know and loose the work. He will drive to the village in question and once there, will have no problem finding the temple.
Which Pura to go to? That question is irrelevant, as you do not know in advance how big the ceremonies will be (it varies from year to year), but at large temples, it's usually quite spectacular. My favorites are the odalan at Pura Taman Pule, Pura Taman Ayun, Pura Petilan Pengerebongan, and best of all Pura Panti Timbrah.