Tanah Lot Temple

Tanah Lot is a 16th-century Hindu temple built on a rocky island just off Bali's southwest coast. At high tide it becomes an island; at low tide it is reachable on foot. From a helicopter, five minutes off the Nuanu helipad, you see what the crowds on the cliff cannot — the temple's full relationship to the Indian Ocean.

The name *Tanah Lot* literally means "Land in the Sea" in Balinese. The temple was founded by the travelling Hindu priest Dang Hyang Nirartha in the early 16th century, who is said to have spent the night on the rock and instructed local fishermen to build a shrine to the sea god Dewa Baruna.

It is one of seven sea temples ringing Bali's coast, each within sight of the next, that together form a spiritual chain protecting the island. Pilgrims still cross at low tide to receive blessings from priests at the foot of the rock; the temple grounds proper are reserved for worshippers.

The basalt outcrop the temple sits on began eroding in the late 20th century. A Japanese-funded restoration in the early 1990s reinforced about a third of the rock with synthetic material disguised to match the original stone; you cannot tell from the air, and unless you are standing right against the base, you cannot tell from the ground either.

The helicopter approach to Tanah Lot is one of the most photogenic on our Canggu coastline routes. At cruise altitude you see the temple's setting in full — the long curve of the Tabanan shoreline, the rice terraces stepping down to the cliff edge, and the temple itself as a single dark sculpture set in the silvery water.