Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The Buddhist Temple on Jalan Damai
You find a lot of Chinese influence the culture of Bali – in the food, in the population and in the ground. Particularly in the North, where much of the food is Chinese in origin. Siobak, a stir-fried pork dish which Singaraja is famous for all over Bali, is basically a Chinese dish adopted into the Balinese cuisine many generations ago. You often find old Chinese coins in the ground – beautiful round metal coins with a square hole punched into the centre. The chinese used them for ballast on the boat journey and for currency when they arrived. And theres a big ethnic Chinese minority in Singaraja. The Chinese has been coming here for centuries.
In the 9th century AD there was a Chinese trading station where the village of Kalibukbuk lies today. In 1995 a group of archeologist started an excavation, on a totally unassuming piece of land, right next to Jalan Damai, the road leading up to Damai. 5 meters down they were rewarded with the find of old terracotta bricks. One of them had a mouth moulded onto it, the mouth of Buddha – they had found the remnants of an old Chinese temple.
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