Pura Dalem Tunon Pejaten: Tabanan Guide

Pura Dalem Tunon Pejaten is a temple in Pejaten village, Kediri district, Tabanan regency, dedicated to Shiva as ruler of the afterlife and purifier of souls. It is a village death temple in the Balinese sense: the place where the village honours the dead, prepares for cremation and asks for the purification of the souls that pass through its ceremonies. Visitors come to see a traditional village temple with a gateway, a main courtyard and a long ritual calendar, and they find a temple that still works as the centre of village life.

Pura Dalem Tunon Pejaten and its village setting

Pejaten lies in the Kediri district of Tabanan, on the western side of Bali, in a landscape of rice fields, dry-land gardens and tall trees. The village has a long craft tradition, and it is known for pottery and terracotta tiles that carry figures of gods and of the heroes of the wayang shadow theatre. That craft history gives the village a visible identity, and the temple sits within it as the place where the community gathers for the work that matters most to it.

The temple is surrounded by greenery and tall trees, which gives it the shaded, enclosed feel typical of older village temples. The trees are not decorative. In the Balinese village system they shelter the sacred ground and mark it off from the working fields and roads outside, so the approach to the temple usually changes the moment a visitor walks under the canopy.

What the name Tunon means

The name is linked to the Balinese word tuun, meaning to descend. The explanation given for the name is that the temple is a place where divine energy and blessings come down to those who seek them. This is a local interpretation rather than a fixed etymology, but it fits the way Balinese temples are understood: the shrines are places where the gods are invited to come down and rest during ceremonies, and the name expresses that invitation in a single word.

A visitor who hears the name explained by someone in the village will often hear it as a reminder of the temple’s purpose rather than as a historical claim. The temple is a meeting point between the people of Pejaten and the powers they worship, and the name describes that meeting.

Shiva as lord of the afterlife at this temple

The temple honours Shiva in his role as lord of the afterlife and as the purifier of souls. This is the defining function of a Pura Dalem. The Dalem temples of Bali are closely tied to death rituals, and they are commonly paired with Durga, Shiva’s consort, who is closely associated with death and with the protection of the community against harm. Pura Dalem Tunon Pejaten follows that pattern: its ceremonies are concerned with the passage of the dead and with cleansing the village of the impurity that death brings.

In practice this means the temple’s prayers are oriented toward the dead and toward the community’s need to release them properly. A visitor who understands this will see the temple’s architecture and rituals as a set of steps in a single process, rather than as a collection of separate features.

The gateway and the main courtyard

The temple’s entrance is a candi bentar, a split gate made of two halves that stand apart. In Balinese temple design the gate marks the boundary between the ordinary world and the sacred ground, and passing through it is a deliberate step from one to the other. Visitors notice the gate first, and it is worth stopping to look at the carving on it before going further.

Beyond the gate lies the main courtyard, known as the pelataran jeroan. This is the working heart of the temple. It holds several pelinggih, the shrines where offerings are placed and where the gods are invited during ceremonies. The courtyard is where the community sets out its offerings and prayers, and it is also where most of the activity of a major festival takes place. The architecture is traditional Balinese, with stone and wood carvings that carry symbolic meaning, and the carved surfaces repay a slow look.

The number of shrines and the courtyard’s dimensions are not known with confidence, so no count is given. A visitor who wants to know the layout in full should ask someone from the village to walk them through it, which is also a good way to meet the community.

The temple’s piodalan and its ritual calendar

The piodalan, the temple’s anniversary festival, falls every 210 days by the Wuku calendar, the Balinese calendar of thirty weeks that runs alongside the lunar and solar counts. Because the cycle is 210 days, the piodalan does not fall on the same date each year, and the community follows the Wuku calendar to know when it is due. On the piodalan, devotees come to the temple to seek blessings, protection and prosperity for the village, and the ceremonies mark the renewal of the temple’s spiritual work.

The temple hosts prayers and rituals for the village cremation ceremony, known as ngaben desa, which is held for the community’s dead as a shared undertaking. Ngaben is one of the most visible rites in Bali, and at a village level it is a collective act in which the whole community takes part. The temple’s role is to purify the souls of the ancestors so that the cremation can take them on properly, and that makes the temple central to the cremation cycle rather than peripheral to it.

Before Nyepi, the Balinese day of silence that marks the new year, the community holds a melasti ceremony at the temple. Sacred objects are taken from the temple to the sea or to a river to be purified, and the temple is the starting point for the procession. The melasti is one of the most striking public rites in the Balinese year, because the procession moves through the village and out toward the water, and it shows the temple’s role as the origin of the village’s sacred cycle.

Where the temple sits in the Kahyangan Tiga

The three are the Pura Desa, which is linked to the village’s ceremonial life and to Brahma as creator, the Pura Puseh, which is dedicated to Vishnu as preserver, and the Pura Dalem. Together they keep the spiritual balance of the community, and the Pura Dalem is the one that handles death and cremation.

The Pura Dalem is traditionally placed toward the sea, often close to the cemetery, while the Pura Desa sits at the centre of the village and the Pura Puseh lies toward the mountain. Villages in Bali are not identical, and some have more temples than the three, but the Pura Dalem is almost always kept separate from the others.

The origins of the temple are described in local folklore as going back to the ancient Bali era. No founding date, builder or specific historical episode is known for the temple, so its antiquity should be understood as village tradition rather than as a dated fact.

Visiting Pura Dalem Tunon Pejaten respectfully

Opening hours, admission arrangements, directions beyond the village and a written dress code are not known for this temple. A visitor should therefore expect to behave as they would at any working Balinese temple. Dress modestly, with a sarong and a sash, since that is the normal expectation at a Balinese temple, and carry a spare set so that you are ready if the temple’s helpers ask you to change or cover up.

Keep to the outer parts of the temple unless someone from the village invites you further. The inner shrines and the courtyard during ceremonies belong to the community, and a visitor who walks into a ritual without understanding it will be a distraction. Speak quietly, avoid climbing on the walls or the carved gateway, and ask before photographing people at prayer. Photographs of the gateway and the courtyard are usually fine outside ceremony times.

Visit on a quiet day rather than during a major festival unless you have been invited. The temple’s calendar is set by the Wuku cycle and by Nyepi, so the most useful question to ask anyone in the village is when the next piodalan or melasti will be held. Asking that question shows interest and gives you a reason to come back.

Places to combine with a visit in Tabanan

Pejaten is one village within the Kediri district, and the Kediri district guide places it among the other villages of the area. The wider regency is covered in the Tabanan regency guide, which explains how the temples, rice country and west coast fit together. A visitor who wants to see another Pura Dalem in the regency can read about the Pura Dalem Purwa Kubontingguh, a temple with its own ritual calendar and architecture, and the Pura Luhur Dalem Segening, the temple near the Sisian coast.

For the regency’s town, the Tabanan town guide covers the regency capital, which makes a practical base for a day of temple visits. Pairing the village temple with the town and with one of the coastal or hill temples gives a fuller sense of how the regency’s temples are spread across its different landscapes.

Planning a Pejaten temple visit

The temple is worth visiting for what it shows about how a Balinese village organises death, cremation and purification. The gateway, the courtyard and the shrines are the visible parts, but the real content of the temple is the calendar of ceremonies that the village keeps. A visitor who understands the Wuku cycle, the ngaben and the melasti will see the temple as the working centre of the village rather than as an isolated monument.

Dress in a sarong and sash, and carry a spare set.
Keep to the outer areas unless invited further, and avoid entering ceremonies uninvited.
Ask the village when the next piodalan or melasti falls, because the Wuku calendar sets the dates.
Photograph the gateway and courtyard outside ceremony times, and ask before photographing anyone at prayer.
Combine the visit with the Kediri district guide and the Tabanan regency guide for the wider picture.

A visitor who arrives with that preparation will find a village temple that holds together a craft village, a set of ancient traditions and a community that still looks after its dead in the old way.

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Pura Dalem Tunon Pejaten: Afterlife Temple of Kediri, Tabanan