Mount Agung: The Navel of the World

Mount Agung [Balinese: Agung, from Javanese ꦲꦒꦸꦁ (agung), lit. 'grand, paramount' or 'the great mountain'] is an active stratovolcano on the island of Bali in Indonesia. Rising 3,031m over the Pacific Ocean, Mount Agung is the highest point on Bali, dominating the landscape of the island. Mount Agung is one of the hundreds of volcanoes that comprise the Pacific Ring of Fire. In the case of the volcanoes of the Sunda Island Arc, these were created by the subduction of the Australian plate in a northerly direction beneath the Sunda plate. As the Australian plate reaches depths of below 160km, it begins to melt, forcing molten matter to rise towards the surface, erupting and forming the volcanoes of the Sunda Island volcanic arc. Mount Agung was created by these processes, a product of a long history of recurrent eruptions.  As long as Bali has been settled, Mount Agung has been viewed as a sacred site by the people that lived around its slopes. When Hinduism came to the Indonesian archipelago in the first millennium, local beliefs surrounding this holy mountain took on its continually familiar form.

History, Hinduism and Spatial Orientation

Hindu cosmological diagrams, the cosmic tortoise (left) and Mount Meru (right) by Thunot Duvotenay, 1843. 

Mount Agung seen through the gate of Pura (temple) Lempuyang.

Mount Agung 50km away from Sanur Beach in the vicinity of the provincial capital of Denpasar.

Bali is a relatively small island in the Indonesian Archipelago, with an area of only 5,633 sq. km. Originally inhabited by aboriginal peoples of unknown origin, it was colonised around 2000 BCE by the sea-faring Austronesians, who would go on to settle much of the Southwestern Pacific. Since the 7th century CE, the animistic Balinese have integrated elements of Mahayana Buddhism, orthodox Shaivism and Tantrism to form the Balinese sect of Hindusim, that constitutes the only remaining Hindu stronghold in all of modern Indonesia. Bali in totality is a sacred cultural landscape. Four sacred mountains: Agung, Batur, Batukaru and Abang, form the sacred axis of the island, and the high-altitude volcanic freshwater crater lake of Batur is also regarded as sacred, since it is the ultimate source of the springs and rivers that irrigate the agricultural fields down on the coastal plains. However, no natural feature is more highly regarded than the highest point of the island, Mount Agung.

    Mount Agung is one of many mountains throughout Asia that local Hindus have identified as being an earthly emanation or manifestation of the cosmic mountain Meru, atop which heaven presides over the cosmos. One Balinese myth tells of how the Hindu gods made mountains for their thrones and placed the highest - Mount Agung - in Bali. Another myth recounts how Bali was once a flotsam mass, drifting aimlessly throughout the seas. Seeing this, the Hindu god Pashupati supplanted a fragment of Mount Semeru in Java (thought to be a protrusion of the cosmic mountain Meru) and planted it on the island to pin it down, thus creating Mount Agung. The Balinese believe that the mountain is the abode of Hyang Tolangkir or Batara Mahadewa, the supreme manifestation of the Hindu god Shiva. After Java fell to Islam in the 1500s, Javanese Hindus of the former Majapahit Empire began retreating into the mountains of eastern Java and migrating onto the adjacent island of Bali. This influx of Javanese settlers in the wake or Islamic conquest cemented Bali as a Hindu stronghold. The myth of Mount Agung as a fragment of the Javanese sacred mountain Semeru probably originated in stories transmitted by ex-Javanese Hindus. One can imagine how the transmigration of the cultural memory of their lost sacred mountain of Semeru to their new home of Bali would have enhanced the sacral power of Mount Agung, adding to an already rich tapestry of beliefs associated with it.

Summit shrine at the edge of Mount Agung's crater.

Mount Semeru (3,676m), the highest peak of Java.

    Mount Agung is perceived by Balinese Hindus as the "Navel of the World", stemming from the belief of Mount Meru as the spiritual axis of the universe. The Balinese obey the kaja-kelod system of geomancy. In the dramatic topography of Bali, all water flows from the mountain to the sea, kaja (toward the mountain) to kelod (toward the sea).  Because Mount Agung is such a central location, kaja is thus a variable direction defined in relation between oneself and the mountain. For inhabitants in northern Bali, kaja is south and to southern Balinese, kaja is north. For a Balinese person, to approach Mount Agung is to move towards clarity and holiness, since water is believed to be the purest at its source and the more chaotic the closer it gets to the sea. Therefore, everything in Balinese life is oriented according to the kaja-kelod axis. All buildings and temples on the mountain's slopes point towards its summit, all prayer is oriented towards the mountain, and even people sleep with their heads pointing towards the mountain. 

The two-opposition concept, kaja-kelod and kangin-kauh visualised.

Meru shrine towers at Pura Taman Ayun, Bali.

    Bali is also an island of temples, with at least 11,000 of all sizes and sectarian affiliations. Balinese temples incorporate concepts surrounding cosmology and geography into their architectural and ritual design. Instead of functioning as architectural enclosures, Balinese temples are usually large open courtyards with rows of shrines and altars dedicated to various deities. Regardless, in every Balinese temple there will at least be one shrine dedicated to the Great God of Mount Meru, Mahadewa. These shrines are called meru, symbolising the world mountain. Meru resemble pagodas in the shape of miniature peaks and are always constructed of an odd number - up to eleven - of thatched tiers. Additionally, temple offerings and cremation mounds are similarly shaped in the form of mountains out of reverence towards Mount Agung. Of all of Bali's temples, none is more spectacular than the mother temple of Bali, Pura Besakih, perched almost 1,000m high on the southwest slope of the sacred peak. Once a century, the great Eka Dasa Rudra festival is held there. One of the largest religious events in the world on the very infrequent occasions of its occurrence, hundreds of thousands of Balinese become active participants in processions, ceremonies and sacrifices to dispel the forces of evil, to purify all of existence and to bring harmony and balance to the universe.

Mount Agung rising over Pura Besakih.

Volcanism and the Sacred

Mount Agung erupting, 24 May 2019.

 After having been dormant for a long time, this year the mountain began to be alive again. In the first days of the activity earthquake shocks were felt after which followed the emission of ash, sand and stones. ~ Heinrich Zollinger, 1843.

Mount Agung is a highly active stratovolcano. It presents a deadly hazard to the one million people who live within a thirty-kilometer radius of the mountain. Between February and March 1963, Mount Agung became volcanically active again after 120 years of dormancy. On 17 March 1963, a paroxysmal eruption took place at a VEI rating of 5, this was one of the largest volcanic eruptions, and Indonesia's most devastating, of the 20th century. The eruption launched volcanic debris up to 10km into the air and creating an eruption column 19 to 26km high, sending massive pyroclastic flows rushing 12-15km down the south and southeast slopes of the mountain, killing up to 1,700 people and wiping many villages off the map. A further 200 people were killed by cold lahars, mudslides triggered by heavy rainfall after the initial eruptions. 

    While this occurred, the Eka Rasa Rudra festivities were underway. The festivities continued in spite of this natural disaster, even as heavy ash fell onto Pura Besakih, crushing several weaker structures made of thatch. In an otherworldly coincidence, the surges of lava that flowed down the mountain seemed to always miss, sometimes by mere meters, the Great Mother Temple of Bali. The sparing of the temple seemed miraculous to the Balinese. Many Balinese Hindus were convinced that the gods had performed an act of favour, demonstrating their awesome power yet preserving the holiest of Bali's temples.

    As Bali is one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Asia, Mount Agung has subsequently been opened to adventure tourism. In the pre-modern Bali, climbing Mount Agung was forbidden unless accompanied by a Hindu priest. While Hindu priests are no longer a necessary accompaniment, the Indonesian government has made it mandatory to hire a mountain guide in climbing the mountain. Even for foreign tourists, a range of religious customs still dictate how and when the mountain can be climbed. For instance, climbers are discouraged from carrying beef, pork and gold/jewelry onto the mountain, and the mountain is off limits to climbers on certain Hindu observance days.

    Volcanoes being volcanoes, the holiest of Bali's mountains continues to be dangerous. It last erupted between 2017 and 2019, causing some 40,000 people to be evacuated from 22 villages around the mountain while disrupting aviation in Bali and Lombok. Perhaps much of the sacred power that people ascribe to volcanoes can be surmised in its destructive power. As sources of nutrient-rich soils, as well as sources of fire and water, one can imagine how volcanoes represent the totality of life's cycles: birth, life, death, rebirth - in the Balinese Hindu sense.

Mounts Abang, Agung, and Rinjani from Mount Batur.

The summit of Mount Agung seen with Mount Rinjani (3,726m) on the island of Lombok in the distance.

Mount Agung east face.