Banjar, Bali

Banjar is a small town on the coastal plain in North Bali. It was the seat of a semi-independent kingdom in the 19th century. The kingdom was ruled by a Brahman class who were literary scholars. In 1871, the ruling family of Banjar put up a fierce resistance to Dutch rule. It resulted in one of the first recorded puputan, or fight to the last, in Bali.

Among the sights in Banjar today is a Buddhist monastery known as Brahma Vihara Ashrama. It was founded by a local brahman, Bhikku Giri Rakhita, in 1970. The brahman had converted to Thai-style Theravada Buddhism, and introduced this form of Buddhism to Banjar with the monastery.

Another sight in Banjar is the hot spring, Air Panas, a local picnic spot for the locals. The sulphurous water of the hot spring spurts out of eight dragon heads into ponds. Considered sacred, the hot spring has its own temple built around it.

10 km from Banjar is the remote Bali Aga village of Pedawa. Just as the Balinese resisted Dutch rule, so did the Bali Aga resisted Javanese occupation, retaining their own Hindu beliefs which predates the form of Hinduism brought in later. As a result, the Hindu shrine of the Bali Aga is different from those of mainstream Balinese.

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

Destination Indonesia

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.