BALI TOURISM |
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Goa Gajah, also known as the "Elephant Cave", located east of Peliatan, close to Ubud, in the center of the island of Bali. The cave Goa Gajah dates back to the 11th century and was discovered in 1922. The entrance to the cave is a relief of dangerous creatures and demons with wide open, threatening mouth. They thought it suggested an elephants mouth. Hence the name Elephant Cave. Others claim that the gaping mouth is the entrance to the Hindu god of the earth Bhoma, while others say that the mouth is part of the child-eating witch Rangda in Balinese mythology. This place is already mentioned in the Javanese poem Desawarnana, which was written in 1365.
Notable is the mix of Hindu and Buddhist elements. Around the year one thousand, the cave must have been used by Hindus; probably before by Buddhists.
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