Prasasti Blanjong is the site of one of the oldest man-made objects in Bali. Today I callled my friend mike who lives in Sanur, to see if he was interested in checking out Prasasti Blanjong. The small temple and shrine and Prasati Blanjong, are located on Jl. Danau Poso, across from the Circle K. There is no entrance fee, or indeed anyone else there. After a 10 meter pathway, you’ll come to a glass enclosed stone pillar, which is 2 meters tall and inscribed with ancient text. The middle section of the pillar is wrapped in cloth, but we did see extracts of the worn inscriptions.
Prasasti Blanjong is the oldest written history of Bali, dating back to 913AD. Not sure exactly what language is used on the pillar, most likely old Javanese (kawi), and it tells the story of a king who came from Java, in order to set up a Mahayana Buddhist government. Fascinating how Bali / Indonesia, had / has all these local belief systems, and has been influenced by various waves of cultural / religious movement, including Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam (when Scientology gets here I’m leaving). The glass casing was supposedly built in the 60′s, which is good. Mike and joked that it was just as well, as we definitely don’t want some rich art collector from California, snapping the thing up to stick in front of his gallery. Mike and I wore sarong out of respect, and the Prasasti Blanjong can be viewed in a little as 5 minutes.
