Pura Candi Dasa Editorial Photo

The name Candi Dasa derives from the words cili dasa, meaning “ten children”. This temple, Pura Candi Dasa is dedicated to Bali’s goddess of fertility and is where Balinese Hindus come to pray to be blessed with an abundance of children. But there’s more to the story than that, which is usually the case with almost everything in Bali. As the story is related to Bali’s ancients, there was a goddess named Hariti who was infertile but wanted offspring to continue her godly bloodline. She fell in love with a handsome god but failed to provide him an heir. One day, she heard some Balinese people praying for rain and when she looked down from her perch in heaven, she saw a Balinese couple who offered their prayers, standing atop a high hill and addressing their prayers to the clouds. Sure, they wanted rain, but Hariti knew that they lacked much more. She knew that they were barren – unable to produce a child that they wanted so badly. The goddess took pity on them; their plight made her so sad that she began to cry and her tears fell as rain upon the couple. In the heat of the sudden passion of the moment, presumably caused by the magic raindrops, the couple made love right then and there. 4/1/2017