Meru tower

Meru tower or pelinggih meru is the principal shrine of a Balinese temple. It is a wooden pagoda-like structure with a masonry base, a wooden chamber and multi-tiered thatched roofs. The height of Meru towers represent the Hindu Mount Meru. Meru towers are usually dedicated to either the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon, the local pantheon, or a deified person.

Meru towers consist of a masonry base of about a meter height. Above this platform is a wooden chamber raised on stilts. The wooden chamber is surmounted by a series of fiber thatched roofs of diminishing size. The multi-tiered meru towers usually uses ijuk, which is black aren fibers as thatched roof material. Various sacred objects were buried or placed in parts of the meru.

A Meru tower is identified with the Mount Meru of Hindu mythology, the abode of the Hindu gods. They are always positioned in the innermost sanctum (jero) of a Balinese temple. Individual meru tower is dedicated to a specific Hindu gods, a deified ancestor, or to a local deity of a particular location or high geographical features usually a local mountain. The meru would serve as the "temporary palace" for the gods, which is based on a Balinese idea that a god would take a temporary palace in the meru during certain ceremony.

The multi-tiered thatched roofs is the most recognizable feature of the meru towers. The number of roofs is always odd and reflects the status of the deity to whom the shrine is dedicated. The lowest meru contains three tiers, while the most prestigious meru contains 11 tiers.

A three-tiered meru tower is usually dedicated to a deified ancestor. The central shrine of the Pura Luhur Uluwatu is a three-tiered meru tower dedicated to 12th-century reformer priest Dang Hyang Nirartha (later deified as Betara Sakti Wawu Rauh). The low-tiered meru towers of Pura Taman Ayun are dedicated to the old kings of the Kingdom of Mengwi. Other three-tiered meru is dedicated for the local god of Gunung Lebak, Bhatara Danu.

A five-tiered meru tower is dedicated to the god of Mount Agung, Bhatara Mahajaya.

An eleven-tiered meru towers is usually dedicated to the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. The eleven-tiered meru of Pura Ulun Danu Bratan is dedicated to Shiva and his consort Parvati. The Pura Meru of Lombok contains three meru towers dedicated to the Trimurti.

...
Wikipedia