Mount Agung

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Pura Besakih, the mother temple of Bali, on Mount Agung, Bali, 14th century. In the centre is the 11-story meru dedicated to Shiva.

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Mount Agung

volcano, Indonesia

Also known as: Bali Peak, Gunung Agung, Piek van Bali

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Indonesian:: Gunung Agung (“Great Mountain”)

Dutch:: Piek Van Bali (“Peak of Bali”)

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Mount Agung, volcano, northeastern Bali, Indonesia. The highest point in Bali and the object of traditional veneration, it rises to a height of 9,888 feet (3,014 meters). In 1963 it erupted after being dormant for 120 years; some 1,600 people were killed and 86,000 left homeless.

According to one Balinese myth, the deities made mountains for their thrones and placed the highest, Mount Agung, in Bali. According to another myth, the deities found the island of Bali unstable and wobbling and, to still it, set down upon it the holy mountain of Hinduism, Mahameru, renamed Gunung Agung. To the Balinese the mountain became the “Navel of the World,” and in every Balinese temple a shrine is dedicated to its spirit. Such religious items as temple offerings and cremation mounds are shaped in the form of mountains out of reverence for the volcano. The mother temple of Bali, Pura Besakih, lies on the slopes of Mount Agung.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica