In the north of Bali, near the village of Bedulu, there is a Goa Gadzha cave surrounded by rice fields. According to archaeologists, the cave acquired its present appearance in about 1022. Although the cave itself is much older.
Its history, which dates back to the 9th century AD, is a mixture of ancient Buddhist and Hindu origins. Some researchers believe that Goa Gajah was dug by hand by Hindu priests and later used the cave as a refuge or sanctuary.
There are 15 niches inside the cave that could have been used for meditation and living. There is also evidence that the cave had a special religious significance among the early Buddhists: many Buddhist relics were found there. Goa Gadzha is still fraught with many mysteries and secrets, which have yet to be solved.
Of interest is the entrance to the cave - it is a large stone bas-relief, carved into the rock, in the form of a demon's head, vaguely resembling the head of an elephant. The open mouth frames the very entrance to the cave.
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Researchers have not come to a consensus on how and why the cave got its name. According to one version, the bas-relief decorating the entrance could symbolize an elephant. According to another, the "elephant" cave is called because of the statue of Ganesha standing inside it, the Hindu god of well-being, depicted as a man with the head of an elephant.
If you walk through the cave, you can see three lingams (symbols) of Shiva - black cylinders half a meter high on one common pedestal in the eastern part of the cave.
The territory of Goa Gaj is not limited to the cave: next to the entrance to it there is a fountain with statues. The statues are female figures holding jugs in their hands, from which water is constantly poured into the pool. Historians believe that this pool could have been used as a bath for bathing before meditation. The first European set foot on the land of this part of Bali at the beginning of the 20th century, and the baths were found only during excavations in 1954.
There are many more interesting things to be found in Goa Gajah to shed light on the history of the Balinese who lived here almost a millennium ago.
