Attention please. This is an announcement to all scuba diving fans heading to Bali.
Underwater treasure: Divers explore Pemuteran’s new diving site (photo above and below), an underwater Balinese Hindu temple with a majestic split gate and statues of mythological creatures, 50 kilometers west of Singaraja, Bali. Courtesy of Jeff Mullins
Pemuteran, a small coastal village 50 kilometers west of Singaraja, has a new diving site.
It isn’t just another boat wreck either, but an underwater Balinese Hindu temple with a majestic split gate and statues of mythological creatures.
The underwater temple is the brainchild of Chris Brown, an Australian who has become an integral part of the Pemuteran community since 1991.
Brown, affectionately called Pak Nyoman, is considered part of the family. Ever since he moved to the once arid and poor village, Brown has been dedicated to conserving the village’s natural beauty as well as promoting the well-being of its people.
In 1992 he established Reef Seen Aquatic, a dive center focused on protecting the marine environment and empowering locals.
He later introduced various conservation programs, including the Turtle Project and Reef Gardeners, designed to increase the locals’ awareness of the importance of conserving nature as well as to mobilize their support.
The Reef Gardeners program, for instance, provides international-standard scuba diving training
for local anglers so they can protect coral reefs from predators like Crown-of-Thorns starfish. These trained gardeners once took 75,000 of these starfish out of the Pemuteran reefs.
The program achieved all its objectives: protecting the reefs, mobilizing local support and pro-viding a new source of income for local fishermen. In the long run, it will also ensure Pemuteran’s stock of fish remains abundant and varied.
Brown said it had been difficult to convince the locals at first.
Anglers were accustomed to fishing using poison and explosive materials.
Gradually, with assistance from environmentally friendly businessmen, including Agung Prana who owned a major resort there, Brown managed to win the locals’ heart and support.
“Nowadays, we work together — hotel owners, the community and fishermen — and everybody is
committed to protecting and conserving the environment and marine biodiversity of Pemuteran,” Brown said.
By using Biorock, a technology developed and patented by architect Wolf Hilbertz and marine biologist Thomas J. Goreau, Brown and the local community are rehabilitating a vast plot of coral reefs damaged by destructive fishing practices.
Agung Prana then facilitated the establishment of Pecalang Laut, a traditional guard tasked with patrolling the offshore area of Pemuteran. The village gave the guard a special mandate to arrest fishermen using explosives or poison.
In 2005, this rehabilitation program received the Conservation Excellence Award from the ASEAN Travel Association and the Gold Award in Environmental Category from the Pacific Asia Travel Association.
Following the success of the conservation and rehabilitation programs, Brown and the locals developed Pemuteran into a world-class diving destination. Brown created three new diving sites with funding from AusAID.
The first one is a 30-meter-long Bugis ship known as Canyon Wreck, in Tangked Penyu. Locals also sunk a 24-meter-long Bugis ship and nine traditional boats in a second site known as Ships Graveyard.
The undersea temple garden is the third site in the program, near Bukit Ser, consisting of a sacred temple revered by the locals.
“The area is perfect for spiritual activities,” Brown noted.
Trained divers carried the temple’s full-size split gate part by part to the bottom of the sea. The divers also transported various sandstone statues, including an imposing Ganesha.
Upon completion of the project, the locals succeeded in transforming a 2,500 square meters of sandy seabed at 28 meters deep into a Balinese Hindu temple compound with a majestic split gate and 25 beautifully carved statues.
Soon after, numerous marine plants and aquatic creatures populated the compound, providing the temple with a unique and mesmerizing beauty.
“Several visitors have celebrated their wedding anniversary by renewing their wedding vows in this site,” Brown said.
