Taman Ujung Water Palace

About this place

Taman Ujung, formally Taman Soekasada Ujung, is the former water garden of the rajas of Karangasem, near the coast just south-east of Amlapura in eastern Bali. Broad ponds crossed by bridges to white pavilions cover nearly 60 per cent of its nine or so hectares. It still belongs to the heirs of Puri Agung Karangasem, the royal house. The last raja, Anak Agung Anglurah Ketut Karangasem, enlarged the Kolam Dirah, a pool of 1901 that local tradition links to punishing people accused of black magic. Work began in 1909 by most accounts and ran into the 1920s. A Dutch and a Chinese architect worked with Balinese master builders, mixing Balinese ornament with colonial and Chinese forms. Badly damaged by the 1963 eruption of Mount Agung and an earthquake in the 1970s, it was restored in the early 2000s, partly with World Bank funds. The main building, the Bale Gili, the raja's white-walled resting pavilion, sits in the northern pond, reached by a bridge through Balinese carved gateways. The southern pond holds the Bale Kambang, once a banquet pavilion; rhinoceros and bull statues spout water into the ponds. Stairs on the west side climb to the Bale Kapal; higher up, rice terraces and Mount Agung lie one way and, on clear days, the sea towards Lombok the other. Tirta Gangga, the same raja's later water palace, lies 7 km away in a straight line and Lempuyang Temple 8 km, so all three fit one day in east Bali. Allow about an hour, and come early or late: shade is scarce.