Perched on the rim of the volcano Mount Batur, overlooking the crater lake, stands the supreme water temple, Pura Ulun Danu Batur. The temple is a collection of nested stone courtyards enclosing towering shrines and pavilions dedicated to the worship of a pantheon of 45 deities, foremost among them Dewi Danu, Goddess of the Lake.
Every year, priests from the temple send handwritten invitation letters to hundreds of subaks and villages, asking them to bring offerings representing their harvests to celebrate the origins of goodness, pula kerti, as the new year begins after Nyepi. For 10 days, the temple comes to life with processions of deities escorted by dozens of village gamelan orchestras, accompanied by poetry readings and performances of dance and shadow puppets. Each subak brings its own offerings, shared in the temple storerooms, and receives a sacred bamboo container filled with holy water, representing the blessing of the Lake Goddess and her sister deities.