Historically, Mount Agung is considered sacred by the Balinese people. Pura Besakih around Mount Agung is proof. The temple is believed to be an intermediary place for the gods to the top of Mount Agung. The peak is often symbolized as the palace of the gods. Even though the Balinese live on an island, they are more familiar with the mountains than the sea.
"But a much more important reason is because Bali's social space is governed by a cosmos arranged hierarchically, based on the complementary contradiction between the 'upper world' (kaja), encompassing Mount Agung as a sacred mountain, the source of fertility and life, the dwelling place of the gods and deified ancestors. And the 'underworld' (kelod), namely the direction of the sea, where the demons are, marked by diseases and death, "Michel Picard, in the book Bali: Cultural Tourism and Tourism Culture (2006)....
The eruption of Mount Agung left 1,549 people dead, 1,700 houses destroyed, 225 thousand people lost their livelihoods, and 100,000 people had to be permanently displaced. Another impact, eight bridges were destroyed and an estimated 316,518 tons of food production were destroyed....
“The catastrophe of the eruption of Mount Agung, the highest and most sacred mountain in 1963, is widely seen as the result of Soekarno and other secular figures in determining the time and structure of the ceremony. The mythology of the eruption of Mount Agung in the beliefs of the Balinese Hindu community is considered a bad omen of the destruction of the Balinese earth, "added I Ngurah Suryawan in the book Genealogy of Violence and Upheaval Subaltern: Embers in North Bali (2010)....
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