Odalan: Bali's Temple Anniversaries and How to Watch Respectfully

An odalan, also written piodalan or pujawali, is the anniversary festival of a Balinese temple. It marks the day the temple was consecrated, and for a few days the gods are invited to visit, the community gathers, and the temple fills with offerings, music and prayer. Bali has thousands of temples, with at least three in every traditional village plus family and clan temples, so an odalan is going on somewhere on the island almost every day.

If you live here, you will hear one before you see it: gamelan from the next village, a convoy of women with offerings on their heads, a street suddenly lined with decorated bamboo poles. This guide explains what is happening and how to be a good guest.

When an odalan happens

Most odalan follow the 210-day Pawukon calendar, which means a temple's odalan falls on the same day of the cycle every 210 days. A temple might celebrate on Buda Wage Kulawu. That was Wednesday 14 October 2026, it will be Wednesday 12 May 2027, and then Wednesday 8 December 2027. Others follow the lunar Saka calendar, with an odalan on a full moon (Purnama) or in a particular month.

A published list of temple anniversaries for October 2026 shows both kinds. It gives the date by its Pawukon name (Tumpek Wayang on 10 October, Buda Wage Kulawu on 14 October, Anggara Kasih Dukut on 20 October, Hari Raya Saraswati on 31 October) and also lists temples on Purnama Kelima, the full moon of 25 October. See the guide to the Balinese calendar for how those names work.

Large temples are on much longer cycles. Pura Besakih, the island's mother temple, holds enormous ceremonies only at long intervals. For some of these the Governor issues a circular setting rules for visitors in the sacred area, as he did for the Karya Ida Bhatara Turun Kabeh ceremony in 2023, 2025 and 2026. If you plan to visit a big ceremony, check the current rules first.

What happens

An odalan usually runs three days or more. The details vary with the temple and the village, but you will often see these elements:

• Preparation. For days beforehand, members of the banjar or clan make offerings, decorate the temple and set up penjor and banners. This work, called ngayah, is done as devotion, not for pay.
• Processions. Sacred objects and the symbols of the deities are carried in procession, sometimes to a spring or to the sea for purification. Women often carry tall towers of fruit and cakes on their heads.
• Prayer. Worshippers sit on the ground and pray in rounds, with flowers held between their fingers. A priest, either a pemangku or a higher priest (sulinggih), leads the prayers and gives holy water. Afterwards worshippers press a few grains of rice on their foreheads.
• Music and dance. Gamelan plays through the day, and dances are performed in the temple courtyard as an offering. They are for the gods first, and visitors second.
• Staying and closing. The deities are said to stay for a period. The closing ceremony, held after the last prayers, sends them back.

An odalan marks the anniversary of the temple, but it is a social occasion as well as a religious one. It is a time for neighbours, relatives and people from other villages to meet.

How to watch respectfully

You are welcome at many odalan, but you are a guest at a religious service, and the people there are praying.

Ask first. Ask the pemangku, the person at the gate or whoever invited you. Some odalan, especially at family or clan temples, are private. A polite question and a smile settle most doubts.

Dress properly. Wear a sarong (kamben) and a sash tied at the waist, with a neat top that covers your shoulders. Tourist temples lend or hire them. At a village temple, bring your own or ask a local shop. Keep clothing modest, and avoid shorts and swimwear.

Know where you may go. A Bali Governor's circular for foreign visitors says they should not enter the middle and inner courtyards of a temple except to pray in Balinese traditional dress. Many temples have an outer courtyard where the performances and crowds gather. Stay in the outer zone unless you are invited to pray, and follow the instructions of the temple officials.

Menstruation. The same circular says that the exception for prayer does not apply to anyone who is menstruating, and many temples ask the same of all women. If this applies to you, please watch from outside the temple.

Stay lower than the priest. Do not stand on walls or benches to take a picture. Do not place your head higher than the priest, the shrines or the people praying. Sit when others sit.

Do not walk in front of people praying. Wait until a round of prayer is over, or go around the back.

Photographs. Ask before you take pictures of people, and do not use flash. Keep your phone or camera low and stay out of the way of worshippers and the priest. Do not fly a drone over a ceremony. Some temples forbid photography altogether.

Do not touch. Do not touch the offerings, the shrines or the sacred objects, and do not step over offerings placed on the ground. Do not climb sacred buildings or sacred trees, and do not pose for pictures in revealing clothes at a holy place. The circular names these as offences.

Be quiet. Put your phone on silent, speak softly, do not eat or smoke inside the temple and do not use the temple as a photo backdrop for an event.

Join in if invited. If a family invites you to pray, follow their lead: sit as they sit, hold the flowers as they do, and accept the holy water and rice. If you do not want to take part, it is fine to decline politely.

Give something. A small donation (punia) in the box or to the pemangku is appreciated, and it helps pay for the festival.

How to find out when an odalan is

1. Ask. Your landlord, housekeeper, driver or neighbour will know which temples nearby are celebrating this week. Ask the pemangku for the temple's odalan day.
2. Read the street. Penjor and banners along the road, a decorated gate, women in kebaya carrying offerings and the sound of gamelan all point to an odalan.
3. Check the calendar. The Balinese digital calendar at kalenderbali.org has a monthly list of temple anniversaries and a search by temple name. The lists are not complete, but they name many temples, with the date given as a Pawukon name or a moon phase.
4. Do the arithmetic. If you know a temple's day, such as Buda Wage Kulawu, the next one is 210 days later.
5. Check the events calendar. The Bali Government Tourism Office publishes a yearly calendar of larger festivals. It is a good place to start for the big events.

If an odalan blocks your road

Processions and large odalan can close a street for hours. Pecalang direct traffic. Follow their signs, wait patiently and never drive through a procession. Plan to arrive earlier and to take another route.

A note for residents

If an odalan is held in your banjar's temple, you may be invited or asked for a small contribution. The banjar guide explains how this works. Staff in your house may ask for time off, and it is helpful to agree dates early. If you are asked to take part in a procession or to help with preparation, it is an honour, and it is fine to say no.