Ubud Monkey Forest, Sacred monkey sanctuary in Ubud, Indonesia
Ubud Monkey Forest is a wooded sanctuary in Ubud, Gianyar, where roughly 1,260 long-tailed macaques live among old stone structures and temple compounds. Several paths wind through dense rainforest with banyan trees, stone bridges and sculptures overgrown with moss and roots.
The three Hindu temples in the forest—Pura Dalem Agung Padangtegal, Pura Beji and Pura Prajapati—were all apparently built around 1350. Pura Dalem Agung, the Main Temple, stands in the southwestern part and is used to worship Hyang Widhi as Shiva. Pura Beji, a holy-spring bathing temple in the northwest, serves ritual cleansing, while Pura Prajapati in the northeast adjoins a cemetery where the dead await mass cremation every five years.
The place takes its name from the free-roaming primates that have been considered holy here for centuries and remain part of daily village life. Visitors can see worshippers praying at shrines while the animals move freely among them.
The entrance sits centrally in Ubud and is easy to reach on foot or by scooter. Bags should be closed tightly, as the primates try to grab food or shiny items.
There are five groups of monkeys, not four: one holds the area in front of the main temple, another the park's Michelin area, a third the eastern area, a fourth the central area, and the fifth lives around the cremation and cemetery ground. In the dry season groups must cross each other's territory to reach the stream, which brings them into conflict.
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