In a similar way, in the Neolithic era certain megaliths served as seats of ancestors.

Here tower tip the symbols of the celestial mountain, meru, the seat of, the gods. With their roofs piled one upon another like a multi-storeyed building, they dominate the landscape of' Bali. A meru indicates the rank which its deity holds among tile other gods. The higher the god, tile more roofs there are. That number is always uneven, with the highest number being eleven. This elevent-storeyed meru is dedicated to Shiva, the Maha -Deva (Supreme Deity), who resides upon the Gunung Agung. Merus to Brahma and Vishnu have nine storeyed. The stone base is generally lavishly decorated with sculptures. in the uppermost storey stands all urn of clay containing offerings inscribed with magic words.

Next to the merus stand countless small shrines and recesses for offerings. The fact that on Bali art is closely connected with the religious outlook of the people is shown by the existence of a place of sacrifice to Deva Bagus Mantja Gina, tile tutelary deity of the five crafts: iron-copper- and gold-working, wood-carving and painting. Traces of Hinduism are indeed clearly apparent here, but the population has retained the primitive ancestor cult as the essential function of the temple. This is also quite clear from the fact that tile Balinese also has his own domestic temple, sanggah, with recesses for offerings and shrines for sacrificial acts required in the ancestor cult. But Hinduism has left its imprint on these domestic temple as is shown by the existence of sacrificial recesses, pasimpangan, for the Mountain God and the Sun God, Surya. The word pasimpangan means 'a place where one abides a while', i.e. where the deity stays temporarily amongst men during tile ceremony.

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