Basuki

Also Known As: Balinese and Javanese form of the Sanskrit Vasuki; also Naga Basuki, Naga Besukih, Sang Hyang Basuki and, on the Javanese shadow stage, Batara Basuki; the word also means safety or wellbeing in Balinese and Old Javanese
Region/Culture: Southeast Asia
Mythos: Indonesian Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Gods and Deities
Mythical Attributes: Basuki is the great naga who lives inside Mount Agung, guards a hoard of gold and gems in its crater, and stands for the water of the sea in Balinese cosmology.
Role in Mythos: He is one of the two serpents wound around the world turtle Bedawang Nala to hold the earth steady, and the dragon from whom Bali’s mother temple, Pura Besakih, takes its name.
Relation to Humans: The Balinese honour him at his own shrine, Pura Basukian, at the foot of the Besakih temple complex, and carve him on the base of their lotus-throne shrines. In the legend of the Bali Strait he pays a gambler’s debts with treasure and burns the same gambler to ash for cutting off his tail.

A brahmin sits on the cold lip of a volcano before dawn and rings a small bronze bell. The sound is thin in so much empty air. He says a mantra, rings again, and the ground answers. From the crater of Mount Agung a serpent rises, coil over coil, scales grating on the rock, and asks him what he wants.

That is how people in Bali meet Basuki, when they meet him at all. For the rest of the time he stays where he is, inside the island’s highest mountain, and holding still is his job. Balinese cosmology sets the world on the back of a turtle, Bedawang Nala, who floats in the fire under the earth. Two nagas are wound around the turtle to keep it quiet, because when it stirs the island shakes. One is Antaboga, who is the ground. The other is Basuki, who is the water of the sea. Their grip on the shell is all that lies between Bali and the next earthquake.

He can be seen in stone in almost any temple yard. The padmasana, the tall empty lotus throne raised for the supreme god, is a form the priest Dang Hyang Nirartha is credited with bringing to the island in the sixteenth century. At its foot lies the turtle with the two serpents knotted round it, heads lifted. The carvers give Basuki a crown and ear ornaments like a prince, a body ridged with scales, and a mouth full of teeth. Moss grows on him in the wet season and nobody minds.

His name is older than the island’s version of him. Basuki is how Java and Bali say Vasuki, the serpent king of the Indian epics who served as the rope when gods and demons churned the ocean of milk. The Balinese kept that story and then gave the snake a home address. In Balinese and Old Javanese the word basuki also means safety and wellbeing, so the dragon in the mountain and the hope of coming to no harm are spoken with one word.

The address is Besakih. Bali’s largest and holiest temple climbs the south-west slope of Mount Agung in terrace after terrace, and its name goes back to his. Near the bottom of the complex stands Pura Basukian, his own sanctuary, on the spot where tradition says the sage Markandeya first planted the holy ground and buried five metals in it. Close by, at the cave temple of Goa Raja, he is honoured with two other nagas, Antaboga and Taksaka, as earth, water and air. One telling says the mountain itself came from Java as a broken piece of the cosmic peak Mahameru, carried on the turtle’s back with Antaboga and Basuki lashed round it as ropes while Taksaka flew it across. On that account he did not move into Mount Agung. He arrived with it.

There is no story of his birth. The tellings start with him already in the mountain, already old.

The tale people know best begins in the kingdom of Daha in east Java, in the days when Java and Bali were one land. A brahmin named Sidi Mantra had a son, Manik Angkeran, who was clever and who lost everything he touched at the cockfights. When the debts could no longer be paid, the father fasted and prayed, and a voice told him of the treasure in the crater of Mount Agung. He walked east, climbed, rang his bell and spoke his mantra. Basuki came, heard him out, and shook gold and gems from his scales.

The son gambled it away. Then he stole the bell while his father slept and climbed the mountain himself. He did not know the mantra, but the bell was enough. Basuki listened to him too, lectured him, and gave him more. As the naga turned to slide back into the crater, Manik Angkeran saw the jewel shining at the end of the tail, and he drew his blade and cut it off. He ran. Basuki could not catch him. He lowered his head instead and licked the boy’s footprint, and far down the slope Manik Angkeran went up in flame and fell as ash.

Sidi Mantra came looking for his son and found a heap of cinders. He begged. Basuki named his price, which was his tail back. The brahmin joined it by his own power, and the naga breathed the boy alive again. The father had the last word. He told his son to stay on that side and begin again, and he drew the tip of his staff across the earth between them. Water welled up in the scratch. It widened into the sea that still divides Java from Bali, with the gambler on the eastern shore and his father on the western.

Java remembers the serpent in another way. On the shadow-puppet screen he is Batara Basuki, a white snake and a god of safety, who lives within the hero Baladewa and leaves his body at death.

What Basuki can do is large and slow. He holds the world turtle down. He keeps the wealth of a volcano and can scatter it from his own hide. His tongue kills along a trail, at any distance, and his breath brings the dead back. He is the sea, which on an island is nearly everything.

His limits are odd ones for a god. A bell brings him out, and it does not much matter who rings it. He can be robbed. A man with a knife took his tail, and he needed a priest to put it back. He is also bound to his post. If he lets go of the turtle, the island moves.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Basuki in Balinese mythology?

Basuki is a great naga, or serpent god, who lives inside Mount Agung, the highest mountain in Bali. He is one of the two serpents wound around the world turtle Bedawang Nala to hold the earth steady, and he stands for the water of the sea. His name is the Balinese and Javanese form of Vasuki, the serpent king of the Indian epics.

Is Besakih Temple named after Basuki?

Yes. The name of Pura Besakih, the largest and holiest temple in Bali, goes back to Basuki. Pura Basukian, a sanctuary near the foot of the temple complex on Mount Agung, is his own shrine.

What is the legend of Naga Basuki and the Bali Strait?

A Javanese brahmin named Sidi Mantra summoned Basuki with a bell and a mantra to get treasure for the debts of his son, the gambler Manik Angkeran. The son later cut off the naga’s jewelled tail, and Basuki burned him to ash by licking his footprint. After Sidi Mantra restored the tail and Basuki revived the boy, the brahmin drew a line with his staff that filled with water and became the Bali Strait.

What is the difference between Basuki and Antaboga?

Basuki and Antaboga are the two nagas coiled around the world turtle Bedawang Nala in Balinese cosmology. Antaboga stands for the ground and Basuki stands for the water of the sea. Both are carved at the base of the padmasana, the lotus-throne shrine found in Balinese temples.

Why are serpents carved on the base of Balinese shrines?

The turtle and two serpents at the foot of a padmasana shrine show the foundation of the world. The turtle is Bedawang Nala, who carries the earth, and the serpents are Antaboga and Basuki, who hold the turtle still so that the island does not shake.