Pura Mandaragiri Sumeru Agung

Pura Mandara Giri Semeru Agung, on the slope of Mount Semeru — Java’s highest peak and an active volcano — near Senduro village in Lumajang Regency, East Java, was initiated in 1970 by the local Hindu community of Desa Senduro, with support from the Bali provincial government and under the local leadership of Pandita Sardjo Atmo Suryo Kusumo, a descendant of Ki Demang Tompokerso. Construction was completed in July 1992 with substantial additional support from wealthy Balinese donors, even though, at the time of completion, only a small number of local families in the area formally identified as Hindu; Wikipedia’s account of Hinduism in Indonesia counts it among several new Hindu temples built in eastern Java during a modern revival of Hindu practice there.

The temple’s mountainside setting on Semeru situates it within a broader Javanese and Balinese tradition of associating sacred mountains with the cosmic Mount Meru of Hindu cosmology, echoing the older mountain temples of Bali such as Pura Besakih on Mount Agung, already documented elsewhere in this directory. It now serves as a symbol of the religious tolerance maintained by the Senduro community and as an annual pilgrimage destination for Balinese Hindus, who travel to the site each year for its Piodalan (temple anniversary) ceremony.