Hinduism, with its origins dating back more than 12,000 years, stands as the oldest civilization in the world. Throughout history, it exerted a significant influence across various regions until the rise of Western Abrahamic religions around 2,500 years ago. Unfortunately, in many places they traversed, these new religions often disregarded or obliterated the rich ancient human heritage.

While situated in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, the island of Bali stands apart with over 90% of its population practicing Hinduism. In earlier centuries, before the arrival of Muslims in the 13th to 16th centuries, much of Indonesia followed the Hindu faith.

Among the captivating ancient Hindu temples found across Java and numerous other islands, Bali boasts the largest number of temples, including some extraordinary ones. One such marvel is the underwater “Deva Vishnu” temple, nestled beneath the ocean’s surface, approximately 90 feet deep near Pemuteran Beach in the northwest region of Bali.

This amazing building and architectural technology of “Sapantarma” was converted into a temple garden in 2005 to promote tourism in Indonesia. Recently, the Government of Vietnam, despite its official Communist doctrine, has developed many programs and projects highlighting Vietnam’s ancient religious heritage. Its scholarly and archaeological research and investigations are legitimate, and its conclusions are authoritative.

This discovery of a 5,000-4,500-year-old Vishnu sculpture is truly historic, shedding new light upon our understanding of the history of not only Hinduism but of the entire world.

A number of stories and pictures circulating online for a few years state that an ancient Hindu temple was discovered deep in the middle of the sea, off the coast of Pemuteran, Bali in Indonesia. It is also said that the amazing underwater temple was built about a thousand years ago and was converted into a Temple Garden to promote tourism in the year 2005. The facts claimed about the temple are not a hoax but a fact.

“Pemuteran is a small coastal village in the town of Bali, 50 kilometers west of Singaraja, Indonesia. Beneath the surface of its calm waters lies the underwater Balinese Hindu temple with a majestic split gate (temple structure) and statues of mythological creatures. The location named Tamapura (Temple Garden) was an idea of Chris Brown (affectionately called Pak Nyoman), an Australian who has been dedicated to conserving the natural beauty of Pemuteran village and the well-being of its people.”