A Symbolical Model of Together in Difference: Classifying Tri Dharma Temple Architecture in Bali

The Chinese-Balinese have maintained and negotiated their Chinese identity within Bali's broader socio-cultural and political contexts and this study analyses how their identity is represented in Tri Dharma temple architecture. As they have been in Bali for generations, the Chinese have adapted to Balinese culture and society in multiple ways, and also involved in responding to the shifts of political attitudes towards ethnic Chinese under successive Indonesian regimes that have viewed the Chinese people as ‘the Other'. These responses have influenced Chinese-Balinese ways of maintaining and developing Chinese belief systems and architecture. This study focuses on the exploration and explanation of the widespread cross-cultural phenomenon of Tri Dharma temples in Bali. On-site surveys of the Tri Dharma temples' architectural forms in Bali have also been conducted, which lead to classifying the Tri Dharma temples according to their cultural and architectural characteristics that are the core of this study. Representative examples from each classification were selected as case studies, to illustrate how the processes of intercultural and political negotiation can be read in Chinese-Balinese architecture. This study, therefore, provides an understanding of how cultural negotiating processes contribute to maintaining and adapting cultural identities in everyday lives that would also be relevant to other intercultural built environments.