Within Balinese Hinduism, the divine world is understood as a layered and interwoven reality in which a supreme principle coexists with a rich array of local and ancestral powers. At the highest level stands Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, the all-encompassing divinity regarded as the ultimate source of existence and the unity behind all manifestations. This supreme principle is also expressed through localized forms of the Hindu Trimurti—Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva—who are closely tied to particular temples and directions on the island. In this way, the universal and the local are not opposed but mutually illuminating, each giving the other a concrete face or a deeper metaphysical ground.

Around this supreme center unfolds a complex world of guardian and territorial deities. The Dewata Nawa Sanga, the nine directional gods, protect the eight cardinal directions and the center, with deities such as Iswara, Mahadeva, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siwa understood in specifically Balinese ways as custodians of cosmic and island-wide order. At the same time, each village and temple recognizes its own tutelary powers, often referred to as Ida Bhatara or Bhatari, who dwell in particular shrines, mountains, forests, or springs. These beings may be experienced as deified ancestors, localized faces of greater gods, or protective presences that bind a community to its land.

Equally central are the deities of nature and fertility, whose worship permeates everyday life. Dewi Sri or Bhatari Sri, the rice and fertility goddess, is especially revered, embodying the life-giving power of the fields and the intimate link between spiritual practice and subsistence. Other Dewa and Dewi associated with water, mountains, and forests are honored as guardians of the natural cycles on which human life depends. Through offerings and ritual, these deities are approached not as distant abstractions but as immediate partners in the ongoing work of maintaining balance between humans, nature, and the sacred.

Underlying and surrounding all of this is the pervasive presence of ancestral and “Hyang” spirits. Terms such as Dewa Hyang, Pitara, and Sang Hyang refer to ancestral or primordial powers who protect lineages, houses, and villages, and whose shrines stand at the heart of family compounds and community temples. These ancestral beings are not sharply separated from the gods; rather, they form a continuum of sacred presence that links the living to those who came before and to the divine source that sustains all. In Balinese practice, the worship of Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, the directional deities, the nature goddesses, and the ancestral Hyang together creates a religious landscape in which the sacred is encountered in every direction and at every scale of life.