--- title: Saka Museum: World’s Greatest Places 2024 description: Find out why Saka Museum is on TIME’s list of the World’s Greatest Places 2024. canonical: https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2024/6992403/saka-museum/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-07-25T10:53:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:33:02.231Z article:section: World og:title: Saka Museum: World's Greatest Places 2024 og:description: Find out why Saka Museum is one of the World's Greatest Places 2024 og:url: https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2024/6992403/saka-museum/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt931cb4173cd8b931/698a590a096a942c206b0bf4/worlds-greatest-places-saka-museum-2024.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Saka Museum: World's Greatest Places 2024 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Saka Museum: World's Greatest Places 2024 twitter:description: Find out why Saka Museum is one of the World's Greatest Places 2024 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt931cb4173cd8b931/698a590a096a942c206b0bf4/worlds-greatest-places-saka-museum-2024.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Jul 25, 2024 # Saka Museum Jimbaran, Indonesia by [Ashlea Halpern](/author/ashlea-halpern/) ## Ashlea Halpern  The Saka Museum at the Ayana Estate The Saka Museum at the Ayana EstateCourtesy Saka Museum On an island known for drawing sun-fried party people, some of whom might struggle to say what country Bali is in, a new cultural center is aiming for a smidge of enlightenment. [Saka Museum](https://www.sakamuseum.org/ "undefined"), named for the ancient Hindu solar calendar and located amid the verdant grounds of [Ayana Estate](https://www.ayana.com/bali/ "undefined") resort, but open to the public by reservation, celebrated its official launch in March, timed to the festivities its collection explores. Nyepi, the Balinese Day of Silence, is a holiday marking the Hindu-Balinese New Year that’s spent in prayer and meditation, when even the airport closes for 24 hours. Inside the multi-level museum, visitors can read Indonesian poetry on the walls, watch a documentary capturing the ritualistic magic of Nyepi, and view traditional Balinese calendars and sacred palm-leaf manuscripts called _lontar_. The collection also includes a gamelan and other musical instruments, a 19th-century star calendar created to predict the likely destiny of a person born on a certain day, and a duo of 17th-century celestial royal maidens carved from pink volcanic tuff stone. For its inaugural exhibition, “Walking Among the Giants,” the museum commissioned master artisans and community members to craft 10 stunningly detailed _ogoh-ogoh,_ the effigies depicting mythological spirits that locals parade through the streets on Pengerupukan, the day preceding Nyepi. Believers ward off the malevolent spirits by making as much noise as possible, thronging public squares to a thunderous soundtrack of singing and drumming. One particularly gruesome ogoh-ogoh, depicting King Ravana from the Hindu epic Ramayana, towers 36 feet high—the tallest in Bali. “We hope that all visitors, whether locals or foreigners, gain a deeper appreciation of Bali's rich contributions to world cultures,” says Marlowe Bandem, the museum’s cultural archivist. “This is not only about local pride but also recognizing and celebrating the global influence on Bali.” _Buy your copy of the World's Greatest Places issue_ [_here_](https://magazineshop.us/TIMEWGP24 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2024/6992403/saka-museum/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2024/6992403/saka-museum/"},"headline":"Saka Museum","datePublished":"2024-07-25T10:53:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:33:02.231Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2024/6992403/saka-museum/","keywords":["World's Greatest Places","franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt931cb4173cd8b931/698a590a096a942c206b0bf4/worlds-greatest-places-saka-museum-2024.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashlea Halpern","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashlea-halpern/"}],"creator":"Ashlea Halpern","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt931cb4173cd8b931/698a590a096a942c206b0bf4/worlds-greatest-places-saka-museum-2024.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/worlds-greatest-places/","name":"World's Greatest Places"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2024/6992403/saka-museum/","name":"Saka Museum"}}]}] ```