Beyond Technical Conservation: Cultural and Religious Capital in the Restoration of Desa and Bale Agung Jero Kuta Temple, Batubulan, Gianyar, Bali

Restoration of Balinese temples has often been framed either as technical conservation or as ritual practice, resulting in limited integrative accounts of how architecture and interior design reproduce cultural and religious capital. This study addresses that gap by examining the restoration of the Desa and Bale Agung Jero Kuta temple in Batubulan, Gianyar, Bali, a temple central to indigenous governance and ritual life. Adopting a qualitative case study, the research combines participant observation of restoration rituals, documentation of architectural and interior interventions, and 15 semi-structured interviews with custodians, traditional leaders, artisans, and professional architects. Regulatory documents, drawings, and restoration records were also analyzed and coded through an iterative process (open–axial–selective) guided by Bourdieu's concepts of cultural, religious, and symbolic capital. Three key findings emerge. First, restoration regenerates communal memory, social cohesion, and spiritual legitimacy through ritual sequencing, symbolic authorizations, and the active roles of pemangku, sulinggih, and penglingsir. Second, interior spatialities, layouts, ornaments, open spaces, and pelinggih placements materialize Balinese Hindu cosmology (Asta Kosala-Kosali, Tri Mandala, Tri Angga, Tri Hita Karana) and serve as ritual arenas in which cosmological knowledge is embodied and reproduced. Third, restoration operates through hybrid governance that reconciles state regulations, expert assessments, and customary authority, producing outcomes that are technically accountable, culturally resonant, and spiritually legitimate. The novelty of this study lies in positioning temple restoration as an architectural–interior interface for living traditions, where symbolic capital is reproduced beyond material conservation. The findings contribute to Southeast Asian heritage debates by clarifying mechanisms linking ritual authority, interior symbolism, and community participation, while offering policy and design implications for sustainable sacred conservation that integrates technical feasibility with cultural continuity.