Pura Kehen in Bangli Bali

A cultural tour in Bali can be made interesting by hitting a few places in one day. After Barrie, Candika and I visited Pura Goa Lawar, Taman Gili & Kerta Gosa we headed along the main road from Klungkung towards Gianyar and on the way turned north to Bangli.

The drive was about 15kms and took about 25 minutes accounting for hold ups.

Our goal was Pura Kehen which is one of Barrie’s favourite temples in Bali. The temples is open daily 8am – 5pm, 2,600rp and 1,000rp for parking. The temple was built in 1206 although the site was used for worship long before that.

Barrie told me before that this temple has some special features and that the site is spectacular because of the hillside, the forest behind and the amount of plants that surround it.

The parking area was quite empty when we arrived with the last your bus about to leave. A set of warungs sit across from the temple and the vendors tried to interest us a sarongs. Once again bringing our own sarongs and sashes was well worth it.

Temples in Bali do have a common design although not always the same. Generally there is an outer, middle and inner courtyard and the inner courtyard is accessed through a ‘kori agung’ (stone capped gate) while the middle courtyard is accessed through a ‘candi bentar’ (split gate). Here at Pura Kehen I didn’t notice a middle courtyard and the gates are the opposite way around.

The outside decorations are great and a set of steep steps leads to the closed doors of the ‘kori agung’. Barrie pointed out the elephant sculptors and noted it was usual because Bali never had elephants (Bali never had monsters either but that didn’t stop the Balinese creating them in their imagination).

Passing through the ‘kori agung’ provides some drama and Barrie pointed out another strange feature of this temple, the location of the kul kul tower (the kul kul is the split log drum that summons people and is usually located in the right corner of the temple close to the entrance). The location was pretty much the same except that instead of a tower it was located high up in a banyan tree. You can just imagine a priest climbing up trying not to slip.

Barrie pointed out a small sculptor of Dewi Sri the Goddess of rice on the inside of the gate.

On the outside of the inner courtyard we saw that the wall of the temple was decorated with Chinese cups and dishes. I don’t know the significance of this.

The inner courtyard contains several roofed ‘meru’ including a very impressive 11 roofed meru, maintained very well with gold decorations and dedicated to Siwa. Barrie pointed out the giant turtle that the whole structure was built on as the Balinese believe the universe rests on the back of a giant turtle. There are other meru dedicated to mountain gods. The sacred mask used for Barong and other dances are stored in these smaller meru and a special ceremony is needed to take them out.

I noticed the swastika symbol used in decorations. This is actually Hindu symbolizing the ‘wheel of the sun’.

During our visit there were 3 other tourists and the place was very quiet. Across the street locals have set up warungs and I was able to use the toilet in one ladies house for 1,000rp.

Driving back to Kuta is a very easy, just head for Bangli, Gianyar then take the sharp lefthander switchback down the hill to Lebih on the coast. From there take the highway to Sanur and Kuta. The drive takes about 90 minutes.