Gunung Kawi

On both banks of the Pakerisan river in central Bali, nine shrines have been cut straight into the soft rock of the gorge walls. Each is set in its own deep, arched niche, some seven metres high, which shelters the carving from erosion, so the monuments look like tall temple facades set into the cliff. Four of them stand together on the west bank facing east, five on the east bank facing west, and the river runs between them through a green valley of palms and rice terraces. A long stone stairway of around three hundred steps leads down to the site from the village of Tampaksiring.

These are not temples in the usual sense but candi, memorial monuments, and they date from the 11th century, the time of the Warmadewa dynasty. They are generally linked with King Anak Wungsu, who ruled Bali while his brother Airlangga ruled East Java, and with members of his family. One theory holds that the five eastern shrines honour King Udayana, his Javanese queen Mahendradatta and their sons, while the western group is dedicated to lesser queens or consorts. An inscription in Kediri script over a false door reads haji lumah ing jalu, understood as "the king enshrined at Jalu". The word jalu is thought to echo the name of the Pakerisan river itself. Local folklore credits the work to Kebo Iwa, a legendary giant said to have scratched the shrines out of the rock with his fingernails in a single night.

Beside the western group, a monastery was also cut into the rock, with a courtyard, small cells with windows and openings in the roof that let in light and air. It was probably used for meditation. A short walk away across the paddy fields is a further niche known as the "tenth tomb", thought from a brief inscription to commemorate a high official. The Pakerisan valley is one of the oldest irrigated landscapes on the island, and its watershed is one of the components of the UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape of Bali's subak irrigation system, inscribed in 2012.

Getting there

Gunung Kawi is at Tampaksiring in Gianyar Regency, about 11 km north-east of Ubud. The nearest airport is Denpasar's I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS), about 39 km away.