Location
The location of Kehen temple is 1 km north of Bangli town on a foot of a hill
overlooking the city, a high place which has good angle for viewing
the town and the environment. Bangli is the capital of second level government
under the province of Bali with population around 40.000 people. Bangli
city itself is 45 kms away from Denpasar city and 60 km from Kuta, 78 km
from Nusa Dua tourist resort, a city located on the highland and is the
highest city in Bali after Kintamani and Pupuan town. In the past this
route is believed to have been busy which is
disclosed by the inscriptions issued by the king starting from 998 AD. It
was probably not only accessed from north Bali from the port town of Manasa,
but also from Kuta after the 18th century as the main route of trade from
port of south Bali in Kuta to the port of North Bali the Pabean.
Pura Kehen
Kehen Temple is not new, it is for sure very old as it is
proved by an inscription issued by the king of Bali which is unseparable
from the record of Kintamani. The record about Kintamani and Trunyan
village has been found in the year of 911 AD mentioning the obligation of
the people of Trunyan to maintain a temple with the sculpture of Bhatara
Da Tonta. Around this year there are many inscriptions issued by the king
containing the regulation for the people living in Kintamani and the people
or Buddhist priests who come to the area. Among those inscriptions originated
from the era some mentioning the name of Kehen which is mentioned as Hyang
Api which language is in Sanskrit. It is no doubt that Hyang Api was meant
Hyang Kehen meaning temple of Kehen, as Api means fire, in Sanskrit fire is
Krn and in English is Kiln. It is a long tradition of Indonesian people
to translate the Sanskrit into Indonesian comparable word. The aspirate
" H " is changeable with " R " so, it denotes "
keren " or " kehen " We do no have enough information about
the objective of the establishment of the temple from the beginning which
whom was actually the temple has been dedicated, as if we see today the meaning
of Hyang Api is greatly changed already, as the dedication to certain Api
is associated with cock fighting, while the fact today the temple, as all
other temple of Bali has been oriented to the worship of Shiwaitic sectarian.
Temple Structure
Since the location of the temple is on sloping land, the zoning is constructed
into terraces, first 5 terraces represent the outer courtyard or "
jabaan ", the 6th and 7th terraces as the middle courtyard, and the
last 8th terraces is the central courtyard where the symbol of gods shrines
are exists. The whole pavilion in total are 43 shrines and supporting pavilions.
The biggest ritual for this temple is fall on Rebo Kliwon Shinta, a system
of date incorporated from Hindu Java calendar system which is consist of
30 months and every month consist of 7 days, just like Christian week days.
Rebo is Wednesday, Kliwon is one of the 5 system day organization, and Shinta
is part of Hindu Java calendar of year. Writer think this Hindu Java calendar
is not meant to organize the day other then to organize the rituals, as
the fact that 99% ritual in Bali based on these two system of day organization
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