Gunung Kawi (Tampaksiring)

Gunung Kawi, near Tampaksiring in Bali’s Gianyar Regency, is an 11th-century funerary monument complex cut directly into the cliffs flanking the Pakerisan River, comprising ten candi (shrines) carved into deep niches roughly seven meters high in the rock face. An inscription at the north group of shrines reads “the king made a temple here,” and while scholars offer two competing theories about exactly which members of Bali’s Udayana royal dynasty the monuments commemorate — one attributing them broadly to King Udayana’s family, another specifically to King Anak Wungsu and his queens — the site is understood as a royal memorial complex from the height of the Warmadewa dynasty’s rule.

Popularly known as the “Valley of the Balinese Kings,” Gunung Kawi is reached by descending some 300 stone steps into the river valley, and its dramatic rock-cut facades set amid rice terraces make it one of Bali’s most visually striking ancient monuments. It is commonly visited together with the nearby Tirta Empul water temple, and while it functions today primarily as a heritage and pilgrimage site rather than a temple with an actively worshipped installed deity, it remains deeply significant to Balinese understanding of the island’s sacred royal history.