|
Gunung Kawi
From the lookout above
a long stairway, ghostly habitations appear
on the far side of the valley. The young
River Pakrisan bubbles down over boulders,
as it winds through the rice terraces.
This is the striking setting of Gunung
Kawi, a complex of rock-hevvn candis
and monks' cells.
Legend has it that the
gigantic strongman Kebo lwa carved out
all the monuments one night with his fingernails.
Remarkably preserved in their deep niches
over 7 meters high, they are only facades
without interior chambers. There are ten
in all-the main group of five east of
the river, a group of four west of the
river, and one by itself at the southern
end of the valley.
Each
has a complex of monks'calls nearby.
The candis however were not places
of burial, but served as memorials to
deified royalty. Short inscriptions
on some of the candis have enabled
archaeologists to attribute them to
the end of the 1 1 th century, soon
after the death of Anak Wungsu in about
1077. But the identity of the kings
and royal spouses honored there has
not been determined with certainty.
One theory says the main group of five
candis honored Udayana, his queen,
his concubine, and his two sons, Marakata
and Anak Wungsu. Another theory suggests
they honored Anak Wungsu and his royal
wives; Thegroup of fourcandis isthoughttoenshrine
Anak Wungsu's concubines. The tenth
candi honors a high state official.
Perhaps
Anak Wungsu ordered the Gunung Kawi monuments
sculpted at a place where he himself used
to meditate. Similar though smaller rock-hewn
candis and monks' cells have been
discovered in other parts of this central
heartland of the Pejeng kffigdom, several
of them also on the River Pakrisan. By
the suspension bridge at Campuan, Ubud,
are a couple of cells. In th6se times
the monastic tradition must have been
strong.
|
