Location
Pura Kehen is located only 1 km north of Bangli City on a foot of a hill overlooking the city, a high place which is a strategic place for viewing the surrounding. The city of 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. On the way from Bangli to Kintamani there are interesting places such as Pura Kehen itself, Panglipuran village, a typical Balinese highland settlement, Susut village known for it's meticulous bamboo basketry, and Kintamani with its surrounding. From Bangli city to Kintamani it is around 25 km ascending road with beautiful panorama. 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 city 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. The existence of Pura Balingkang is also a strong indication that this route was the main link between south and north Bali.

Pura Kehen
The existence of Kehen Temple is not new, but it is for sure very old as proved by an inscription issued by the king of Bali which is in separated with the record about 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 meaning fire in Sanskrit 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 is 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. And Shiwaitic sectarianism started far much later time. In the year of 1204, before Bali was annexed to great kingdom of Majapahit mentioned that the king of Bali and Hyang Kehen during the year was Sri Adi Kunti Ketana, and the bronze plate is preserved in one of the pavilion of Kehen temple, thus after 300 years later still continue to get attention of Balinese king. Starting 18th century when Bali broken into at least 10 small independence kingdoms, Kehen Temple become one of the three temple indicative for identification of a kingdom in Bali, and Pura Kehen is believed as the mountain temple of kingdom of Bangli.

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.