Gunung Gangsir Temple lies in Gunung Gangsir Village, Beji Subdistrict, about 18 kilometers away from Pasuruan. The name of the particular temple, as a matter regarding fact, is Keboncandi Temple. Nonetheless, since the temple is tucked within Gunung Gangsir Village, local folks call it Gunung Gangsir Temple.

Little information is available concerning the temple. It is told the temple was built when King Airlangga was a student in reign, circa 11th century. Although the temple is believed to be erected earlier than the years of Singasari administration, Gunung Gangsir Temple was built using bricks, as an alternative to andesite rocks.


The function of the temple remains unclear, as residents hold their own version regarding it. According to local folklore, the temple was constructed in honor of Nyi Sri Gati, alias Mbok Randa Derma (the generous widow), for her noble deeds towards improvement of local agriculture. Nyi Sri Gati is a legendary character that includes a niche in local people’s cardiovascular.


Legend has it that years ago, the local people knew almost nothing about agriculture. They lived any nomadic life, moving around browsing for their main food, a particular kind of grass. One time, the food supply was quick. During the hardship, a woman arrived out of nowhere. The person, whose name was Nyi Sri Gati, invited the people to pray and have Hyang Widi (God) to bless all of them and help them find ways to deal with their famine problem. Shortly after they followed the woman’s suggestion, a flock of birds flew around with paddy stems into their beaks. The birds dropped the grains near the feet of those nomads. Nyi Sri Gati obtained the grains and planted all of them. After several months, the plants were wanting to be harvested. Nyi Sri Gati pounded the particular rice and cooked it. She also taught the nomads how to cultivate the land. The nomadic people became farmers from the time that, and they started to take in rice. Some of the grains dropped through the birds turned into jewels and also made Nyi Sri Gati any wealthy woman.


Gunung Gangsir Temple has never been renovated thoroughly. Although almost all of the construction remains intact, some aspects of the building have turned in to ruins. It is told that throughout the Japanese invasion, the temple had been heavily damaged. Many ornaments of the temple were taken by japan soldiers to finance the struggle. After the war was more than, local people, without prior information about how to renovate a temple, did as far as they might to mend the temple. For the reason that results, some of the bricks and ornaments look like out of their place.


The temple base is rectangular in form with dimension of 15 yards x 15 meters. The temple is 15 meters high. Inside the temple, there is usually a room spacious enough to accommodate 50 people. The entrance to the room is at the gulf side, 5 meters over the bottom. There used to be wide stairs to access the entrance. The stairs are now in ruins and it is difficult to walk through all of them.



Above the entrance, to the particular left and right, there are generally niches for holding statues. The niches for the south side are damaged, even though the remaining ones at the north side remain visible.

The arched structure of bricks that forms the roof of the temple resembles the peak of the mountain. The top of the particular roof has crumbled, leaving only the supporting beams of the roof. Seen from the rear, the temple looks like a little hill of bricks. Although there isn't a niche to hold small figurines, the temple walls are furnished with some ornaments.

At the the surface of the stairway, on the left and also right sides, there are ornaments of the woman with a pattern regarding climbing plants. The ornaments were so carefully etched onto the bricks that they look like molded instead of engraved.