Balinese Life
Balinese Iconography
The Past and Today

The golden period of ancient Kingdoms in Bali handed down some valuable heritages. One of them is the art of sculpturing. Just have a look at the Gunung Kawi rock-cut sanctuary on the ravine rock stone close to the Pekerisan River or the Goa Gajah cave temple near Petanu River both in Gianyar. These historical relics have become timeless evidences that Balinese ancestors had a high sense of artistry. They featured a human message on lifelong quest of their inner self and spiritual bliss as both combine the sanctum and tranquil spiritual retreat for meditation.

Such artistry flair becomes heir to the sangging (Balinese traditional sculptor). In cooperation with the undagi (traditional architect) and other related parties, their masterpiece has been installed at myriad magnificent temples in and outside Bali or at buildings of government offices designed in the Balinese architectural style. Inspired by divine contemplation or puranic scriptures like the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, they accomplished to make numerous reliefs and effigies as the representation of deities, heavenly figures or even enriched with floral and faunal ornaments. Competence of these former sculptors were obtained through learning-by-doing process and supported by their taksu (divine inspiration). However, the young generation today have learned it from a formal vocational education.
No rarely, they had arranged the relief ornament hierarchically just like following the vegetation zone, starting from the life on earth up to the celestial life. In other words, life containing more earth elements (human & animal) presented on the bottom, followed by plants and then the life of birds (having less earth element, with air element inside that enables to fly) to angels, the heavenly inhabitants. When observing a temple, visitors will easily encounter a rich combination of these arts, still in relation to the spiritual quest of bliss helping the concentration of devotees. There are many rows of relief telling a philosophical story on the wall, entrance gate and base of the shrines. Amazing bhoma head, derived from the Classical era of Indonesia’s Hindu-Buddhist past, usually embellish the space over the doorways. Then, various effigies are also installed at certain places within the temple compound.
Some effigies are created as the sacred representation of the Hindu trinity (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). They are better known as sanctified pratima in Balinese and much involved in the procession of a temple festival. Meanwhile, others may depict the wayang figures such as Yudhistira, Rama, Arjuna, guardian deity, holy priest and so forth and usually installed in the temple or sanctum area as well as in some cases, also employed to add the Balinese artistic accent on the interior or exterior of home décor.
When you look around Bali through an island excursion, you may come up with some effigies at both ends of a bridge or right in the heart of crossroads or intersections in the form of guardian effigy. At certain places, do not be surprised, if the Balinese also ‘treat’ those effigies as humans due to their sense of artistry. They put relevant sarongs on them and stick red hibiscus on their ear. Those effigies look ‘animate’ that welcomes every visitor. Meanwhile, regencies in Bali also show off their distinctiveness through a landmark effigy, for instance, Singaraja city in north Bali proudly puts into view the effigy winged-lion, Tabanan presents varied effigies on farmer’s activity, mythological theme and so forth. For sure, there are more unique effigies left that are waiting for your coming.
In keeping in line with development of tourism industry in Bali, the craftsmen also make some effigies as souvenir or as an element of landscaping. The most popular one is the wooden Garuda mythical bird. It’s now been available from small tabletop size up to the extra large. Such effigies are displayed everywhere—populating major museum, government office, hotel lobby, residential homes and so forth—both homeland and overseas and now is to be most favored handicraft product. As Bali has grown into a world-renowned tourist destination, it also comes in a strategic showcase to market a variety of art products, including decorative effigies. Other than Balinese traditional style, many classical stone effigies from outside Bali have also been on offer in several galleries such as the Javanese, Sumba, Asmat style from Papua land and many more. If one day you plan to discover various typical effigies of Indonesia and its antiques, just come to Bali as they are available here. (BTN/029)