Bali: Odd Sculptures
There’s a lot of sculpture in Bali, especially in temples and palaces. There are a lot of wood and stone carvers, and the road between Ubud and the airport is lined with their shops and outlets for their wares, so on your way to the airport you pass armies in volcanic rock that rival the Terracotta Warrior Army of China – only in this case they are ranks of Buddhas, Ganeshes, water-pouring goddesses, linggams, monkeys and other forms too numerous to mention. But now and then there’s one that just craves my attention, like this Garuda-dancer figure from the Water Palace:
Or, from that same place, this odd unpleasant person. I think it’s the witch Rangda and her daughter, whom nobody would marry although she was a nice enough girl – apparently they were put off by the prospect of having Rangda for a mother-in-law. Or possibly it’s Rangda and a girl she’s about to eat – what do you think?
But around Ubud many of the sculptures are more naturalistic.
This monkey pair over a giant gecko were at the entrance to the Wiringi Cottages and Restaurant, as was this big lizard – water monitor? or komodo dragon? Only the sculptor knows for sure:
You can buy wooden komodo dragons in lots of the shops around Ubud, should you need one. We resisted this particular temptation.
And an updated gate sculpture at Ubud’s palace – a traditional demon, upside-down, surmounted by the head of a happy man in swim goggles: