Guardian Sculpture

Performance stage, Puri Saren Agung
Ubud, Bali

Like most guardians in Indonesia, this one is wrapped in white and batik, an honorific cloth. Flowers decorate the guardian's ears. Behind, there are sculpted chinthes on the platform (these owe much to China), and a big-eared makara supporting the corner of the base. These modern decorations illustrate that the cultural arts of Bali (in sculpture, as seen here, but also in painting, dance, music, and textiles) constitute a living and vital tradition, that extends from over a thousand years ago into the present and the future, and that borrows from the great pan-Asian traditions (India, China) while retaining its own, unique, cultural identity.