Kala Face

Candi Shiva, Prambanan

We conclude this brief survey of Prambanan (minus, alas, the Brahma Temple and the several minor temples, of which good views could not be obtained) with this Kala, from Candi Shiva, atop a lintel of the temple.

Kalas guard the openings (doors and niches) of temples in Southeast Asia. Their apotropaic and liminal, grotesque, faces symbolize Time: specifically, the threshold between the time-constrained world of the earth and the timeless, unlimited, worlds of the heavens.

Many stories are told about the kala, and much is sometimes made of the difference between kalas with and without a jaw, or with and without arms; but the most important thing is that they mark the boundary between secular and sacred space. When you walk into the cella of a temple, underneath the kala, you are passing from time into eternity, and the presence of the divine.