Art in Bali-2
I forgot to mention something about Balinese Hinduism that is totally uncharacteristic of the main brand of Hinduism as practiced in India; Balinese are beef-eating Hindus. Our guide informed us that they practically had no inhibitions about eating—from crocodiles to cockroaches-he had added. For Hindus in India, inhibitions about eating beef are religious in nature and these may have originated from the fact that the cows have perhaps greater utility to mankind when alive than dead. May be it is true for all animals that have been domesticated by humans. Such is the impact of the cultural conditioning over so many centuries, that I find it difficult today to believe that our ancestors (in India) were beef eaters once.
We too have artisans in India; we too have our goldsmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters etc but the main purpose of these artisans work is utility-essentially towards improving the quality of life for all others around them. We too have our artists-painters, musicians, sculptors etc but they form a microscopic minority in our society and these artists are what they are by choice alone. In Bali, art appears to be a tradition and may even be a calling and therefore these Balinese artists to me, appeared to be more like our Indian artisans. This may perhaps explain why all the works of art that we saw had a varying merit in them.
If art in Bali is more of a calling, then it is more utilitarian in nature and needs to touch the lives of other residents. This should explain the wide patronage that these artists appear to be getting from the local Balinese population. Balinese art does not reside in drawing rooms of the local residents as it does in India; it sits prettily atop the compound walls of their houses and sometimes makes its presence absolutely conspicuous when one looks at the architecture of the exterior / entrance of more affluent houses. Architecture or artitecture?!
See below.
I think the stone used by the sculptors must be a little soft or otherwise they may not have been able to finish off so many statues / figures in such a short time as they seem to do. Here are some artworks that I found worthy of capturing on my camera.
Artists at Work
Above pictures were taken as we were driving North to a small town called Ubud. We spent some time in the town and debated whether to proceed further North and visit a typical Bali village or return South to Depansar for shopping since we were scheduled to leave for Malaysia by an early morning flight on the following day. I was very keen on going North and visiting a Bali village but found myself in a minority of one against six (eighth member of our group was neutral.)
You can see below the peer group pressure building up; you can also see my neutral friend standing in the left top corner with his eyes towards me (cameraman) but his ears probably taking in the larger majority group………….!
