Bali is filled with statues, some are giant (more than 50 ft high) and some are small and placed at inconspicuous places. Bali consisting of a majority Hindu population naturally has statues of Hindu gods or mythological characters from Mahabharata and Ramayana. Bali’s Hinduism is a world away from that we find in India. I found the practice of Hindu religion as less dogmatic and more tolerant. In Bali, statues of Gods are placed at public places like roads and on the top of commercial establishments too, which we never see in India. Even the form of their Gods and Goddesses are different. In this post I have tried to identify some of the statues from my limited knowledge of our culture, please do correct if you think any of them are wrongly classified.
Dewa Ruci statue This statue is located very near to the Denpasar airport. Dewa Ruci is a popular Balinese god.
Statue at ‘Pura Tirta Empul’ temple
Tirta Empul signifies a crystal clear stream which is used as the holy water for various religious ceremonies.
Balinese Garuda statue This we saw on the road side on top of a commercial establishment. While Garuda is usually the carrier of Lord Vishnu I doubt if this presents the same.
Statue of Saraswathi
This statue was in front of Besakih temple.
Notice the difference in sculpture’s styling, for example the pointed crown and sharp features which are very different from what we see in India.
Statue of ArjunaThis is one of the grand (and easily the largest) statue I came across in Bali – located in Ubud district. Initially the driver of our car told this was a statue of Rama from ‘Ramayana’ but later when we visited a sculptor he identified it as that of Arjuna, which I concur too – given that the archer is standing on an elephant (Airavata) and has an arc made of serpents.
Date of visit: September 2010
Place: Bali, Indonesia
Superb photos Anoop.