Featured Hanuman? - large carving - where from?

Hoping AJ will chime in here - picked this pleasant fellow up yesterday - almost 15" tall. Some type of very hard wood. Weighs almost 6 pounds. Indonesian perhaps? I'm guessing this is Hanuman (from seeing him on a couple other threads here) - but I'm not sure. Some good details on this carving - wonder if the curly hair/fur carving might be indicative of where he's from. Many thanks again for any help

Aaron

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Yes, Hanuman, from Bali, carved from coromandel wood, which is now protected. So it is an older carving.
This is the more realistic style, where Hanuman has morphed into a macaque from the Sacred Monkey Forest near Ubud, Bali. They are the guardians of three temples in the forest:


The Monkey Forest is a favourite with tourists, and some tourists are favourite with the monkeys:


Your Hanuman is wearing the 'salut poleng', a black and white sacred cloth associated with the outside walls of a temple complex. On the outside of a temple complex things are still black and white, a life of opposites, that is what the cloth represents. As you enter the temple, spiritual life is good.
Salut poleng is often draped around stone statues of temple guards, and is worn during some ceremonies. In your carving Hanuman is represented with the salut poleng to emphasize his protective qualities.
Salut poleng:

 

Before moving on & seeing AJ's reply, wondered if wood could be teak & found this site that tells you way more than you ever wanted to know about wood: http://www.wood-database.com/teak/
Potential resource for answering all those 'what kind of wood is this' questions.

 

Extensive and excellent information AJ - you are encylclopedic - and generous! Thank you for taking the time to illustrate - very helpful! He was hiding behind some planters under the bottom shelf of the knick knack area at the Salvation Army store yesterday - so he wasn't doing much good there. Nothing to protect! He'll do much better guarding my home

 

I too probably would have guessed teak or something else - coromandel seems dead on though.

 

He looks fierce enough to do a perfect job.

 

hes awesome!So tactile .

 

Wow. Nice.

 

Lovely piece aaroncab. I've not seen one with such detailed carving on the body before. Your information AJ is excellent as usual. I've just returned from Bali and Ubud and you have explained some of the things I saw but did not really understand. Thanks.

 

AUD - THanks, he really is quite a piece - the pictures don't do justice to the three dimensional aspects of the carving. I'm liking him more and more.

 

Awesome find!

 

In Indonesia this wood is called Macassar ebony (or in the Indonesian language ‘kayu eboni’ this translates to ‘wood black’). I currently live in Indonesia and own a few nice pieces made from this. It’s beautiful wood and very hard/dense.

 

Hi Sako!

Welcome to Antiquers!

 

Welcome to the forum, @Sako .