Data 63cm High - 6.3Kg Once again the art snobs ignored this wonderful Indonesian carving of Hanuman Fighting Naga the snake god. Carved from a single Piece of wood that would have taken an amazing amount of work to make I couldn't ignore it for $40 at auction. Looks like it has spent some time with one side in the sun so it might have a little age to it. Think @Any Jewelry might be able to educate us about them. Cheers Stephen
It is stunning, those art snobs don't know what they are missing! Not only that, she has his brother: The scene is part of the Ramayana story. Naga had been sent by the Gods to test Hanuman before his quest to free the fair Sita who had been abducted by the demon king Ravanna. When Hanuman proved worthy of his task, the Gods allowed him to continue. Hanuman was the loyal friend of king Rama, Sita's husband. Sadly he lost his life during his quest, but in the end Sita was freed and returned to Rama. The style is contemporary with Balinese Art Deco, but carved in a less stylised and much more realistic way, with finely carved fur etc. The bent over ones, like yours, are more recent than the straight-backed ones. They were only made in one village, the name escapes me now. I'll see if I can find it.
Ubud is a painter's village, the most famous one. This is from a not very well-known carver's village. In Bali many of these villages are organized like Medieval guilds, so people in Ubud paint, whether they have talent or not, because that is the thing to do in Ubud. Because of the popularity of the Ramayana, the Hanuman-Naga test struggle is a favourite theme throughout the region.
Found it, the village is appropriately named Djati or Jati, which simply means teak. It is in the mountains north of the capital Den Pasar, and northwest of Ubud. The reason why they carved almost exclusively religious subjects was because it is considered a sacred place. The first Hindu priest in Bali is said to have settled in Djati.
