How to Recognize the Real Arts of Bali Gallery in Seminyak
The Arts of Bali gallery is an art gallery at Jl. Raya Seminyak No. 42, Kuta, Badung, Bali 80361, owned and curated by Putu Sucipta. It sells original Balinese paintings, wood carvings, and metal art, and every original painting is sold with a certificate of authenticity. Its logo, an orange and gold frangipani above the […]
Gebogan Bali: How the Offering Tower Is Built, Layer by Layer
A gebogan bali is a towering offering built from fruit, rice cakes, and flowers, stacked in a cone shape on a wooden base and carried on a woman’s head to the temple. It is not simply decorative: every layer, from the woven palm base to the flower crown, follows a specific order, and the cone […]
Lotus in Balinese Art: Padma, Padmasana, and the Nine Gods
Lotus in Balinese art, called padma in Sanskrit and Kawi, is far more than a decorative flower: it lends its name to Bali’s holiest shrine, sits at the center of a nine-god cosmological diagram, and shows up in the colors of offerings laid out across the island every single day. Key Takeaways Padmasana, the tallest […]
Pura Ulun Danu Beratan: Bali’s Temple Behind the 50,000 Rupiah Note
Pura Ulun Danu Beratan is Bali’s water temple on the shore of Lake Beratan in the Bedugul highlands, built around 1633 by a king of the Mengwi kingdom to honor Dewi Danu, the Balinese goddess of lakes and rivers. Its cluster of pagoda-roofed meru shrines, reflected in the lake behind them, is one of the […]
Mahabharata Kamasan Painting: Bali’s Version of India’s Epic War
A Mahabharata Kamasan painting depicts scenes from the Mahabharata, the 18-book Sanskrit epic about a war between two royal families, painted in Kamasan style: flat wayang-shaped figures, natural pigments, and gold leaf, the same visual language Bali uses for its shadow puppets. It’s one of Kamasan painting’s two core source epics, the other being the […]
Bhoma Bali: The Guardian Face Carved Above Every Temple Gate
Bhoma Bali temple gates almost always carry the same fierce carved face above the lintel: bulging eyes, bared fangs, and a mouth caught mid-roar. That face has a name. Bhoma is the guardian figure Balinese carvers place above temple thresholds to stand between the sacred and the ordinary world, a role tied to a specific […]
Kelingking Beach: The T-Rex Cliff of Nusa Penida in an Original Painting
Kelingking Beach is the cliff-top viewpoint on Nusa Penida, an island off Bali’s southeast coast, known for a limestone headland whose silhouette is widely compared to a dinosaur’s head and neck, earning it the nickname T-Rex Cliff. The name Kelingking itself comes from the Indonesian word for “little finger,” a reference to the promontory’s curled […]
Baris Dance: Bali’s Solo Warrior Performance
Baris dance is Bali’s warrior dance tradition, performed either as a sacred group ritual called Baris Gede, honoring temple deities at ceremonies like Odalan, or as a solo showcase called Baris Tunggal, in which a single dancer, usually a boy, portrays a warrior’s alertness through sharp, darting eye movements called sledet. Both forms trace back […]
Makepung: The Traditional Buffalo Race of Jembrana, Bali
Makepung buffalo racing is Bali’s traditional sport from Jembrana Regency, West Bali, where pairs of water buffalo pull a small wooden cart called a cikar down a dirt track while a rider, the sais, balances on the yoke behind them. It grew out of the ordinary work of plowing rice fields, and today it runs […]
Tumpek Wayang: The Balinese Holy Day Behind Wayang and Kamasan Art
Tumpek Wayang is Bali’s holy day honoring wayang puppets, dalang, and Kamasan painters, held every 210 days to bless the tools of Balinese art.
