Wood Carving

Bali is a paradise for wood art: Mas (near Ubud) has been the center of wood carving for centuries, but workshops can be found in almost every village. Traditional carving primarily serves religious purposes: temple decorations, masks for dances, deity statues, and door reliefs.

Popular motifs include Garuda (the divine eagle and mount of Vishnu), Barong (the lion-like protective creature), Rangda (the witch queen), Hindu deities, and scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. But modern carvers also produce abstract art, erotic figures, and the ubiquitous cat and dolphin souvenirs for tourists.

The main types of wood:

• Crocodile Wood — easy to work with, inexpensive, often used for souvenirs
• Jackfruit Wood — golden yellow, fine-grained, traditionally used for masks and deity statues
• Ebony — black, extremely hard and heavy, for high-quality sculptures
• Sandalwood — fragrant and precious, for religious carvings

In Mas and Kemenuh, you can watch the carvers at work — many workshops are open to visitors. The ARMA Museum in Ubud showcases historical wood carvings of museum quality.