My husband is a pig...I mean a boar.
In the spirit of Halloween, here are some photos from a visit to a mask maker. While walking through the villages around the isolated villa we chose for our visit to the Bali countryside, our hosts brought us to workshops of local artisans. This mask maker’s shop and studio is about a 20 minute walk from Sukawati, Bali. Masks are used in religious ceremonies, traditional dances and on buildings throughout Bali. Many represent ‘Barongs‘ which are animal-human hybrids believed to protect from evil spirits. My husband became fascinated with this Boar mask (barong bangkal).
Boar mask in progress - hand carved.
The artist was carving another boar from a single block of wood. It was amazing to see the hand crafting. He told us it takes about two weeks to complete a full boar mask. As his workshop was filled with works in progress, I was left in awe. Or maybe, it just made me realize how mass produced our everyday life is in the US.
Boar mask, held by artist.
We spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how we would get the mask home safely in our luggage. In the end, we passed on this mask.
Note: I am participating in DeliciousBaby’s super cool Photo Fridays, where everyone is invited to link to a travel photo. Please click here to see more of this week’s photos & stories.
Were these hand-crafted masks expensive?
At least you brought the photo back as a souvenir, even if you couldn’t fit the mask in your luggage.
That’s so neat. Was it heavy? I couldn’t imagine if someone has to wear that in a ceremony if it’s too heavy.
The hand-carving is really interesting. I’m always amazed at people who have that skill.
What a wonderful mask! I’m always tempted to buy things like this – to help keep the traditions and skills alive, if nothing else. But I wouldn’t want that hanging on the hall wall to scare me on a night-time bathroom trip!
I’m sad for you that you had to leave the mask behind, but very happy that you took such great photos
Just to let everyone know -
1) The price of of the mask was negotiable. It is tough picking your price because of craftsmanship. I would guess we could have purchased this for US$50-80.
2) We did buy another (far less scary) mask from another maskmaker. I will post a full story at some point in the future.
3) OMG it was heavy. When you see the full costumes that people wear not only is the weight amazing, but also the fact it is over 90 degrees.
TOO cool!
Too bad you couldn’t easily figure out how to get that mask home. What a conversation piece!
I do like to find things unique to the area when I travel…makes me wish I had far more room in my house to bring things home and display. At the very least, we often hit the local grocery store, or farm market if we can find it, to get something unique and produced in the area.
Very cool mask and interesting to see a teeny piece of the creation process.
Thank you for sharing.
We love watching artists in action too… and we spent a lot of time in SE Asia visiting wood & stone carving workshops.
We used bangkok as a hub for our trip, and every time we were back in town, we took a trip to the local FedEx (reliable, and much cheaper in Asia than it is here) to ship back another round of treasures. I can’t think how much we must have spent on shipping
it certainly wasn’t cheap!