The best place to find outstanding Balinese statues is in Batubulan (Moonstone). This village is located on the road between Denpasar and Ubud.
This place is known throughout the island for its decorative and playful stone carvings. Many temples, courtyards, bridges, houses, and hotels have statues or other pieces of art from Batubulan.
Just like the masks and paintings, Balinese statues used to be made solely for decoration on temples and palaces. Since the volcanic stone on Bali is easily influenced by the tropical weather the statues and carvings on temples and palaces have to be re-made ensuring and an endless flow of work.
This has enabled families to pass on their skills for generations and making Batubulan what it is today.
Along the main road, you will find many stone carving shops. If you walk through the alleys you will even see more. At the working place, there are even little kids taking out their energy on big blocks of volcanic para stone.
Maybe your first reaction would be to feel sorry for the kids but you don’t have to. These kids are going to school early in the morning and are getting a precious second education at the workshop. One day they will become a fine stone carver just like their father.
Other types of Balinese statues
Even though they still make many ornaments for the temples you can find other ‘pieces of art’ as well. It all depends on what you are looking for. They have life-sized Buddha statues, huge elephants, Hawaiian Tiki statues (here too?), dolphins, Ramas, demons and many statues of temple guardians.
With a lot of travelers paying a visit to Batubulan you would expect them to be the best customers of this little village. But they are not. The Balinese themselves are the most frequent shoppers here.
They need guardian statues in front of their offices, hotels, and restaurants, statues in their colorful courtyards and numerous carvings above the door.
Even most of the traditional Balinese doors are entirely made out of stone carvings. Some temples and in particular the temples of Buleleng in northern Bali have stunning carved decorations depicting Hindu stories and carvings of heaven and hell. These carvings are more humorous and have a different style compared to the rest of the island.
If you like to have a statue custom-made or from a picture in a magazine, no problem, the stone carvers of Batubulan can replicate anything you want. Just make sure that they will ship the statue as well.