When our flight from Brisbane landed in Denpasar, Bali, three days ago and we drove up a main street to our hotel in Ubud, I wondered about the profusion of stone-cutter shops with elaborate sculptures of Hindu deities out front. How could so many statues possibly be used? On today's visit (August 23, for those wanting to keep track), as well as on our previous wanderings on the streets near our hotel, it became clear. Temples and shrines, public and domestic, were everywhere (often commingled with rice fields) and were adorned with elaborate stone carvings of impressive quality. This was exemplified in a traditional house compound we visited, with a family temple within the yard along with the plants and chickens. The compound was within Tumbakasa Village, not far from the large temple of Pura Kahyangan Tiga, enlivened outside its walls by a row of sculpted musicians and along a street lined with multi-story, stork-like structures paying worshipful tribute to the volcano Mount Agung.
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