The Types of Balinese Carving Ornament

Bali Personal Drivers - Balinese are identical to the elements of art. One element of Balinese arts are well known is a Balinese carving. Balinese carving has a characteristic or distinctive feature in both the decorative motifs, the materials, and the techniques of its making. Balinese carving are mostly naturalists, in the form of leaf carving that convex and fat and other forms of mythology, such as the giant heads, elephants, and dragons. Balinese carving consists of several types :

• Keketusan

Take the most important part of a plant, that patternable repeatedly. In its processing is made in such a way for the embellish its assertion. Keketusan in traditional decoration has many types such as :

Keketusan Wangga	that describes the large flowers that bloom from broadleaf plant species.
Keketusan Bungan Tuwung	are ornaments that resemble the eggplant flowers.
Keketusan Bun-bunan	are ornaments that resemble the ivy.
Others	mas-masan, kakul-kakulan, batun timun, pae, ganggong etc.

• Pepatran

The basic idea pepatran is many drawn from the beauty of the flora forms. The beauty of the flora are taken such that, the path of leaves, flowers, pistil and twigs are made repeatedly. Each pepatra have a strong identities in appearance, making it easy to know, such as :

Patra Punggel	the basic idea taken from pieces of the vines, especially tip of its leaves that are still young. "Punggel" meaningful pieces.
Patra China	because of its name, the presence of these patra was believed by the Balinese as the influence of Chinese culture. Patra China is a replica of the hibiscus plant that in its processing both the stem, leaves and flowers are made with a line that reflects a constructive pattern.
Patra Samblung	the basic idea is taken from plants Samblung, the vines which have the wide leaves with curved harmonious. In traditional Balinese buildings Patra Samblung occupy areas which is long, because it has a repeating and elongated pattern.

• Kekarangan

An ornament that resembles the shape of a rock. This ornament is formed in such a way, tried to approach the forms of existing flora with emphasis on the parts of its beauty. Like other types of keketusan or pepatran, the kind of kekarangan commonly found in traditional Balinese ornaments, such as :

Karang Simbar	an ornament that resembles or approaching the plants. In its appearance, Karang Simbar combined with the decoration which resemble deer antlers and unravel leaves spreading down.
Karang Bunga	is a kind of ornament in the form of flowers with petals and a tuft of leaves.

In addition to the form of flora, the basic idea of the form of kekarangan also sourced from animals or a well-crafted beauty of fauna, such as :

Karang Guak	is a replica of the bird's head without the lower jaw and from his mouth come out a kind of pidpid and simbar plants.
Karang Gajah	also called the Karang Asti, is a replica of an elephant.
Karang Bentulu	is a combination of the bird's head which is one-eyed without nose and without a lower jaw.
Others	Karang Tapel, Karang Sae, Karang Boma etc.

In traditional Balinese residential architecture, kekarangan generally occupy the protrusions areas, especially in the corners. However, its placement taking into account with a logical considerations, such as : Karang Guak, because birds is associated with wings and always living above, then its position on the building is always at the top. Similarly with Karang Gajah, which is always placed at the bottom, because the elephant thought to have a very high strength so it will be able to support the building load.

Reference : Glebet, 1982. ”Arsitektur Tradisional Daerah Bali”