The Good Guys and The Bad Guys

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This is a photo of a Dwarapala statue. "Dwarapala" is derived from Sanskrit language meaning "door guardian". As it name suggests, you will find a lot of this kind of statues in front of temple gates in Bali. Besides temple, you can find this in all traditional building such as the village hall, puri (palace) and houses.


At a quick glance, it may look scary, but they are the good characters (or the good guys). Being a visitor, sometimes you don't know which is good guy and which is bad guy because it looks similar.


On the big holiday, those statues are wrapped in yellow and white fabric or black and white checkered cloth. The main purpose of this wrapping is to show respect to the spirits that guard the temple. You can see also there are offerings presented for the spirits made of coconut leaves and varieties of flowers.


So, next time you are in Bali, remember this is the good guy...




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