Stone Carvers At Batu Bulan Village

If you go tour to Ubud or Kintamani, you will pass a village called Batu Bulan which located just outside of Denpasar. There is something special you can see along the way in this village; stone carvings.

Hundreds of stone statues are displayed in front of studios along the street. These statues are made of different kind of material such as sand stone, lime stone, and volcanic stone. Sand stone is the softest and easiest to carve. It is what mostly also used for building Balinese Hindu Temple. The yellow coloured lime stone is harder than lime stone. While volcanic stone is the hardest.

You will see different statues, from traditional theme to modern ones. But most of the time you will see statues of Hindu gods and godesses, temple door guardians (dwarapal), or Buddha statues. There are also statues of frog, and also people.

The Balinese use the statues in the temples and for decorations in their gardens. You can also purchase the statues there for about USD 300 to 500 for a one meter high statue. To ship to Europe or England, will take about 2 months. The shipment cost about 400 USD for one cubic metre. Why the cost of shipment is so high? I asked one of the shop keeper. Well, unlike for furniture, the stone carving needs special care/handling.