Starting Point
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About this site
All the beautiful carvings shown on this site were made many decades ago by talented Indonesians who sold them as souvenirs to visitors from across the world to make a living. The religious motifs of Hinduism shown here come from the great Hindu epics and other stories that are hundreds or thousands of years old.
Collectors in this more specialized field may find only few sites of equal interest. This is my attempt to provide another platform to socialize, share experiences among collectors, review collectibles, or get help from others. So feel free to contact me anytime.
This site is not intended to compete with other collectors. But there seems to be such competition, sad to say. I think we should enjoy the art of other cultures together, knowing that with these souvenirs we are only acquiring art for our homes, not cultural appropriation.
Unfortunately, there are people who see it differently. I know a very enterprising man who regularly sells antique statues. But he also sells information that he took as general knowledge from the Hindu epics and mythological stories that were told to him by Balinese and believes to have a kind of invented copyright on them. He wants to prevent information from mythological stories from being published on the internet so that his business is not disturbed.
This anecdote is just to say that the cultural heritage of Indonesians is not for sale. As for me, I do not give any reference to such people and I do not quote facts from their own controversial intellectual property.
In the Links and Books section you will find good sources on dedicated historians and hobby collectors as well as helpful books.
About me
Who am I?
Hi, my name is Henry, I'm from Germany. Even though this website will be in English language only, that's a foreign language for me. But I'll do my best to be understandable. I'm not a professional in oriental studies but only a person who enjoys looking at beautiful things.
How did I get to collect balinese woodcarvings?
I'm interested in culture and arts in general. But Asian arts have been a point of interest since I was a teenager. I always loved movies from Japan, China, Korea and other countries, especially the ones with historical or mythological background. I like Anime movies, in first place the ones from Ghibli Studio. As a young grown up I got in contact with Japanese Ukiyo-e graphics and was blown away by them. So those are some influences of Asian art to me, and you see demons and deities had a place in my life.
My brother traveled a lot in Indonesia and brought some souvenirs with him, woodcarvings among them. But it took a few years to fall in love with carvings. When I started to refurnish my living room, I wanted to have it Asian style finally. Now my living room is getting filled more and more with wonderful pieces of art.