Although the Balinese people are renowned for their artistic and creative energies, Balinese domestic architecture is not subject to a great degree of decorative elaboration or ornamentation, except in the case of royal places and the homes of wealthy members of the triwangsa castes. Decoration of ordinary houses, where it does occur, is typically reserved for wooden components.
The shafts of house posts may be given a distinctive sculpted profile, while the brackets supporting beams may be enlivened by ornate foliate embellishment.
Doors are typically paneled and carved wooden friezes or ventilation grilles are also commonplace. These decorative elements are painted, but in the case of royal places and other important structures, such as the bale gede pavilion in the compound of a high caste family, such ornamented surfaces may also be gilded with gold leaf.
Masonry walls stand on a stepped foundation, and are topped by a decorative cornice or coping, while the surfaces of the base of pavilions are sometimes ornamented with reliefs. In Majapahit times, in temples and palaces, it was also common to insert ceramics into the brickwork-for example, Ming porcelain or Vietnamese exportware.
The positioning of decorative features on buildings is likely to be significant: birds, for example, will adorn the upper parts of a structure, being creatures of the air, while representations of malevolent beings are nearer ground level, reflecting their associations of the Balinese Hades.
In the case of triwangsa residences, the family temple in the kaja-kangin corner of the compound is surrounded by a perforated wall known as an ancak saji wall: a honeycomb effect is created by leaving spaces between the building blocks, after which the wall receives a Gaudi-like treatment with the insertion of glazed tiles and other ceramic pieces.
One of the most striking images in Balinese iconography is the face of a leering monster, with lolling tongue, bulging eyes and ferociously large canines. It is typically found over the monumental gateway (kori agung) of palaces and temples. This is the face of the Bhoma, whose fearful countenance is intended to drive away malevolent influences.
In royal palaces, much effort and expense goes into the construction of monumental gateways. This resemble temple portals and perform much the same role-to demarcate the realm of ordinary life from some other plane of existence, the one sacred, the other political, though in the traditional scheme of things, the personage of the ruler was as much endowed with a mystical efficacy as with temporal power, for the two were part and parcel of the same phenomenon.
In temple, the most important and most elaborate carvings are reserved for the walls and gates, for these form the division between the sacred ground of the temple and the profane ground outside it. Temple reliefs often depict well-known scenes or episodes from Indian Classical literature. The Ramayana and Mahabrata epics provide a rich source of inspiration; other favourites include erotic encounters from the Arjuna Wiwaha which portray luscious nymphs making passionate love the god Arjuna, and charming vignettes from the tantri tales, the Balinese equivalent of Aesop`s fables from Classical Greek literature.
Of the there can be a humorous element to these representation; the Mexican painter Miguel Covarrubias, who lived in Bali in early 1930s, likened the reliefs in north Bali to American-style comic strips. A wellknown example at the Pura Dalem, Jagaraga, near Singaraja, shows a car driven by bearded foreigners being held up by a gangster armed with a revolver, while at the nearby Pura Meduwe Karang, in Kubutambahan, there is an image of a European man riding a bicycle with a lotus flower for a real wheel.
