BALINESE PAINTING

Ni Komang Ella Triska Komala Dewi

NIM: 2111171128

“KUMBHAKARNA ATTACKED BY MONKEYS”

(source: fineartamerica.com, 2014)

The island of Bali has a high artistic element, such as painting. Various streams of painting
can be enjoyed in some exhibitions in Bali. Even so, the characteristics of Balinese paintings make
the shape of the paint incision on the canvas known to be distinctive. In general, the characters in
the paintings refer to the Ramayana and Mahabharata stories. There are also characters that
describe the natural beauty and activities of the local community.

The first form of painting that has character and is well known to the world is Kamasan
painting. It is called Kamasan style painting because it was born in Kamasan Village, Klungkung
Regency. Kamasan favored stylistic techniques in the paintings. This technique is thick with
artistic ornaments in depicting characters or stories on the medium. There are also various kinds
of mediums, such as canvas fabric, walls, wood, and so on. Most commonly, the Kamasan painters
have Ramayana story theme.

One of them is the story of Kumbhakarna attacked the monkeys. Kumbhakarna is the
brother of Ravana, the giant king of Alengka. Kumbhakarna is a giant who is very tall and has a
terrible face, but he is an officer and often realizes his brother's wrong actions. Kumbhakarna did
not give up even though there were thousands of monkeys in his body. Kumbhakarna finally died
in the battle against King Rama and Laksmana. His body was dismembered into several pieces by
the blows of the arrows that were released simultaneously. What happened to Kumbhakarna was
the action of Resi Wisrawa, his father, when he killed Jambumangli. Kumbhakarna is a noteworthy
character in Ramayana standards as he is multifaceted. Most characters symbolize either vice or
virtue, few strays from this delineation. Kumbhakarna was said to be intelligent, pious, brave, and
loyal. Sure, he ate a few humans on occasion and killed some Hindu monks, but he was a virtuous
warrior and remained highly regarded despite being the primary protector of the demon king
Ravana. The message from this painting, although Ravana often makes mistakes, but Sang
Kumbhakarna does not defend King Ravana. The Kumbhakarna fought against Rama's army.
Willing to die for his homeland, his homeland is Alengka. The Kumbhakarna is a true warrior,
tough, loyal to defend the homeland.
 INTERNET REFERENCES

Arma Museum. Balinese Traditional/Classic Paintings: Kamasan Style.

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/GQVxVYIPE39iLg

Wikipedia. Balinese art. 2021 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balinese_art

Bridgeinmages. Kumbhakarna Attacked by The Monkeys-1980. 2022 https://www.bridgemanimages.com

Wikipedia. Kumbhakarna. 2019 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbhakarna