Twenty years ago I might have. The fact that I don't want it does not mean that I have come to think of all Balinese wood carving as kitch. It is what it is. And I do not agree with those who infer that, but for the "tourist commercialization" the Balinese woodcarvers would be carving more aesthetically. They wouldn't be carving at all; they would be squelching behind the ox-plough in the rice field, or the younger ones would be duck herds and grass cutters, and some would doubtless be labourers in Denpasar.

Better to be one of the twenty or thirty carvers sitting on the matting of a pavilion at the Mas art factory of Ida Bagus Tilem; or one of the polishers, even, shining up the teak with Kiwi boot polish. Ida Bagus Tilem has the well-fid look of a successful businessman, but he also has the reputation of being a notable carver, his f2thcr's son: Ida Bagus Njana, in his sixties, was reputedly the best carver in Bali. One of his wood sculptures sold in America for S5,000 and his work was exhibited at the New York World's Fair in M.

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