Bali has justly been called the island of a thousand temples. And although this may sound a little like a travel brochure, it is not really so misleading, for the temples on Bali are of more than mere external importance.

In the first place, an examination of temples and temple customs affords one :!n insight into religious thought oil the island. But in addition to this the temples, with their varied functions, have one an idea of the complex social conditions that prevailed on Bali, whilst the architecture and decoration of these sacred buildings is often on', a most impressive scale.

Hindu sculpture found a favourable climate in which to develop on Bali, as it did also in Java. Already at an early date the stone terraces, sacrificial recesses, temple walls and gateways of Balinese temples were decorated with arabesques and spirals, demons heads and images of deities. Ornamentation was at first subdued, and integrated into the buildings with fine sense of proportion, but in the course of time these tendrils and spiral became more florid and exuberant at the hands of Balinese artists. Decoration came play -in ever more important part in the design as a whole. The artist was seized with an irrepressible impulse to create a superfluity of petals and leaves. until the temples seemed almost smothered iii a veritable orgy of stone, flowers and garlands.

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