A Narrative Palindon Painting from Kamasan, Bali

The curiosity evoked from seeing something new from a different geography and a different history is delicious fodder for the mind.

So when I came across a ‘calendar’ with inscriptions in a script I cannot read, a language I do not understand and from a culture I am not know sufficiently, it became a matter of hot pursuit.

It was easy to possess the objects – the physical painting itself  – that gave rise to the curiosity. But the whole and complete body of knowledge embedded in these still eludes me.

Here are some snapshots first of an antique Kamasan Palindon Calendar painting.

Some details

I’ve learnt that each cell corresponds to a month and the deity of that month is depicted in the cell. There should be 12 cells altogether in such a calendar but this is a fragment and the central 1/3 panel as in tatters and could not be salvaged.

What each month stands for, what the predictions painted in are, the logic of those predictions that arise from the culture – all these topics still elude me.

Maybe another trip to Bali will reveal the answers to quench the curiosity.

Until then the beauty of the visual will have to suffice.

See more of each cell in this calendar here.

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jm

July 2020