The art of Bali is more fantastic than that of ancient Java.  The carved work, whether in stone or wood, is generally polychromatic.  Figures are piled one on the top of another as in the sculptures of Central America and there is a marked tendency to emphasize projections.  Leaves and flowers are very deeply carved and such features as ears, tongues and teeth are monstrously prolonged.  Thus Balinese statues and reliefs have a curiously bristling and scaly appearance and are apt to seem barbaric, especially if taken separately.[458] Yet the general aspect of the temples is not unpleasing.  The brilliant colours and fantastic outlines harmonize with the tropical vegetation which surrounds them and suggest that the guardian deities take shape as gorgeous insects.  Such bizarre figures are not unknown in Indian mythology but in Balinese art Chinese influence is perhaps stronger than Indian.  The Chinese probably frequented the island as early as the Hindus and are now found there in abundance.  Besides the statues called Pusa already mentioned, Chinese landscapes are often painted behind the seats of the Devas and in the temple on the Volcano Batoer, where a special place is assigned to all the Balinese tribes, the Chinese have their own shrine.  It is said that the temples in southern Bali which are older and larger than those in the north show even more decided signs of Chinese influence and are surrounded by stone figures of Chinese as guardians.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 369:  I have not been able to find anything more than casual and second-hand statements to the effect that Indian antiquities have been found in these islands.]

[Footnote 370:  There is no lack of scholarly and scientific works about Java, but they are mostly written in Dutch and dissertations on special points are more numerous than general surveys of Javanese history, literature and architecture.  Perhaps the best general account of the Hindu period in Java will be found in the chapter contributed by Kern to the publication called Neerlands Indie (Amsterdam, 1911, chap.  VI.  II. pp. 219-242).  The abundant publications of the Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen comprise Verhandelingen, Notulen, and the Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde (cited here as Tijdschrift), all of which contain numerous and important articles on history, philology, religion and archaeology.  The last is treated specially in the publications called Archaeologisch Onderzoek op Java en Madura.  Veth’s Java, vols.  I. and IV. and various articles in the Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indie may also be consulted.  I have endeavoured to mention the more important editions of Javanese books as well as works dealing specially with the old religion in the notes to these chapters.

Although Dutch orthography is neither convenient nor familiar to most readers I have thought it better to preserve it in transcribing Javanese.  In this system of transcription j=y; tj=ch; dj=j; sj=sh; w=v; oe=u.]