Vintage Carved Dewi Sri Rice Harvest Goddess, Bali (3044WOK)

Description

This Balinese woodcarving of Dewi Sri or Devi Sri (Shridevi in India) is a spiritual and ritual art piece of the most revered and worshipped goddess in Bali and Java. Essentially a piece of Hindu-cultural-and-ritual-art of an attractive ethnic goddess and an Earth-God who controls rice fields and the growth of rice, she personifies the life force in Hinduism, controls birth and life, wealth and prosperity, rice surpluses (the source of wealth for Bali and Java) and also poverty, famine and death. Although Indonesians are mostly Balinese Hindu with a minority Muslim, a belief in animism was practiced long before the arrival of Hinduism, is ingrained in the belief systems of all indigenous Indonesians and is worshipped in parallel with all religions. Homes have shrines dedicated to Dewi Sri and prayers and colorful offerings for health and prosperity are made to her daily. Special Balinese shrines and temples in ricefields dedicated to her are also maintained by nearby village farmers part of social and work groups called a subak organized by farmers for agricultural cooperation and who share rice fields and work together. Subak members maintain Dewi Sri temples and Hindu shrines dedicated to her and celebrate agricultural festivals together, especially on holidays dedicated to her. They decorate the temple to beautify it with colorful offerings made of from carved bamboo, banana leaves, woven rattan, other natural materials and attract the deity and to bring her favor. Also, old Chinese coins are tied into an offering figure called a salang placed in temples and wood figures of her like this are also made to honor her.

Sources

Sidarta Wijaya, A Balinese Folktale: Dewi Sri, Goddess of Rice, Blog.Baliwww.com, 2007.

Wikipedia, Dewi Sri, wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewi Shri