
So, soon after we checked into the Ubud Inn I was introduced to Ketut, who I was informed was a very good word carver who would serve my needs perfectly for the project. I showed him the board and loosely described what I wanted on it; the top was fully completed and now I just wanted something done on the sides. Cheerfully, he told me, “no problem,” and that was that - Ketut and I were in business together for the next 5 days. I was in a serious time crunch in Ubud because it was the last part of our journey and the project absolutely needed to get done - but, again, to Ketut that was, “no problem!”
I saw a few wood carvings around our hotel that looked interesting. I showed him these and then just asked him to make it as “Balinese” as he could. Ketut went into great detail about telling me some ancient Hindu stories and how we could put these on to the board, to which I heartily agreed.
One day when I went in for one of my routine check ups and photo-ops, I noticed that one side had the swastika planted right smack-dab in the middle of the board. Now, yes, the swastika is an ancient Hindu symbol which means peace and life, but to most of us Westerners, the Nazi’s have tainted that meaning somewhat. I was a little uncomfortable discussing this point but felt it just had to be addressed it to see if there was some type of compromise we could reach. Ketut understood and we both worked hard at finding a way to make it look less Nazi-like. (The Nazi’s changed the angle of the swastika for their version of it) In the end we found a way, the swastika stayed and I am happy that it did - it is a very important symbol to devout Hindu’s in Bali and, therefore, it belongs on my board. Sure, people may react to it at first back in Canada but it should make for a good conversation opener at best. In the end, Ketut was a hell of a wood carver and I enjoyed working with him greatly.
The following pictures are of the final stages of the congklak board and my next post on the project will be the final product…