Bhoma

What it is

Bhoma is an earth power from the mythology of Bali in Indonesia. Stories give him charge of growth, fertility, and the border zone where wild forest gives way to fields and houses. Balinese Hindus do not merely tell his tale, they build it into their architecture. His face, carved in grotesque style, appears over temple gates, at the foot of the holiest shrine, on the doorways of some homes and on towers used at cremations. Wherever it stands, the image serves as a guard: it is believed to drive away spirits that mean harm. The carving carries meaning in its look as well, since one and the same face can strike a viewer as kind or as terrifying, depending on the intention that viewer brings.

Where it comes from

Balinese Hindu tradition gives Bhoma an extraordinary birth. In one telling of the myth, the gods Brahma and Wisnu tested their strength against each other and raised a vast pillar of energy stretching between sky and ground. Wisnu took the shape of a boar and plunged downward to find the pillar's foot, while Brahma climbed toward its crown. On this journey Wisnu met Dewi Pertiwi, the goddess of the earth, and their meeting produced Bhoma. His name traces back to Sanskrit bhaumá, a word for things that spring from, or belong to, the soil. His carved likeness also resembles the kirtimukha, a face motif used on Indian temples, a visual kinship across the two traditions.

How it is done

The carved head goes to specific spots. At a temple it marks the paduraksa, the gate that opens into the holiest courtyard, and it sits at the foot of the padmasana, the most sacred structure at the heart of a Balinese temple. When the padmasana carries one, the face is set above the base, over the Bedawang Nala, a turtle said to bear the world, and the paired dragons Anantaboga and Basuki. At home, the doorway of an enclosed pavilion such as the bale meten may carry ornamental fretwork that serves as a grill, crowned by a frieze sometimes cut in Bhoma's likeness. Cremation towers can bear the head as well.

Tools and materials

The medium is masonry and woodwork rather than a ritual kit: a face, worked in relief, becomes part of the building itself. Its neighbours on the shrine carry the symbolism. Under the Bhoma head at the padmasana's foot lie Bedawang Nala, a turtle believed to hold the world aloft, and the two dragon-serpents Anantaboga and Basuki, standing for the earthly needs of humankind. At that level the head is read as the forest ringing a mountain's foot, a zone the Balinese name batur pepalihan.

What it is for

The face at the gate does a job. Balinese Hindus hold that it repels spirits bent on harm, guarding the passage from the ordinary street into sacred ground. Its meaning runs deeper than a scare: the head stands for nature's power to generate life and to shield it. That power cuts both ways, and the carving shows it. Depending on the intention a person carries, the expression can be read as generous or as threatening, echoing a natural order that both nurtures and destroys. Set where the holiest courtyard begins, the image marks the line between settlement and the wild, the very zone Bhoma is said to inhabit.

Peoples and places

The motif is at home in Bali, Indonesia, and belongs to Balinese Hindu practice. It appears in two settings on the island: temple complexes, where the head guards gates and shrine bases, and private houses, where a doorway frieze may take Bhoma's form. Java, the large island next door, keeps its own guarding head in Batara Kala, and the two figures are spoken of as counterparts. Looking farther west, the Indian kirtimukha motif offers a close relative, since Balinese renderings of Bhoma look much like it.

What people believe

The setting is a layered cosmos. The padmasana, raised for Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, the supreme god, is built in three storeys: bhur below, the realm of demons, bhuwah in the middle for humankind, and swah above for the gods. At the bottom rest Bedawang Nala, a turtle that carries the world, and the dragons Anantaboga and Basuki. Bhoma belongs to this order as an earth power of the first age. Stories say he rose straight out of the ground and took shape as forest, tree and green growth, a picture of life beginning where water touches land. His realm is the seam between wilderness and the places people build.

Compare and confuse

Two neighbours invite comparison. On Java the guarding head at a temple belongs to Kala, called Batara Kala, and the Balinese Bhoma does the gatekeeping work that this figure performs, keeping watch over the complex. In India the kirtimukha, a face motif on sacred buildings, gives the closest visual relative to the Balinese carving. The three share a post at thresholds, yet each belongs to its own artistic tradition.

Today

Bhoma is no relic of the past. Balinese builders still set his head above paduraksa gates and at the padmasana, and families continue to crown the grilled doorway of a bale meten with a frieze cut in his likeness. Cremation towers, raised for each funeral, carry the face as well. In these settings the carving is treated as a working guardian rather than mere ornament, and its presence in both temple and home keeps an old myth in daily view.

Questions people ask about Bhoma

Good reading and sources

• Bhoma on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data