Bali's Artisan Villages — Where Every Object Is Born

On Bali, craft has an address. You don't ask "where can I buy a good carving" but "which village is it from". For generations, individual villages have specialised in one thing so deeply that their names have become a guarantee — like Bordeaux for wine. Here is the map worth knowing before you buy anything "from Bali".

Because genuine handicraft can always be placed. If a seller can't tell you which village a piece comes from — that's the warning sign we describe in recognising the original.

Celuk — silver and gold

Thirty minutes from Ubud lies Celuk, Bali's silver village. The goldsmithing tradition here reaches back to the Majapahit era, and in the early twentieth century nearly every household worked in jewellery. The hallmark here is the division of labour: one piece passes through five or six pairs of hands, each a master of a different stage. We tell that story in our piece on Celuk silver.

Mas — woodcarving

Mas — literally "gold" — is a village of carvers just south of Ubud. Since the 1930s it has been the heart of Balinese woodcarving; nearly every household is tied to the craft. It produced the greatest masters, such as Ida Bagus Tilem — the first to use naturally distorted wood to carve abstract emotion. The favoured woods are nangka (jackfruit), suar and white hibiscus.

Pejaten — ceramics and terracotta

In the Tabanan region lies Pejaten, the potters' village. Here they make ceremonial vessels, the terracotta roof tiles that adorn temples, and everyday ceramics — on slow, hand-turned wheels, fired with rice straw. We write more about this village in our piece on Balinese ceramics.

Tenganan — geringsing and ata baskets

In eastern Bali lies Tenganan Pegringsingan — a village of the Bali Aga, the indigenous people from before the Majapahit era. It is the only place in the world where geringsing is woven — the double-woven cloth that takes years to make. It is also where ata baskets are made, smoked over coconut husks — see our piece on basketry.

Jepara — teak furniture

Though it belongs to Java rather than Bali, no map of craft can leave out Jepara — the town officially called the "world carving centre". This is where our solid teak furniture comes from. We tell its story in our piece on Jepara, the teak furniture capital.

In August we're visiting these villages ourselves — we'll come back with portraits of the artisans and stories straight from the workshops. Only then will this map truly fill in.