THE BEAUTIES AND THE BEASTS

 SAYING IT IN STONE  - OR PLASTER 

Visitors to Bali will have admired the statues of events from Hindu ancestry - or just playful advertising.  Either way the sculpture skills and creativity are impressive.  Unfortunately, this brilliance perishes once the Bali Strait has been crossed and you're into Java.

Welcome

Malang is a popular stopover for the adventurous hoping to scale Guning Semeru, the highest mountain on the island or see the sunrise from Gunung Bromo.

There are also scores of Candi, the remains of Buddhist and Hindu temples, underscoring the city's importance as a cultural centre.  That doesn't extend to this memorial supposedly celebrating the 'excellence' of links between the army and the people.

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Be fearful

These ghastly figures getting face-lifts are supposed to represent learning (the student) religion (the Muslim cleric) the military (a soldier) and agriculture (a farmer).  Women have no place in this quadrumvirate as they are giving birth, washing and feeding these bug-eyed monsters.

Fortunately they're staged at a crossroads and often masked by banners advertising cigarettes, so not  too likely to scare the kiddies.  They can learn to smoke and destress from seeing these ghosts.

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