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swap meet find. 23" tall each. heavy. hand carved and hand painted. thinking mayba Thailand or bali? maybe dragon boat prow (bow of boat)? thanks in advance. gregg

These heads of Naga (a type of Hindu dragon deity) appear stylistically to be from Bali and probably are fairly recent. The square pegs on the bases suggest they might have been made for a temple installation. They are seen in stylized form on the end of bargeboards, the ornamental extensions of roofs seen on Buddhist temples around Southeast Asia. The multi-headed Naga Muchalinda, also is seen sheltering the Buddha Sakyamuni from harm in Buddhist sculpture and paintings (see Burmese ivory below). In Hinduism, the Naga came to live in their underground kingdom by the command of Brahma, a Hindu deity with a historically large following on the island of Bali. I took a look online and would opine that your dragon heads look a bit small for the Indonesian dragon boats I saw.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thanks Bill H. Very interesting. How old do you think they may be? any value to them? I do plan on keeping them. Gregg

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