Rare Large Kamasan Astrological Calendar – Hand-Painted Hanging Textile

I purchased this original hand-painted Kamasan Astrological Calendar from a high class art gallery/museum in Bali over 50 years ago.  The calendar was part of their own private collection and they had owned it for 20 years, but with no space to display it in their museum they agreed to part with it.  It is therefore at least 70 years old.  

Cloth paintings like this were, and are, highly-regarded and much sought-after for use in the temples of Bali during festivals.  This type of Astrological Calendar, known as a Palelintangan, would originally have hung against the back of a bed and used for household rituals to determine propitious dates, character traits, offerings for healing, and to predict the future based on the day of birth.  

The Balinese Kamasan Calendar uses a system of 30 seven-day weeks to create a 210-day year.  Each 7-day week is named and has its own attributes.  This system runs concurrently with other weeks of varying lengths, like the five-day week, to create a 35-day month.  The compartments of the grid contain images of the gods, spirits, animals and various symbols that represent different human attributes. The images are accompanied by Balinese script.

To provide a smooth surface for drawing and painting, the cotton cloth was boiled in rice paste and, when dry, the surface was polished hard, usually with a cowrie shell.

This Calendar is unusually large and is in exceptional condition for its age, having been safely stored first in a museum drawer and later archived in a drawer at my home.  The fold creases that are apparent in the photos will readily iron flat for framing and hanging.