Shiva's Face, or Shiva Face, is a stone sculpture carved into the rock on Vagator Beach. Check your camera battery level, because you will definitely join the army of tourists photographing this attraction.
A serene half-smile is frozen on Shiva's face. A cobra is carved nearby — a sign of the eternity and immortality of the divine. The necklace of skulls symbolizes the transience of all material things.
This stone composition appeared in Vagator in the 1970s, when a wave of hippies flooded Goa. Around the same time, the Italian sculptor Antonio Caroli, a native of the town of Tauresano, came here on foot rather than by any transport. Here he received the nickname “jungle.” By the way, one of the names the sculptor considers his own is “Joseph,” in honor of Stalin, and he explains this by saying that his father was an Italian communist.
Like a true child of the sun, nature, and freedom, the artist threw his passport into the sea and for a long time lived right on Vagator Beach, sheltering from bad weather in caves. This is where he began to create.
Later, Caroli designed several famous restaurants, including the legendary clubs Curlies and “Paradiso,” and painted the ceiling at “Prime Rose.” Antonio now works at a museum in Apora.
