[Gustav]

In Balinese Barong play Rangda carries a white cloth, Kekudung, or in high Balinese, Kekereh (spelling according to Fred Eiseman Jr.). By putting it over her face she becomes invisible. Barong also has such a cloth.

Of course Rangda from Barong play has exactly as much to do with Wadon hilt as the real life person Queen Mahendradatta (or more precisely, Gunapriyadharmapatni) with Calon Arang.

But there could be one link, and that is tantric rites indeed. The other case, where a persons face is covered, is the "Giant from Pejeng", Bali, and the Chatuhkaya from the same place. Both depict abstract masks instead of faces, on giants statue the masks fastening with ribbons is clearly discernible. Both pieces depict demonic figures, Bernet Kempers calls the Giant Bhairava (Bhima is also proposed as possibility, he notes there are several Bhimas - the hero from Mahabharata, Bhima as semi-divine figure, redeemer and initiator into certain mystic circles, and Bhima as one of the eight manifestations of Siva, with terrifying appearance - with preference for the last one) and writes "The Giant and his companions seem part of Siva's spiritual ambiance, suggestive of certain mystic rituals which apparently took place in the Pejeng region. ( A rakshasa figure in Pura Pegulingan, Pejeng, carries an inscribed shield. According to K. C. Crucq the characters reveal the rakshasas name: dha(h ma) dasara, "the honorable Boozer")." In his book "Ancient Indonesia Art" he depicts also a Kala head from East Java with a similar feature partly covering the face.

After the conquest of Bali in 1343, according to Nagarakrtagama, supervisors from Java are sent. There are nine Buddhist domains. "Eight are kept by Bajradharas (vajra-bearers), or tantrists. Only one was cared for by "observers of the vinaya (disciplinary regulations)", people apparently following earlier regulations." (Bernet Kempers)

It seems to me, one crucial element of Wadon hilt is, that it itself is an embodiment of idea of transformation. The women's figure (which fits the Indian iconography of a widow with unadorned arms and ancles, more or less exposed more or less hanging breasts) is in a shift between a very realistic depiction and a planar hilt, where sometimes only head and arms, marked as lines, are still discernible.

The figure becomes invisible indeed.