08-20-13 Arma Museum

The longer we stayed in Bali, the more we realized how unpredictable our daily schedule would turn out to be. With a complete plan being made, we set out for ARMA Museum. The full name is Agung Rai Museum of Art, which displayed wide range of Baline artist from various. kinds of traditional styles to original contemporary art. Ms. Van Gelder and I ended up spending too much time wandering between paintings with no realization of how quickly time passed. We ended up running out of time for other planned activities, but the elegant taste and careful selection of artworks indeed required an entire day to digest.

Because we can't take pictures in ARMA museum, so there are only a few we took outside. 

08-19-13 First Day Wood Carving, Sukawati, Kecak

Starting from today, I will have my 5-day mask-carving lessons in Anom’s studio every morning. By the time when I am writing this paragraph, my mask has already surpassed my expectations by a lot, even though it has only been two days. I decided not to include the progress of my lessons in a daily journal, but to make a serial comparison when all is finished.

After mask carving, Ms. Van Gelder and I stopped at Sukawati Market and enjoyed looking through traditional Balinese baskets, handcrafts and offerings. Later in the evening, we watched the famous Kecak dance, also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, performed by a circle performers percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms. this dance depicts a battle from the Ramayana. The Kecak style is unique, even in Bali. At the end, there was a Fire Dance where a male dancer went into trance and danced over burning embers with his bare feet. Because he was in a trance state, the hot embers didn't burn his feet.

Anom, my wood-carving teacher, carving a chunk of wood

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suwakati market

woman selling flowers for the offerings

sawong! our favorite fruit

Kecak dance fire

08-17-13 New Family New Start

Day 15 8.17     

Today is the day to say goodbye to Pak Catra's family and move on to a new village, Mas. It seems unbelievable to me how fast time flies. Mas is a village famous for its woodcarving, and I will be learning mask-carving from Ida Bagus Anom, who was born into a family of traditional mask-carvers.

Saying goodbye to the family was hard, because after two weeks of engaging into all family activities, we really felt like family members. After a traditional Balinese banquet lunch waved goodbye, we drove to Mas in whereI embraced my new family – Ari and his four children. At the point when I was writing this, I sincerely wish that I could stay in Bali for a longer time.

With everything being settled down, Anom accompanied us to Setia Darma House of Mask and Puppets to give me a history and context for my mask carving lessons. Over 1200 masks and 4700 puppets are included in the collection; not just Balinese, puppets are collected all over the world. Some Chinese dancing lions, for instance, were exhibited next to Balinese barongs (the same kind of lion-like creature), so the difference and similarities between them was made evident. With Anom explaining, I started to develop a concept of what I will be doing on the next day. Something fun!

javanese styled masks

Balinese barong (left) and Chinese lion dance (right)

typical Balinese mask

typical Balinese mask(2)

typical Balinese mask(3) - he's a clown

typical Javanese styled puppet

something interesting - shadow puppet of bible 

an amazing entrance

huge cremation we walked pass

fume 

me with a giant balinese puppet

08-15-13 Gamelan, Vocal Lessons and Making Offerings

Day 12 8.15 My accomplishment of yesterday was finishing my first gamelan gender piece. After making my first step into Balinese dancing and music, today is time for vocal lessons. Kadek taught me an easy folk song with only six lines, named Ginada. As a Balinese performing artist, one has to sing and dance along the gamelan music at the same time. Kadek has been a great teacher of Balinese culture to me during my stay; she’s about the same age as me, by talking with her I could get a sense of the perspective from the younger generation in Bali as well. On the same day, she also taught me how to make offerings called canang. There are many kinds of offerings required for daily prayer; ususally Balinese use banana leaves and rice straws as base materials, flowers and grass as decoration. In the old days, making offerings is the sole entertainment for Balinese women at night. an old Balinese woman in the market.  street view head decoration offerings I made Gender random shot of a roof random shot of a roof (2)

08-16-13 Shadow Puppet Course, Sura’s cremation and Tenganan

Day 14 8.16

In the morning Pak Catra spent time teaching me some shadow puppet techniques. Shadow puppet is called Wayang kulit and the dalang (puppet master) performs the wayang behind the cotton screen illuminated by oil lamp or modern halogen lamp, creating visual effects similar to animation. Dalangs are all highly respected scholars in Bali. Because they need not just techniques of voice change or abilities to improvise, also historical knowledge of ancient texts and fluency of Kawi, the old language from Java. Pak told me a bit about the historical  background; the caracters used in the play are all from the Mahabharata. Similar to the Arja dance, it is enhanced with  jokes on comtemporary issues. There are different types of characters in the play but dalang is the only person manipulating the puppets, so he must speak different levels of Balinese or Kawi for each character. The amount of knowledge and skill a dalang  needs to obtain is incredible, that is also the reason why most dalang are in their 60s or 70s. I was so absorbed and fascinated listening Pak explaining all these things to me, until we were told it’s time to have brunch .

After brunch we set out for Nyoman Sura’s cremation. The cremation was not a big one, so it didn’t require many decorations. Three coconut beds were put in a row. I was accidently standing very close to one bed when no one was there. Then the family carrying the body came, all surrounded me and put the dead person into the bed. I couldn’t get out or get any closer. So I stood there, watched the priest casting blessings, water and rice on her and covering her with cloths. Everyone around me started singing solemnly in Balinese. There were no tears but only blessings. Surrounded by their funeral songs, I fell into a state of melancholy. Then they burned the entire coconut bed; fume rose and filled up the overhead area. Everyone backed off and watched gods taking their loved ones to the sky.

Tenganan village was our next destination. It is a weaving village known for its geringsing double ikat textiles. “This demanding technique is only known in three places, India, Japan and Indonesia. In Indonesia it is only produced in the village of Tenganan.” Due to the enormous amount of time and inherited techniques it requires, double ikat textiles are quite expensive now. Ms. Van Gelder has been collecting textiles over 20 years and has comprehensive knowledge of all genres of textiles. During our walk through Tenganan, she presented me many different styles of Indonesian textiles with detailed explanation of their history and characteristics. Tenganan village is not a place where inhabitants have been able to keep their traditional way of living and weaving anymore as they have more or less given over to tourism. But Ms. Van Gelder’s explanations made this short visit a really meaningful one; I gained a lot of knowledge and became deeply impressed with Indonesian textiles.

shadow puppets

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people carrying offerings

started burning

fume 

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a shop in tanganan

all authentic double ikat

08-13-13 pak performing + memorial

Day 10 8.13

In the morning we attended to a closing ceremony for temple blessing in our neighborhood. Most of those ceremonies look similar at first; they take place everywhere and happen all the time in Bali. After spending ten days in here and going to ceremonies like this one almost every day, I started to enjoy being a part of the community and understand why Balinese never get tired of it. The ceremonies are not only about rituals or rules that were passed down from their parents; they are the way that Balinese socialize, communicate with each other, as well as practice their beliefs. During the  ceremonies I hear more laughter, see more chitchats, rather than sitting quietly in a solemn temple and listening to the priest. Because of that, religion becomes more joyful, natural and accessible to Balinese; wearing their traditional clothing, making offerings, and praying, all these daily are less like a burden to them especially to the younger generation. Kadek, the 18-year-old daughter, for instance, like all other Balinese women, does offerings every morning and evening. I can always see her dressed in pakian adat (traditional clothing) walking back and forth to the family temples and making offerings quietly when I wake up. This process, lasting for about half hour, is a daily duty of every Balinese woman. Teenagers in Bali like Kadek, still carry on the traditional rituals, while they enjoy modern technology brought from western world. That’s why in Bali I don’t see any  rituals growing extinct, but rather adjusted traditions being passed to the younger generation.

In the meanwhile Pak and Desak invited me to attend  a memorial to be held for Nyoman Sura, a young teacher who just died from cancer. He was a professor/dancer in his 30s and taught  choreography in ISI, the same university where Pak Catra and Ibu Desak teach. He used to be a student of Ibu  Desak. Everyone was shocked by his death. I can tell from the effort his students put into this memorial what a great person he must have been. Students voluntarily collected videos of his dance, invited singers or celebrities he used to dance with, and danced the pieces he had choreographed, dressing like him. Nyoman Sura had his distinguished personal style. His dance is modern, mixed Balinese elements, including traditional clothing with modern adjustments. Although we didn’t have any previous knowledge of Sura, I was awed by the performances and his videos. He wore masks and dressed all in white in his most classic dance; although the music was playing and everything else was loud, his movements brought a sense of complete quietness. It almost felt like Zen, finding peacefulness in the middle of a large crowd. At that time I was sitting in the audience, feeling deeply touched. This reminds me of not long ago on saraswati day, when pak was teaching me how to make a prayer in the Balinese Hindu way, dogs were barking and it wasn’t completely quite at that time, but none of this could disturb the calmness in my heart. In Bali, nothing is ever quiet – dogs are always barking, roosters crowing, birds calling, and gamelan playing… so Balinese learned to find their own type of peace, not by  being in a  physically quiet space, but mentally, through prayers and meditations.

pak performing

Balinese girl praying

portrait of a priest

pak catra

Echo and a jackfruit 

freshness

priest making blessings

offerings

08-11-13 On the Mountain and Playing Gender

DAY 8 8.11

After Saraswati day, today is the day to bless water. Balinese usually go bathing in the sea. Every beach we went to was so crowded. And it’s interesting to see how a lot of Muslims also came just to walk on the beach. They are probably not locals, maybe from other islands like java. Shortly after watching how people bathe, wedrove to Lake Bratan, the second largest lake in Bali. Lake Bratan is known as the Lake of Holy Mountain and temple of Pura Ulun Danu solemnly guards the lake. Pura Ulun Danu is an important water temple in Bali, also a famous tourist site due to its historical value. Because the family we’re staying were having a ceremony there, we had the good fortune to enter the temple next to the lake, which was not allowed for all the tourists to enter. After the ceremony, Pak showed us around and explained all the details on the structure if the architecture, history of the temple and Balinese religion. This is the very first experience I had in a place with tourism since the trip started, before we were all visiting places with just Balinese. And because Pak made a detailed explanation on how the rituals related to everything we saw, I learned so much and started to have a deeper understanding about Hinduism in Bali, different from what I’ve learned in class about Hinduism in India

Near lake Bratan, there is a market where they sell fresh fruits and other goods. Because of the high altitude and climate, fruits and vegetables grow well here. Overall, I just couldn’t describe how perfect everything is on top of the mountain – the weather, the food and the temples… 

At night I had my first gamelan lesson with Pak De, uncle of our Balinese family. The entire family are not just dancers, most of them can sing in the ancient language, i kawi and play gamelan music very well. I learned to play gender ( pronounced with a hard G)., an instrument constructed from a wood frame and ten rectangular, bronze keys suspended by strings. Gamelan gender wayang is considered one of the most complex genres of Balinese music and the sound it makes is very simple and calming. Because of my lack of previous instrument learning experience, I repeatedly practiced the easiest piece for a long time. It’s such an enjoyment to play gender because I almost felt like meditating. 

That night before I fell asleep, the “ding” and “dong” sound of gender kept whirling in my head and I knew there’s another day of adventure waiting for me ahead. 

smelling vanilla 

Ms. Van Gelder taking pictures

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learning Gender