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Bali
Art and Culture
Bali is famous for its culture and beautiful natural view. The
culture is so unique and nowhere else to be found in the world.
The view is dominated by beautiful rice field terraces, coconuts
and rain forest as the main occupation of Balinese is farmer.
The culture and the nature have a strong relation with Hindu,
their religion. Everywhere you go, you may see many Hindu temples.
And their life is also strongly related with and influenced by
their religion. This is the reason why Bali is called the Island
of God, the Island of Thousand Temples, and the Paradise Island.
Below some interesting places in Bali Island;
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Barong-Rangda
(Kris Dance)
Good, in the shape of lion-like Barong is in conflict
with evil, the witch Rangda, Rangda's evil spell turns the knives
of the supporters of good on themselves, but benign magic saves
the day.
Kecak Dance
No other dance is as unnerving as the amazing Kecak. Up to
150 men simulate the orchestration of the gamelan. The only
sounds are the hypnotic 'chak-a-chak' sounds, evolved from
a ritual trance ceremony. Accompanied by this bizarre music
of human instruments, the storyteller usually relates and
episode from the Ramayana saga.
Legong Dance
The most graceful and feminine of all Balinese dances, telling
the story of a little bird warning the king not to go to war.
Panyembrahma Dance
This dance is performed by two beautiful girls. They hold
silver bowls full of flower petals. At the end of the dance,
they sprinkle the petals occasionally, paying homage to the
audience.
Baris Dance
This old traditional dance symbolizes how the Balinese soldiers
in the ancient time prepared themselves before going to the
battle.
Cendrawasih Dance
This dance represents the freedom enjoyed by the beautiful
wild birds of the forest. They fly and share their happiness
in the water spring.
Oleg Tambulilingan
This modern dance (1952) represents two Bumblebees in a beautiful
flower garden. One is female and the other male, falling in
love and flying merrily from one flower to another.
Frog Dance
This play is based on the story of a frog (Prince) who falls
in love with a beautiful Princess. Long time ago in the Kingdom
of Kahuripan there lived a Prince by the name of Jenggala.
The Prince was very fond of catching dragon flies especially
near Mount Kelud. One day without realizing, the Prince disappears
into the thick rain forest in the mountains while trying to
catch a very beautiful dragon fly. The Prince was never to
be seen after that and was believed that he was transformed
into a big frog. One day, the beautiful Princess of Daha was
passing through the forest and was spotted by the Prince who
fell in love with her immediately. The Prince proposed to
marry her but the Princess would only do so if he would change
himself back into the form of a human being. He then went
into asceticism and with the grace of God Wisnu, he become
a handsome young man again resembling the lost Prince of Jenggala.
Finally they were married and lived happily thereafter in
the Kingdom of Kahuripan, the new name of Jenggala.
Barong Buntut And Monkey Dance
This play is based on the story of good friendship between
a Barong (good) and two monkeys. Deep in the rain forest the
Barong and the monkeys were playing happily to the sounds
of the insects and birds. After a while, the Barong decides
to leave the monkeys and wonders of into the jungle to look
for food. All of a sudden, a big Giant (evil) appears from
nowhere and destroys everything in its way to get closer to
the monkeys and starts to attack them. The monkeys put up
a fight but the giant is too powerful for them to handle.
The monkeys shout for a help and the Barong comes to their
aid. A fight between the Barong and the Giant takes place
and it goes on for a long time where the Barong defeats the
Giant. The rain forest becomes calm and peaceful again.
Sanghyang Trance Dance
The Sanghyang Dedari is performance by two girls, and is very
similar in style to the Legong; the main difference ence is
that the girls are supposedly untrained and can keep in perfect
time with each other, even though their eyes are firmly shut.
In the Sanghyang Jaran, a boy dances around and through a
fire, riding a coconut palm hobbyhorse. This is frequently
called the "Fire Dance". In both dances, a priest
is always on hand to help bring the dancers out of their trance-state
at the end of the performance. Check
schedule of Shanghyang Jaran Dance
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Arja and Drama Gong
A performance of Arja, Balinese folk opera, can hold
an entire village engrossed from late evening until nearly
sun-rise. Love stories drawn from the classics of the ancient
king-doms of Java are reenacted with all of the tragicomic
and ro-mantics ingridients guaranteed to appeal. The royal
characters move in a slow stylised dance and sing and talk
in a high fal-setto using high Balinese which is translated
into the common language and which is much more easily understood
by the audience. Drama Gong is a development of Arja that
is pre-formed by actors and a musical group without dance
and has recently become very popular in the community.
Ramayana
The epic story of Rama and Sita, often performed as a mixture
of traditional dance and modern motifs of comedy. The monkeys
enjoy artistic liberty and the unforgettable character Hanuman,
the white monkey general regularly enthralls audiences.
Shadow Theater
A white screen, a flame, music, and traditional puppets....conjuring
a magical and hypnotic performance.
Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet)
Wayang Kulit is one of the great story-telling
traditions of the Javanese and Balinese. The Wayang show normally
consists of a small 4-pieces orchestra, which provides the
musical accompaniment, around 60' puppets' carved out of flat
of pieces of water buffalo hide and Dalang, or Puppet
master. Good characters normally speak in ancient 'Kawi'
and evil or coarse characters speak Balinese.
Arjuna Wiwaha Ballet
Arjuna is one of the principal characters in the Hindu epic
of the Mahabrata. The Arjuna Wiwaha Ballet describes the nobility
and heroism of Arjuna. It is a tribute to his strength of
character and devotion to the God Indra. The Ballet opens
with the meditation of Arjuna, who is seeking the blessing
of God Indra to test his perseverance and spiritual strength.
The God puts him through many trials and send beautiful nymphs
to break his concentration, but they fail. He then sends the
giant Momosimuka to disturb his prayers, but the giant is
defeated by Arjuna. Finally, God Shiwa, disguised as a hunter
tries to lure Arjuna from his meditation. He too in unsuccessful
and Arjuna is accepted by God Indra who give him the arrow
of immortality and asks him to guard heaven from the evil
giant monster. In the mean while Dewi Supraba, the most dazzling
of all the nymphs has discovered that the monster's strength
lies in its tongue. While the giant is busy mocking Arjuna,
he shoots it in the tongue with his arrow and saves heaven
from destruction. Before he departs, he takes the lovely Dewi
Supraba as his wife.
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Art
Art is very popular in Bali and has important meaning for
the Balinese people. The focus of Balinese culture is art,
the many forms of which have been developed and studied inten-sively
the Balinese people as well as foreign students and art-ists.
The famous traditionaL dances are classified by some in three
groups 1) Wah, very sacred religious dances,
2) Bebali, as ritual preformance, 3) Bali-Balihan, dances
for entertain-ment.
Wood Carving
Wood carvers, who previously concentrated upon making statues
for temples and decorating instruments, door-ways and masks
for dramatic
shows, are now making nonfuncional objects purely for tourist
consumption. This has had an effect on the quality in some
cases, but it has also meant a re-naissance in the art of
carv-ing, with a whole group of new subjects being explored
by the naturlly tallented artists.
Painting
Painting has similarly undergone a rapid development as a
commer-cial art in Bali. The traditional Kamasan style Wayang
paintings with their epic stories portrayed in stylized illustrations
and rich brown and yellow coloring can now be found for sale
all over the island. Ubud is still the undisputed center for
painters, with road side galleries exhibiting the brightly
cotored "Young Atrisants" style of paintings showing
daily life in Bali painted in rich intricate detail. Less
frequently found are the simple; Wayang paintings with their
delicated shaded colors. The con-cept of individualism is
still relatively foreign to Balinese art-ists and it is usual
to find a thousand minor variations on the same subject producet
by one family of artists.
Textile
Weaving is a cottage industry and the finely woven Balinese
kamben, called sarongs by foreignrs, can be seen grow-ing
on the handlooms in numerous places along the Ubud road. Klungkung
is the home of the exotic brocades, or songket that are some
times woven in silk with threadsof gold and silver forming
the design. In Tenganan one of the original Bali Aga (ancient
Bali) villages, can be found the unique gringsing cloth which
is woven in a process that takes many mounths, all the treades
being carefully dyed before the weaving to produce in-tricate
design and patterns.
Metal, Gold & Silver
Making metal objects is also a well developed art in Bali.
For centuries the kris makers have been some of most respected
community members, as the weapon their produce, resplendent
with gold hilts and inlaid gems, are held to be a symbol of
the family they belong to, heirlooms, processing magical powers.
Many are the skills of the Balinese smiths, from making agricultural
implements to the precision tooled parts of musical instruments,
and the accessories of priest, (bells, incence burners, etc.)
Exquisite gold and silver jewelry can be seen being made the
simplest of tools in the workshop of Celuk.
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