It has been called Morning of the World
Heaven on Earth
and The Last Paradise
Born of the fiery volcanic eruptions
Bali is one of the chain of islands
that stretches between Southeast of
Asia and Australia
On this isolated dot of land
an extraordinary civilization developed
which remains unique on earth
Here, vibrant religious beliefs find
expression in music
dance, art and rituals created to
please the gods
and placate and demons of
the spirit realm
Admiring visitors have long feared
this culture was doomed
But the Balinese select what they desire
from the outside world
while clinging to their age-old ways
Everything remains centered on a
religion practiced only here...
and life itself continues to be lived
as a dance of devotion
Rooted in cults of ancient magic
fostered by rites of a mystical religion
it is a pageant constantly recreated
by its artists
Bali, masterpiece of the gods
In the beginning there was nothing
All was emptiness
Then, say the old manuscripts
a turtle floating on the ocean
was created
and resting upon it
the island of Bali
High in the skies
were the flaming heavens of the ancestors
and over all, the realm of the gods
The depths were inhabited by demons
of the underworld
In the middle world dwelt the people
Early migrations added Malaysian
and Polynesian bloodlines to the
indigenous population
As the centuries passed
people and ideas swept in from India
China, and Java
Separated from Java by a strait of
just two miles
this speck of land 90 miles wide
is the only remaining stronghold of the
Hindu faith in the Indonesian archipelago
In Denpasar, the capital
the traditional and the new collide
head-on
Unquestionably the city is changing
as it attempts to deal with
congestion pollution
and overpopulation-problems common to
urban areas everywhere
But the people adapt skillfully
While utilizing material objects
and technology from the modern world
they hold fast to the powerful traditions
that give meaning to their lives
Some 1200 years ago
Hindu thought first fired the Balinese
imagination
The flames of belief were fanned as
successive tides of Hindu influence
washed over Bali from Java and India
From its precepts
the Balinese fashioned their
unique religion Agama Hindu
According to its teachings
the priestly class is the highest of
Bali's four castes
The high priest of Kamenuh begins
each day reciting magic formulas
accompanied by ritual gestures
to prepare holy water
It is used in such profusion
that the Balinese fondly call Agama Hindu
"the religion of holy water."
For the Balinese life is only apart of
a never ending cycle of death
and rebirth onto the same family
one step in the soul's long process of
evolution
Every newborn comes into this world
directly from heaven and is
therefore, treated with the reverence
due a god
The high priest and his priestess wife
officiate at the rite that marks
the 105th day of a baby's life
Until today
the baby was still so close to heaven
that she belonged to the deities
She was not yet a human beings
she did not even have a name
A temple priest purifies her
and magic symbols are inscribed on the
petals of a flower to protect her
While bound to the spiritual realm
she was never allowed to touch
the impure earth
Now, her feet touch the ground
for the first time
Relatives take gifts
symbolic of riches
from a vessel filled with holy water
and put them on her
This ceremony symbolizes the beginning
of the human struggle
The baby is now her mother's child
Rice is the divine gift that sustains
life on earth
About half the island's population
make their livelihood farming
the sculpted rice terraces
they call "steps of the gods"
Embraced by the ice fields
are thousands of villages
and hamlets where most of Bali's
two-and-a-half million people live
In these tightly-knit communities
every married man is obliged to belong
to the village ward
or banjar,
and work for the common good
Like generations of their ancestors
before them
Ketut Kantor and his cousin
Made Tubuh, were born
in the village of Batuan
They live and work side by side
Mrs. Kantor was born here too
she met her future husband
when she was six years old
When they married
she moved into his family compound
Behind its enclosing wall
the compound is laid out according to
a prescribed pattern
By night its open pavilions
are used for sleeping
by day for family activities
The villages of Batuan is renowned
for its artists
Mr. Kantor observes
"In Batuan
most people participate in the arts
Without art, people would not be normal"
Each person must have a feeling for art
painting, dance, even working in
the rice fields"
Fifty years ago
the renowned American anthropologist
Margaret Mead noted
that the arts are part and parcel of the
daily life of the Balinese
as much as the village community
or the irrigation system
The compound is a little universe
complete with everything from a family
shrine to a fruit
and vegetable garden
Bananas and other fruits, coffee
and vanilla are grown here
Little is wasted
Long ago I studied weaving
with my mother
I began when I was about eight years old
Some of the things I weave
are given to my children to wear
to the temple
I very much enjoy making offerings
because since I was a child
I was attracted to the decorations
Making them is not really work
Our belief in God makes it pleasurable
Mr. Tubuh's daughter, Deni
has come from her home next door to help
Soon she will move here
she and the Kantors' eldest son plan
to marry
Everyday the woman place offerings
throughout the compound to appease
the gods and spirits
These, made of rice dough are specially
prepared for a temple celebration
After school village boys congregate
at the Kantors' home to learn to dance
In Bali
children dance like American youngsters
play baseball
Kantor has been dancing at religious
festivals since he was a boy
His sons are accomplished dancers, too
But today they play gamelan
the shimmering music of gongs
metallophones, cymbals, and drums
that accompanies all religious
and theatrical events
Mr. Kantor's father
the late Nyoman Kakul
was one of the most famous
Balinese dancers of his day
He also taught dance to many of the
royal families
Recalling historic battles
the baris dance emulates
the fierce poses
and frightening expressions of
the warrior
Teaching dance
Kantor fulfills his obligation
to his community
and his father's legacy
A system of water temples high
in the mountains
coordinates rice farming for the
entire island
The farmers are organized into subaks
age-old cooperatives that insure
even the lowest terraces receive their
share of water
Mr. Kantor's father bought rice paddies
with money he earned touring world
capitals in a Balinese dance troupe
My father taught me how to read the fields
use the cows
and the best time to plant
When we work and prepare the land
it unifies and makes us one with the land
As with every major event in Balinese life
a propitious day is selected for the
seedlings to be planted
Rituals will ensure protection
by the deities
and the rice will be watched
as closely as a developing child
Every morning and again
when the day's work is done
the Balinese baths in village
or local streams
For centuries
the highly productive rice-growing system
has freed the relentlessly
creative Balinese
to perfect the arts that serve
their community
On an auspicious night
Mr. Kantor will present topeng
a masked dance-drama
for his ancestral gods
With offerings
he requests permission from the ancestors
to perform and use the masks
He says
These are sacred masks that were used
by my father
gifts from priest and kings
Some are 200 years old
The first time I performed
outside my village
my father arranged for a special
ceremony
for my thoughts and feelings to become
one with the masks
When my father d*ed
I dreamed he asked me to dance
at the temple
I took this mean that he gave me
permission to wear his masks
The masks represent historic characters
prime ministers and kings
as well as clowns
With them he enacts stories based
on Balinese chronicles
Before I perform
I often dream of my father when I dance
we dance together
As stories of the past echo
into the present
the children learn the history of
their island
thus binding the generations together
While pleasing the gods
Kantor's dance provides him
and the community with spiritual
enrichment
The success of human endeavor depends on
continually keeping the worlds of men
gods and demonic powers in balance
Communion with divine is made possible
through temple celebrations
Traditionally
art has not been created
as the expression of the individual
but as a group effort to serve the gods
and society
The Balinese have no word for art
Yet entire villages are made up of
families of rice farmers
who are also brilliant sculptors
dancers, musicians, and painters
The villages of Mas has long been famous
as a community of wood-carvers
Ida Bagus Anom is a mask-maker
as were his father and grandfather
Anom himself is a masked dancer
so he has a deep understanding
of the qualities
with which a good ritual mask
must be endowed
In Bali we can see two kinds of masks
One mask is for decoration
So when we start a mask like this
...and I finish it
But the mask has no power
no soul, no spirit
That's one
Another one is the mask that
has a spiritual
or in Bali we believe the mask
has a soul
So if I make a mask like that
the first time cutting the wood
I must find a good day
like a full moon, new moon
And then when the mask is finished
we make an offering
and then bring it to the temple
and the priest calls the spirits
So a lot of it is with the religion
activity
The most difficulty to make a mask
is to keep character, spirit, soul
If you want to make a minister
you must keep the soul
the character like a minister
If you make a king
you have to keep the soul
to the mask like a king
So you need to know the story
behind the mask
When I am making a mask
when I am carving a mask
I am already thinking about the movement
and the music, the melody
So, like music, Carving, and dancing
you must have a connection
with each other
So when I'm carving a mask
I be thinking about the movement
Anom continues to create expressive
masks for religious performances
He also makes original and inventive
masks for international art collectors
who eagerly seek his craftsmanship
As foreigners became more interested
in Balinese creations
art entered a new era in this century
But the connection between art
and religion endures
In the village of Pengosekan
headman Dewa Nyoman Batuan exhibits
and sells his artworks
and those of his villagers
Batuan reflects on the nature
of Balinese art
Paintings start form religion
because everything is coming from God
Everything is coming from God
Because when we make painting
first we must think about God
Painting makes men closer to God
Bima is a character form the Mahabharata
a 2000 year old Hindu narrative poem
In this painting that illustrates
the Balinese cosmos
he stands on the turtle
that balances the world
Below, hell is full of demons mythical
creatures and miserable humans
Bima must rescue his father's
soul from hell
and secure its admission to heaven
The painting mirrors the pervasive
influence of Agama Hindu on the arts
A thousand years ago
the flickering movements of the
wayang kulits
or shadow play, were brought from Java
Puppets cast their shadows on a screen
as they are manipulated by a mystic
storyteller
The cinematic images he creates are
a favorite entertainment
comparable to our TV
His assistants help set up the puppets
noble character on the right
evil characters on the left
Based on Hindu epics
this traditional form of spiritual
education
also incorporates issues of topical
concern to the villagers
Most of the play is presented
in classical Javanese
a language not understood
by most of the audience
Only the clowns
the characters with movable mouths
speaks Balinese
They reinforce the story with the help
of slapsticks humors
The performance will last far into
the night
At the end, evil will be vanquished
the cosmos restored to order
At Pangarebongan Temple on the outskirts
of the capital
a festival links the worlds of men
and spirits in one of the most mysterious
of all Balinese rites
A barong,
mythical protector of mankind
is escorted into the temple
Within, scores of boys and
men prepared to enter trance
In her 1939 landmark film
Margaret Mead documented this
fascinating phenomenon
Rangda the witch is the Balinese
embodiment of evils
Each of her followers carries a dagger
called a kris
After an altercation between Rangda
and the Barong
the Barong tries to revive his entranced
followers
When all have fallen into trance
they turn their daggers on themselves
The participants believe fully in trance
and the protection of Rangda
and the Barong
The daggers will not pierce their skin
no matter how hard they push
Trance is an altered state
like hypnosis
in which the Balinese put aside their
usual decorum
It is genuine
and still widely practiced
Trance mediums pray for the spirits
of gods and demons to enter them
Once in trance
they are believed to be in direct
contact with the spirit world
They are led outside the temple
by warrior dancers
who wear black and white
symbolic of good and evil
Rangda appears
Simply putting on the spiritually
powerful masks
causes those who wear them to fall
onto trance
Through this communication between
the gods and the living
the deities demonstrate their presence
and power
Such rituals have kept the Balinese world
in harmony for generations
As foreign artist and anthropologists
spread the word of Bali's splendors
in the 1920's and '30s a few hundred
foreigners came here each year
In 1969 the government built a jet
airstrip
The next year, 24,000 people visited
Two decades later the number had jumped
to 400,000
Fearful of uncontrolled growth
the government has restricted large
hotels to the southern tip of the island
After a single highrise hotel was built
a law was passed to regulate construction
No new building can be higher
than a coconut palm
Some visit Bali just for the beaches
At the same time
many discriminating visitors
come to Bali
for what has been called cultural tourism
They have become patrons of the arts
Their interest in Balinese creations is
a source of pride for local artists
who have found a new source of income
by simply continuing to do they have
always done so well
Since the 1920's, Balinese painters
while retaining native subject matter
have found inspiration in the works of
visiting Western artists
Experimentation in themes, materials
and approach has resulted in a fusion of
folk art and modern style
Sanur Beach has been the site of
invasions by the Dutch
the Japanese, and more recently, tourist
Despite inevitable change
the people retain their village
lifestyle
Eleven- year-old Wayan Mastri and her
schoolmates live in Sanur
It was the Indonesian government
that opened education to girls
Today, education is compulsory for all
with parents required to pay a small fee
On Mondays school begins with the
singing of the national anthem
in the Indonesian language
an important element in unifying the
world's fifth largest nation
made up of diverse cultures
languages, and religions
While other classes are taught
in the Bahasa Indonesian language
religion is taught in Balinese
Just steps away from a popular beach
yet worlds away
Mastri and her family live
in a simple compound
They work together
making kites
to supplement the modest
living her father earns as a fisherman
It takes a full day to craft one kite
They are sold to tourists for about
$10 each
The Balinese themselves are very fond
of kites
Mastri's younger brother and sister
take their own gaily painted birds
to dance in the wind above Sanur Beach
At festivals celebrated on each
temple's anniversary
the gods are called down
from their home above the mountains
and greeted with elaborate offerings
Mastir and her family join the stream
of worshippers
at the Temple of the Dead in Sanur
By cleaning and decorating the temple
As well as preparing offerings
everyone has shared in creating the
festival
The gods will remain on earth
for these days
the temple alive with the prayers of
the entire village
When the festival ends
the gods will depart until next year
when they will be summoned again
For most Balinese the sea
is a terrifying place
a realm inhabited by demons
of the underworld
Remarkably
Bali is one of the new island societies
oriented away from the water
But when the tide is right
Mastri's father and brother brave
the danger
They have no boat and only a minimum
of equipment
The boy is learning from his father
how to catch the tropical fish
that provide most of the family's income
He will sell the fish to an exporter
for a few cents each
In the compound they prepare the fish
for shipment to Australia
The Bags are filled with oxygen
for the flight
The fish will be sold at high prices
to shops that cater to tropical
fish fanciers
At the Tandjung Sari hotel on Sanur Beach
Mastri and other local youngsters are
taught traditional dances
The management has created a foundation
to preserve music and dance
They believe that since hotels
are replacing rice fields
as the economic base here
they have a responsibility to the
villagers
Every Saturday night Mastri and
the others
are transformed from school girls
into court dancers
Legong Kraton
its story drawn from 13th century Java
was once performed only in royal palaces
Traditionally legong is danced by girls
who have not yet reached the age of
puberty
Every performance is preceded by rituals
to insure that the spirit world will
be benevolent
Contemporary anthropologist
Philip McKean observes
Often the "young find their identity
as Balinese framed by the mirror
that tourism holds up to them
This has led many of them to celebrate
their own traditions with continued
vitality
This legong portrays a kidnapped princes
lost in the forest
a heroic prince,
and an omen-bearing bird
Dances learned here are also performed
in the banjar and village temples
The dancers receive a small token payment
But their deepest reward is in
filling a spiritual need in themselves
and their community
There is growing awareness in the
Balinese
of the priceless value of their culture
and its potential vulnerability
ASTI, the performing arts college
in the capital
is under the direction of
Dr. I. Made Bandem
Son of a dance master
he learned to dance
and play gamelan instruments in
his village
Later he earned advanced degrees
at UCLA and Wesleyan University
ASTI has 400 students and 60 faculty
members
Dr. Bandem also invites dance master
from the villages
to share with students the diverse styles
found throughout the island. Dr. Bandem
Dr. Bandem...
Our curriculum in ASTI is really a
combination
between ideals of villages and
also modern school
ASTI is not separated from the society
to which it belongs
The subjects they learned at school
is not only technique, music, and dance
but also learning anthropology, history
and other related cultural background
so they can strengthen their
appreciation of Balinese artist
In the countryside
the meticulously tended rice terraces
yield their golden bounty
as they have for centuries
Working together
the Kantor family gathers the st*lks
one by one
Mr. Kantor says
Rice is a very great gift from god
Rice gives life to the Balinese people
For the Kantors
this marks the successful culmination
of another cycle
A ceremonial dish delivered
throughout the banjar serves
as the invitation to a unique rite of
passage
This is the tooth-filling ceremony
a ritual that symbolically concludes
the parent, child relationship
The high priest has blessed
his instruments
to make the operation painless
After death
one may be denied entrance
to the spirit world
if his teeth have both been filled
The priest files the points of the
canine teeth to form a straight line
This diminishes what the Balinese
consider "animal qualities"
greed, anger, and jealousy
The fillings will be buried
in the family temple
Marriage is the final initiation
into the community
All Balinese know their most important
duty is to raise a son
who, one day, will perform the cremation
ceremony for his parents
From her home next door
Deni walks to the Kantors' compound
for the rite
that will unite her with their eldest son
A priest purifies the couple with holy
water and prayer
They walked in a circle three times
Deni balances a market basket
Wayan carries food to suggest
how he will provide
The moment when Deni breaks the string
signals the end of their lives
as individuals
their entrance to a new world as a couple
Age-old gestures insure fertility
In the Kantors' family shrine
Deni
takes leave of her ancestral gods
From this day forward she embraces
those of her husband
All over the island villagers gather
at their banjars
to prepare for a momentous event
A fine cremation is the life long
ambition of very Balinese
But a grand send-off requires the work
of many hands
and much money
Mass cremations
for which the entire village shares
expenses
are the answer
Teams of artisans fashion sarcophagi
for the great celebrations
In the Kantors' village the rhythm
of the kulkul announces
that cremation ceremonies will soon begin
The people have spent years saving
for this day
In the graveyard villagers...
...custom
they may be buried for 25 years
or even longer,
before the all-important cremation
Mr. Kantor reflects
As we dig up our ancestors' remains
we remember how they helped is and
gave is a good life
Now we are without them
We are very saddened
Mr. Kantor's mother in law d*ed
six years ago
Now her bones are carefully
arranged in a white cloth
Village men and boys assemble
to carry the bodies
a symbol of their loyalty to the deceased
The families carry wood
for the cremation pyres
Strict caste rules dictate the shape
of the sarcophagus
Because Mrs. Kantor's mother was
a member of the Sudra caste
her sarcophagus is shaped like a
mythical elephant, fish
The raucous, joyful journey to the
cremation grounds begins
The sarcophagus are turned in
all directions
to confuse the souls of the departed
and ensure that that will not wander
back to their homes
Carrying holy water and offerings
they have spent weeks preparing
the Kantor join the other families
at the cremation grounds
Again, the remains are purified
Offerings also serve as fuel
Only when the body is destroyed
is the soul free to be reunited
with the Supreme Being
This act is the most sacred duty of
every Balinese
Our greatest happiness occurs
whenever we are successful
in carrying out a good cremation
and freeing our ancestors
from the connection to earth
This type of ceremony does not cause
us sadness
but creates a moment of happiness
Cremations are a ceremony to free the
souls of our ancestors
a way of ending a long life and
at the same time
beginning a new one
The ashes are taken to the sea
the final act in the cremation
that marks the passage from this life
to the next
And between incarnations the soul
resides in a place just like Bali
but devoid of all trouble and illness
In the endless round of life
by carefully discharging their
sacred duties
the Balinese have kept their world
in balance for centuries
The effects of modernization on
contemporary Bali
are profound Paradoxically
tourists help preserve
and renew the arts
while propelling the Balinese
toward a share of the wealth
that all developing communities require
Ever since they first arrived on these
shores
admiring outsiders have feared
that foreign ideas might swamp this
finely tuned society
But while the 20th century
has given the Balinese new ways of
looking at their world
it has also renewed their determination
to preserve their ancient heritage
As long as they remain bound together
by ties of community, economics
religious rituals, and ancestral loyalty
Bali will remain an oasis of beauty
and belief-
the masterpiece of the gods
National Geographic: Bali - Masterpiece of the Gods (1991)
Moderator: Maskath3