HISTORY BALI

History of Bali

Bali has been inhabited for a long time. Sembiran, a village in northern Bali, was believed to have been home to the people of the Ice Age, proven by the discovery of stone axes and adzes. Further discoveries of more sophisticated stone tools, agricultural techniques and basic pottery at Cekik in Bali's far west, point to the people of the Neolithic era. At Cekik, there is evidence of a settlement together with burial sites of around a hundred people thought to be from the Neolithic through to the Bronze Age. The massive drums of the Bronze Age, together with their stone moulds have been discovered throughout the Indonesian archipelago, including the most famous and largest drum in Southeast Asia, the Moon of Pejeng, nearly two meters wide, now housed in a temple in east Ubud. In East Java and Bali, there has also been a concentration of carved stone sarcophagi, which we can see in the Bali Museum in Denpasar and Purbakala Museum in Pejeng.

Bali was busy with trade from as early as 200 BC. The prasasti, or metal inscriptions, Bali's earliest written records from the ninth century AD, show a significant Buddhist and Hindu influence; especially in the statues, bronzes and rock-cut caves around Mount Kawi and Gajah Cave. Balinese society was pretty sophisticated by about 900 AD. Their marriage portrait of the Balinese King Udayana to East Java's Princess Mahendratta is captured in a stone carving in the Pura Korah Tegipan in the Batur area. Their son, Erlangga, born around 991 AD, later succeeded to the throne of the Javanese kingdom and brought Java and Bali together until his death in 1049.

Bali is part of the Republic of Indonesia. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital in Denpasar towards the south of the island. Bali is home to a population of over 3 million, the vast majority of which are Indonesia's small Hindu minority. Bali is also the largest tourist destination in the country and is renowned for its highly developed arts, including dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking and music.


Bali lies between Java in the West and Lombok in the East. The island is 153 km long and 112 km wide (95 by 69 miles) with a surface area of 5,633 km². It is famous for its beautiful landscape. A chain of six volcanoes, between 1,350 meters and 3,014 meters high, stretches from west to east. There are lush tropical forests, pristine crater lakes, fast flowing rivers and deep ravines and picturesque rice terraces and fertile vegetable and fruit gardens cover its alluvial plains.

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. The beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black and grey volcanic sand. Bali has two active volcanoes. Mount Agung, Bali’s highest peak, rises to an impressive height of 3,142 m (10,308 feet). It last erupted in March 1963. An eruption around 30,000 years ago, from Mount Batur, Bali’s second active volcano was recoded as of one of the largest known volcanic events on Earth. The mountainous region covers Bali from its centre to the eastern side of the island. It is due to this terrain that the roads tend to follow the crests of the ridges across the mountains and the coast.

Culture

Anthropologists have suggested that the Balinese are an amalgamation of a number of races; The Chinese from the North, the Indians and the Arabs from the west and other racial groups coming directly to Bali, or by way of Java, from the east. They are blessed with golden-bronze skin, long, glossy black hair, charm and mystical smiles, happily living in a rich and dynamic culture. Although Bali has been influenced by numerous cultures throughout the ages, there are still pockets of villages where fraternization with outsiders is restricted. This is a people and a society that is known as the Bali Aga (Old Bali) which allows us a glimpse into the traditional culture of a Bali centuries past.


Balinese society is very community oriented. A person in Bali cannot exist in solitude. Much of the rituals require massive effort which the village shoulders co-operatively. Everyone has their role to play; from playing an instrument in the orchestra to dancing in ceremonies. This too, can be observed in their young. As the parents go to plant rice or tend to their daily duties, the children, all of whom are seen always on their best behavior, play with their age group but are constantly under careful watch of the older ones. Fights seldom occur and loud screams or cries are even rarer, as if they have been taught to be at harmony with their surroundings.
The Balinese have an interesting built in population-control mechanism through their naming structure. In Bali, the first child is called Wayan, the second child is Made, the third child is Nyoman and the fourth, the last, is Ketut. If one family should have more than four, traditionally, it’s back to Wayan, Made, Nyoman, and Ketut. The culture discourages a family having more than four children.

Some say that the Balinese people have reached the height of self-contentment. It is not an exaggeration when a Balinese is asked what heaven is like, he would say, “Just like Bali without the worries of mundane life”. The Balinese want to live in Bali and be re-incarnated in Bali. This does not imply that the Balinese are resistant to change. Instead, they adapt change into their own system of living.

Religion

Bali Hinduism is a faith that has roots in Indian Hinduism and in Buddhism. It adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenes peoples which inhabited the island around the first millennium BC. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil.

Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual and is less preoccupied with scripture, law and belief than Islam in Indonesia. In their arts, traditional paintings faithfully depicting religious and mythological symbolism meets with foreign influences that have given birth to contemporary works. They are free in their creative thinking yet strongly and distinctively Balinese. Wood and stone carvings, gold and silver crafts parallel the development of paintings, gracefully evolving with external forces to enhance their characters. In their dance, music and theater is laden with religious connotations again performed mostly to appease and to please the gods and the goddesses.


Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.
Kecak

The Kecak (pronounced: "KEH-chahk") is a Balinese music drama performed primarily by men, interestingly enough, without musical accompaniment. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, performed pieces by a circle 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth their waist, percussively chanting "cak" throw their arms in the air. People do not only provide the rhythm for this dance, but also acts as the various monkey armies that are shown in the story and the undulating snake in one screen.

In the 1930s Wayan modulus worked with German painter Walter Spies to create the Kecak from movements and traditional themes in 'Trance' exorcism ritual and the parts of the Ramayana. This collaboration between artists worked to create a good dance to authentic Balinese traditions but also suitable for Western tourists narrow tastes at the time. Wayan modulus popularize dance by traveling throughout the world with Balinese performance groups.

This describes an epic battle from the Ramayana where Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana, with the help of the white monkey army, to rescue his kidnapped Sinta Dewi.

This is an impressive dramatic performance not to be missed, especially against the backdrop of the Tanah Lot Temple at sunset.

Barong Dances

Dance presented here is called Barong Keket, the most popular of the Barong Dances. Keket Barong lion wearing a mask of the mythical monkey followers by his friend.
Name Barong depends on the animals represented in the Dance. If the mask is a tiger, 'Tiger' in Bali, who then called Barong Barong Macan.
Barong, a mythical creature long swayback and curved tail, showing a positive, protective of Man, the glory of the sun was high, and the favorable spirits associated with the right and white magic.

'Rangda', widow-witch, is complement the opposite. He controls evil spirits and witches. Its habitat is darkness and its power comes from the practice of black magic and the destructive power of the left.

Both the number of worldly same substance but has a strong magical abilities. A myth in a place in the past, the Barong was won to the side of humanity and, in the dance, fights on behalf of the people against the death Rangda disturbing forces.

Barong play represent the eternal struggle between Good and Evil. The story of Kunti Sraya, a favorite theme of the drama, comes from one of the major episodes in the famous Hindu epic, Mahabharata. This is about Dewi Kunti, the mother of the five Pandavas who for various reasons, has vowed to sacrifice Sahadev, one of five boys to Rangda.

Trance Trance

The Trance Dedari a ceremonial dance for prayer and ceremony. In this particular dance, the dancers become the medium used to contact the spirit world.

A group of women singing an old song for centuries, called the divine spirits from heaven dancing in the bodies of young girls as they kneel before a smoking censer. Dancers swaying to the rhythm of music and to increase the tempo of their fall to the ground unconscious.

They were picked up bodily by the maid and lift them to shoulder the people who brought them to the place where they will dance. Choral song now started again and the tiny figures, they shone a closed firmly, swinging to the music in perfect harmony, following the simplified Dance movement. These young dancers have never had lessons, and they could not repeat this performance in a normal state of consciousness.

Jaran Trance Dance Trance

Jaran Trance Dance is the male version of the Trance dance involving a man who tramples a fire of coconut husks on a horse, 'Jaran' in Bali. Jaran represented by a simple hobby-horse of palm leaves. Red hot embers spread and men danced in a trance like a horse, snorting and whinnying, apparently not affected by the ordeal.

Trance regular performances held in Bona and Gianyar allows them to short time in Bali to witness these rarely performed dances.

Line Dance

Line dance is a traditional war dance that glorifies the triumph of maturity of the Balinese warrior. The word line means rank or file of the army and called the soldiers who fought for the kings of Bali. There are various kinds of line, distinguished by the arms borne by the dancers; spear, lance, kris, bow, sword, or shield.

Initially, the dance is a religious ritual. The dedication of soldiers and their weapons during a temple feast. From ritual Baris Baris Gede grew dramatically, the story begins with a series of exhibition solo dances which shows the expertise of a soldier in combat. This is the current line that takes the form solo.

A line dancer must undergo rigorous training to acquire skills and flexibility, which described the elegance of dance polite. A dancer must be supple line, can sit on your heels, keeping his knees spread wide with her body. His face should be moved to convey malignancy, humiliation, pride, acute awareness and, most important, love and regret, noble qualities who likes to fight. The line is accompanied by Gamelan Gong. The relationship between dancer and orchestra is an intimate one with the gamelan fully adjust to the changing mood of the proud warriors will. As spectacular performance style, mental control and physical skills to intimidate the enemy worthy of the Line!

Dance Janger

A folk dance introduced to the island in three decades, Janger also has an origin in Trance trance ceremony, in which the women sang Trance and people take turns in a gruff voice from the Kecak. When the dance first came into existence, it spread like wildfire through the banjar. Every village should have Janger groups, and dance became a popular social event between boys and girls.

Flute began to track the strange, and distant voices singing a strange song that flows from hard melody to an almost inaudible higher tones. Two girl singers appear wearing a beautiful crown of flowers with multi-colored nails. They developed, which allows couples to enter, until twelve girls have filed on stage.

Slowly, they kneel opposite each other, cocking their heads and their eyes darted to accent the rhythm of the orchestra. As the song continues, twelve young men silently repeat the girls' entrance.

In contrast to feminine delicacy, their movements are deliberate and strong. All painted a mustache and wearing a confident bear to see a castle.

Suddenly, the formation of a man breaks into frenzied activity curves, jerk and Lunges-all in tight syncopation military exercises. In that instant, a shock wave to stop, people frozen in their positions, and bring the flute back to the lonely dance and singing gently rocked her. The juxtaposition of gentle movements of the girls against the dynamic pressure of them, the harmonious feminine song against the jagged sounds of men shouting, Janger artfully compose a dance, music and choir.

Kecak Dance

Painting, woodcarving and dancing reflect the soul of the Balinese. Traditional dances are performed especially on Hindus holiday and also to welcome visitors. The one you see below is ‘Kecak Dance’ which was performed on Galungan, the biggest Hindus holiday, at Pura (temple) Luhur Ulu Watu, up on a cliff at the most southern part of the island.

The Kecak Dance tells the Indian story of Ramayana. Rama, a warrior and rightful hier to the throne of Ayodya, is exiled with his wife Sita to a faraway desert. There, an evil king spies Sita, falls in love with her, and sends a golden deer to lure Rama away. Sita is captured, and Rama rounds up his armies to defeat those of the evil king and rescue her. Rama is the man in green dancing in the center of the circle, the golden deer is in yellow in the back.

What makes the Kecak such a fascinating dance to watch are the fifty or so men in the checkered pants. They are both the choir and the props, providing the music for the story in a series of constant vocal chants that change with the mood of the actors. They don't sit still, either, they wave their arms to simulate fire, and reposition themselves around the stage to represent wind and fire, prison cells, and unseen hand of protection from the gods.

The dance is played in five acts and lasts roughly 45 minutes. Weekly (in some places daily) performances of the Kecak abound around the island, but the most well-known Kecak theater is in the town of Batubulan just north of the Balinese capital of Denpasar. The dance company provides transportation for a nominal fee to and from the resort.

Attending a Kecak recital is a must for any visitor to Bali. It is a wondrous experience, and a window into the musical and artistic culture that make the Balinese a special people.