CONFERENCE AND FESTIVAL ‘NORTH BALINESE CULTURE’

July 30^th – August 2^nd

Singaraja, Bali

www.northbali.org

Henrice Vonck 081 236 713 448

The town of Singaraja, sitting on the north coast of Bali, will host the conference and festival ‘North Balinese Culture’, to be held from July 30^th to August 2^nd, 2009. Its projected goal is to study the cultural heritage and artistic identity of the Buleleng regency, as well as to stimulate the revitalization of its artistic activity, particularly its performing arts.

It is obvious that the culture of Bali is far more complex than what can be seen in tourist guides. What’s more, the many researches that have been conducted on the island, somehow also fail to portray Balinese arts and culture in a way that could be qualified as  ‘complete’ One of the main factors lies in the fact that the vast majority of studies have been conducted in the south central region of the island. Consequently, southern Balinese cultural phenomena came to represent (at least for foreigners) Bali as a whole, therefore hiding from view many shades of this complex cultural continuum.

The conference and festival ‘North Balinese Culture’ aims to correct the situation by drawing attention on a rather neglected, but nonetheless culturally rich area of Bali: the northern regency of Buleleng, where the dynamic kebyar musical style was born around 1915. Initiated by Dutch ethnomusicologist Henrice Vonck, and headed by I Gusti Bagus Sudhyatmaka Sugriwa (president of the Foundation for the Preservation of North Balinese Culture), this multidimensional event is organised by an international committee further consisting of I Gede Yudi Gautama (leader of Tri Bhuana Giri), I Wayan Dibia (former director of ISI Denpasar), Hedi I.R Hinzler (Leiden University, Netherlands) and Éric Vandal (Gong Giri Kedaton, Montréal, Canada) and held under the auspices of UNDIKSHA (Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha Singaraja).

The conference part will feature a roster of (inter)national scholars who will deal, through presentations and lecture/demonstrations, with a broad range of topics relating to North Balinese arts and culture. Keynote speakers will be author and playwright I Gede Dharna and master dancer/musician I Wayan Dibia. Sessions will deal with North Balinese music, dance and drama, regional literature, wayang and vocal music, language, literature, tourism and more.

The festival part will include performances of North Balinese music and dance during lunch and after dinner, featuring a gong kebyar mabarung at the Sasana Budaya stage (Jl Veteran, Singaraja) on Friday 31 July. The event also marks the opening of ‘Roots of North Balinese Culture’, an exhibition of old photographs of parba, drawings and prasi in the Museum Buleleng (curator: Hedi Hinzler), and of a painting exhibition in the Aula Dinas Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata  (curator: Hardiman).

This is a unique chance to discover a ‘different’ Bali, certainly not to be missed. For more information and to subscribe, visit www.northbali.org.

Makepung or bull race is the only spectacular crowd-gather event that is held in Jembrana Regency. Even the regency itself is nick named after this sport event, Bumi Makepung or Land of Bull Race.

The origin of Makepung is quite a mystery, some say it began as nothing more than rivalry between local farmers; others assume that it is introduced by Madurese migrants to celebrate the end of the rice harvest.

This ancient competitive race takes place on a race track about 800 meters long situated outside Negara, the capital city of Jembrana. The races are usually held three times a year, in August, September, and October.

Only the handsomest, sleekest water buffaloes are chosen to compete. Once a bull has been chosen as a racer, it receives endless care and attention from its owner. It lives in luxury unlike its unfortunate brother or sister which works the fields. Potential champion is housed separately in comfortable lodging and fed special protein diet full to enhance its racing performance.

The Makepung starts in the morning and by mid-day it’s all over. Early in the morning, 100 water buffaloes decorated with colorful silk flags, ribbons and jangling bells are led into the race track by their owners. Hundreds of spectators are already gathered, mostly men and boys. The owners parade their buffaloes on the race track before the crowd of spectators. This prelude may take an hour or so.

After the parade session is over, the buffaloes are striped off from their ornaments and a pair of buffaloes is teamed with a brightly clad jockey. The paired buffaloes are yoked to a rickety, gaily decorated two-wheel chariot. Two pairs of water buffaloes or more compete in each race. To gain speed, the jockeys twist the bull’s tail and lash their backs with whips. These heavy, awkward looking, clumsy and meek animals transform into galloping juggernauts, capable of tremendous speed (60 kph). Entrants are judged not only for speed but also awarded point for strength, color, and style. The winning bulls are used for stud and fetch up to twice market value when sold.

A variation of makepung is the magembeng, in which a pair of bulls is harnessed together and decorated with elaborate ornaments. Huge wooden bells (gembeng) are hung around their necks, making distinctive sounds as the bulls race across the field dragging the colorfully dressed jockeys behind them on the skids.

Back in my childhood days, my friends and I used to play traditional Balinese children game called “meong-meongan” or “the cat” game. It is a simple game, derived from the well known theme of a cat chasing a mouse. But this time I will not talk about the game but the song that accompanied this game. The game is accompanied by a simple a joyful traditional Balinese children song entitled “meong-meong” (free translation into English: “cat, oh cat”)

The song runs as follow:

Meong-meong alih je bikule (cat, oh cat, please catch the mice)
Bikul gede-gede buin mokoh-mokoh (the mice are big and fat)
Kereng pesan ngerusuhin (always making troubles)
Juk meng, juk kul, juk meng, juk kul (catch the cat, catch the mice, catch the cat, catch the mice)
Dije nengeng ditu nengkul (where the eyes open widely, there crouching)

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Yes, a plain and simple song, but we sung it with a lot of joy back in those days. There were other traditional Balinese children songs like “goak maling taluh” (crow stealing egg), “Dadong Dauh” (grandma Dauh), Made Cenik (little Made), etc, that we used to sing during our playtime. Until now the memories of those songs keep coming back whenever I see my nephews, nieces and other children play together.

Unfortunately, they are no longer singing these old, plain and simple songs. They have a lot of toys now to play with. I believe their Balinese language teachers teach them this song at school, but since they do not play traditional Balinese children game the songs lose its significance. They just old, plain and simple songs that have to be sung in front of the class in order to get a good mark on Balinese language lesson. They do not sing them on the playground anymore.

Oh, how I long to hear those songs echo on the playground of my nephews and nieces once more.

Hundreds of children, mostly of 3 to 15 years of age, gathered in the inner courtyard of Duwur Bingin Temple, in Tegalalang village on Wednesday (4/22/09). They dressed in traditional clothes some of them were bare-chested. They had painted their faces and bodies with colorful images and pattern and each of them carried a slender staff made from the branch of palm, decorated with colorful flowers and young coconut leaves. They are the participants of Ngerebeg ritual.

The Ngerebeg ritual began with distribution of deity’s blessing by magibung ritual (eating collectively); 6 to 8 participants formed a group, they sit together around a set of food and ate it together. After megibung, they lined up in front of the temple to receive purification ritual with sprinkling of holy water by the priest. Then the noisy procession of freakishly decorated children began to hit the street of Tegalalang village.

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Hosted by Undiksha, Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha Singaraja. With the support of Yayasan Pelestarian Warisan Budaya Bali Utara (Bali), foundation Irama, BAKE society (the Netherlands).

Undiksha, Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha Singaraja presents the first International Conference and Festival on the ‘Cultural Identity of Buleleng’. Both Conference and Festival take place in the Bali Taman Hotel, Lovina Beach. Its aim is to (re-)discover the cultural heritage of the Buleleng regency, to describe, discuss and expose its artistic identity, and to stimulate the revitalization of its performing arts in particular. Highlights include a mabarung (competition) between east and west Buleleng gong kebyar orchestras, an evening featuring rare and sacred ensembles, and the presentation of contemporary and newly commissioned works. All concerts feature seniman tua (old masters). In the context of the conference, lecture-demonstrations will be given on the specific characteristics of North Balinese performing arts, and its interactions with south Bali. The conference also marks the opening of Roots of North Balinese culture, an exhibition of old photographs of parba, drawings, prasi and other works that have been preserved in Dutch libraries.

We still welcome contributions to the conference. Let yourself be inspired by the program below! We strongly hope that all known performers and scholars in the field will consider participating. We also hope young experts and artists will be present in large numbers.

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Sri Tanjung: The Scent of Innocence, the newly-created contemporary dance-drama was staged last night at Ksirarnawa building, Art Centre, Jl. Nusa Indah, Denpasar by dancers from Arti Foundation. This contemporary dance-drama was created by Gusti Putu Sudarta, Bali’s renowned artist (shadow puppet master, dancer, composer, and vocalist) from Bedulu village Gianyar.

This contemporary dance-drama is based on 17th century tale Kidung Sri Tanjung originating from Banyuwangi, East Java. In Bali, the story once gained popularity as the theme of a traditional Arja dance-drama, shadow puppet performance and the sung of ancient hymn (pesantian) but has since been survived in the realm of pesantian.

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A wedding for Balinese is not just the business of the happy couple but rather a family or sometimes the clan business and often the couple has left little to do in preparing their own wedding ceremony. As soon a Balinese couple announce their intention to hold a wedding ceremony, their families begin to take the main role in preparing the ceremony.

All members of the families, clan and sometimes member of the hamlet will eagerly participate in the preparation of the wedding ceremony. The elders of the family will consult a priest to find auspicious day for wedding ceremony. The male members of the families, clan, and hamlet will work voluntarily to decorate the venue of the ceremony, preparing the offering, slaughtering the pig, cooking the food, gathering materials for offerings and wedding ceremony, while the female members preparing the offerings and food and cake for the weeding ceremony. What is usually left to be done by the couple is determining the friends and colleagues to be invited to the weeding reception.

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For Balinese, a marriage proposal can be a delicate matter that need to be handled carefully and of course can not be the business of the happy couple alone, it is a family business and sometimes escalate further involving not just relatives but also the members of the clan.

When a Balinese man wants to propose a Balinese girl, he not just announces his intention to the girl but also to her family. He has to come before the girl’s family and announces his intention. The girl’s family will require the suitor to hold an official proposing ritual that is usually called “ngidih” (requesting or proposing). The suitor usually will request a time to discuss the best day for “ngidih” with his family. After discussing with his family, the suitor will proposed a propitious day for the “ngidih” to be commenced, the girl’s family review this date and when the agreement is reached, both of the families will make a preparation for the “ngidih”.

Continue reading ‘Marriage Proposal a la Balinese’

Two men, standing on the white sand of Kuta beach, facing each other, tried to find an opening in each other stance and movements while keeping smiles on their faces. Then suddenly they charged each other almost in unison. In a flash, one of them prostrated on the sand, thrown by the other. A round in a mepantigan match was over.

More Story | Kuta Map

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If the government and private company officials has Kerta Kawat temple a place for requesting advancement in career, then the traders and businessmen has Melanting temple for requesting prosperity and good luck.

As a matter of fact there are hundreds of Melanting temples that create a network all over the island of Bali. Each traditional market in Bali has its own Melanting temple (temple of trader) from which the traders and businessmen ask for fortune. The core of this Melanting temple network is main Melanting temple that is located in Banyupoh village, Buleleng regency, around 5 km from Pemuteran.

More Story | Pemuteran Map

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