National Geographic: Bali - Masterpiece of the Gods Page #2

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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 died

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

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