Prie tea Go Blog: Return Of Condor Heroes 2006

Prie tea Go Blog: Return Of Condor Heroes 2006

The "Kecak Dance" -- A Wonderful Balinese Music Experience

Contributed in part by Veronica Siwi

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.

posted by : www.tompgalvin.com

Lake in Bali

A pedau or canoe on lake Tamblingan

The island of Bali has four lakes to help to keep the island green and water the farm lands.

There are Batur, Bratan, Buyan and Tamblingan lakes. All of them are situated on the hilly area of the island, and all formed inside the crater of ancient mountains. Lake Batur is the biggest, located inside the crater of ancient Batur great mountain in the northeast of Bali, meanwhile the other three lay close together in Bedugul area in northwest part of Central Bali.

How to reach Bedugul area

To reach Bedugul area we need 1.5 to 2 hours drive from Denpasar city. The ideal time to start the journey is early in the morning, around 8:00 or 9:00. We should follow the main road connecting Denpasar and Singaraja, the old capital city in the north. The route is; Denpasar, Ubung bus station, Kapal, Mengwi, Baturiti, and arrive in Bedugul with its Lake Bratan. There are some attraction along the road though, such as craft products in Kapal village, beautiful Taman Ayun Temple in Mengwi town, green lush plantations and forests in Baturiti, as well as fruit and vegetable market in Candi Kuning village.

Also it is a good idea to have lunch in Baturiti or around Bedugul and Candi Kuning before continuing our journey toward more remote lakes of Buyan and Tamblingan in the northwest of Bedugul. There are some fine restaurants in the mentioned areas, meanwhile the area around Lake Buyan and Tamblingan is relatively more remote, especially to find food. To bring enough drink, fruits or snacks is also a good idea.

posted by : www.balilife.com

The History Of Bali part 2

Though no artifacts or records exist that would date Bali as far back as the Stone Age, it is thought that the very first settlers to Bali emigrated from China in 2500 BC, having created quite the evolved culture by the Bronze era, in around 300BC. This culture included a complex, effective irrigation system, as well as agriculture of rice, which is still used to this day. Bali’s history remained vague for the first few centuries, though many Hindu artifacts have been found, which lead back to the first century, indicating a tie with that religion. Though it is strongly held that the first primary religion of Bali, discovered as far back as 500 AD, was Buddhism. Additionally, Yi-Tsing, a Chinese scholar who visited Bali in the year 670 AD stated that he had visited this place and seen Buddhism there. By the 11th century, Hindu and Javanese influences became very important to Bali. In fact, when the Balinese Prince Airlanggha’s father died in about 1011 AD, he moved to East Java, uniting it under one principality and appointing his brother, Anak Wungsu, the ruler of all of Bali. Following this time, there were many reciprocal political and artistic ideas that formed. Javanese language, called Kawi, became the aristocracy’s preference, among other Javanese traits and customs that were worked into Bali life. When Airlanggha died in the mid-11th century, Bali remained quite autonomous until 1284, when East Javanese king Kertanegara conquered Bali and ruled over it from his home in Java. Kertanegara was assassinated in 1292, and Bali was once again liberated, until 1343 when it was brought back into Javanese control by Hindu-Javanese general Gajah Mada, of the Majapahit empire. At this time, the 16th century, Islam was spreading throughout Sumatra and Java, and the Majapahit Empire started to fall, creating a large exodus of aristocracy, priests, artists and artisans to Bali. This brought Bali great prosperity, becoming Bali’s golden age of cultural history for the following centuries. Bali soon became the major power of the region, taking control of its neighboring country, Lombok, as well as pieces of East Java. In 1597, Dutch seamen were the first Europeans to land in Bali, though they had no true interest in Bali until the 1800’s. In 1846 the Dutch returned with colonization on their minds, having already had vast expanses of Indonesia under their control since the 1700’s. The Dutch sent troops into northern Bali, and by 1894, they had sided with the Sasak people of Lombok to defeat the Balinese. By 1911, all Balinese principalities were under Dutch control. After World War I, a sense of Indonesian Nationalism began to grow, leading to the declaration of the national language in 1928, as Bahasa Indonesia. World War II brought the Japanese, who expelled the Dutch and occupied Indonesia from 1942 until 1945. The Japanese were later defeated, and the Dutch returned to attempt to regain control of Bali and Indonesia. However, in 1945, Indonesia was declared independent by its very first president, Sukarno. The Dutch government ceded, and Indonesia was officially recognized as an independent country in 1949. posted by : www.asianartmall.com

The 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.

In 1284, Bali was conquered by Kertanegara, the ruler of the Singasari; until the turn of the century, saw Bali under its own rule under the hands of King Bedaulu of Pejeng, east of Ubud. 1343 AD, is an important date in Bali's history. It was then that the whole island was conquered by East Java under the mighty Hindu Majapahit kingdom. This resulted in massive changes in Balinese society, including the introduction of the caste system.

Balinese who did not embrace the changes fled to the isolated and remote mountainous areas and hill areas. Their descendants are known today as Bali Aga or Bali Mula that means the "original Balinese". They still live separately in villages like Tenganan near Dasa Temple and Trunyan on the shores of Batur Lake, and maintain their ancient laws and traditional ways. When Majapahit in East Java fell in 1515, the many small Islamic kingdoms in the island merged into the Islamic Mataram empire, Majapahit's most dedicated Hindu priests, craftsmen, soldiers, nobles and artists fled east to Bali, and flooded the island with Javanese culture and Hindu practices. Considering the huge influence and power of Islam at the time, it is worth pondering why and how Bali still remained strongly Hindu and Buddhist.

Batu Renggong, also known as Dewa Agung, means great god, became king in 1550, and this title became hereditary through the succeeding generations of the kingdom of Gelgel, and later Klungkung, until the twentieth century. Bali reached the pinnacle of its Golden Era under the reign of the Batu Renggong, the great god ruler. Bali's decline started when Batu Renggong's grandson, Di Made Bekung, lost Blambangan, Lombok and Sumbawa. DI Made Bekung's chief minister, Gusti Agung Maruti, eventually rebelled and reigned from 1650 till 1686, when he in turn was killed by DI Made Bekung's son, Dewa Agung Jambe, who then moved the court to Klungkung, and named his new palace the Semarapura, Abode of the God of Love.

posted by : www.indonesia-tourism.com

The History Of Sanur

Sanur originates from two words, “Saha” and “Nuhur” which literally means the passion to visit a certain place. Located in the southern part of Bali, Sanur is famed for its beautiful strip of pure sandy beaches across the coastal line. It is also famed for its' spectacular sunrises which literally marks a new day in the life of the Balinese. A talented laid back atmosphere is what is unique about the village of Sanur where hospitality is intertwined with the traditions of Balinese culture and religion. The atmosphere from sunrise till sunset provides endless opportunities of discovery into the daily lives of the Balinese, where each corner of the village provides a certain exploration for every visitor. Lines of shaded trees along the roads, a stretch of beach for sunbathing, a strip of shops for shopping and a variety of restaurants for wining and dining, the option is endless in Sanur.

Sanur also represents a name that carries important history for tourism in Indonesia, and Bali more specific. It was on the beach of Sanur that the first Netherlands troops set foot on the island of Bali in 1906. This was also the exact place that the first war occurred between Netherlands against the community of Bali in defending their land from colonialism. This war was later known as the Puputan Badung, a heroic event that is strongly remembered by every individual Balinese until today's generation.

Looking further back in history, around the Blanjong area, one can find an ancient stone epigraph with two languages written on it, using Old Balinese Language and Sanskrit; two totally different languages. It was believed that the place the artifact was found was an old harbor. Other epigraphs found within this area included the Ganesca and the Two Tailed Ox (Arca Dua Ekor Lembu), believed to be from the Kingdom of Warmadewa that ruled Bali in year 917. The Ganesca (a statue of an elephant head with a human body) made from limestone was said not to come from Blanjong, and was believed from remains of historic events from past kingdoms reigning in Bali. Should this be true, it is believed that Bali in the early days had already tight relations with other kingdoms around the world.

Another historic remain that marks the development or arts on the island of Bali is the LeMayeur Museum, built in Sanur in 1953 and was the first museum built in Bali. Approximately 80 paintings are showcased in this museum which was once the home of famous artist Le Mayeur himself. This museum located just steps from the ocean is physical proof for the love of an artist towards the island of Bali. Adrian-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpes originated from Belgium and left his hometown because his family was not supportive of his passion for painting. Through his spectacular paintings and exhibitions, LeMayeur introduced Sanur to the world.

Art lovers will naturally agree that Le Mayeur was famous for his impressionist style and paintings carried the main focus of a beautiful Balinese girl, who became the artists' wife, Ni Polok. She was a talented Legong dancer. From his painting collection he eventually bought a block of land in Sanur that remains until today as an object of this never ending love story. The pair then handed over the museum to the local government of Bali to maintain, when Le Mayeur past away in 1958, followed by his faithful wife in 1985.

Sanur and Le Mayeur are two inseparable words. Originating from a small fishing village then with the development of arts, Sanur transformed into a tourist destination that introduced the island of Bali to the entire world. It is here that culture was found, it was here that arts transformed, it was Sanur the pioneer of tourism for Bali.

WWW.gotosanur.com