Craftsmanship, Business and Devotion
Balinese ancestors have passed on the working spirit always stressing physical and inner harmony. Take the example of a man occupied in farming in Bali, having the interest of achieving physical and spiritual balance by prayer to Dewi Sri as a symbol of fertility. A fisherman in executing his profession would be ready to pray before Dewa Baruna, the god of wind. Similar is the case with other professionals, the fisherman has also attached pronouncement of words inviting mysterious spirits believed to be capable of being materialized into reality.
In view of the dependency to natural forces as shown in various deeds and activities in rituals, artistry implements have emerged in complete rituals. Samples of these arts are those of painting, architecture, carving of statues, dance, music and so on. Presently, the arts function merely as a means of rituals in temples and royal palaces or private house of nobles. They really dedicate their daily activities in arts to ritual and traditional processions in the spirit of flexible teachings of Hindu religion. Their daily jobs have their own value of service or ngayah dedicated toward achieving physical and spiritual living perfection. Just because of this concept of ngayah too, artists of past time have never printed their names on their works. They are of greater tolerance in friendship relations, while preferring to uphold joint existence, committed social intercourse of mutuality known in Balinese as personal relations of asah, asih, asuh, paras, paros, sarpanaya, sagilik-saguluk, salunglung, sabayantaka. Such social relations have contributed to the anonymity of artistic works found in later periods, suggesting that Balinese culture was more communal in character. Arts in Bali originate from the pre-historical age, divided into four periods of (1) Pre-Hindu Time (8th Century); (2) Balinese Kings’ (8th – 13th Century); (3) Arrival of Majapahit Migrants (8th – 15th Century); (4) Period of Contact with Westerners and Age of Independence (15th – 20th Century). Take the example of work of arts of painting and sculpturing of the Pre-Hindu Age, according to data found in Bedulu’s Antiquity Museum (Gianyar regency). This museum houses tools made of stone of (Paleolithicum Age), instruments made of bones and horn (Mezolithicum Age), refined instruments of stone (Age of Neolithicum), sarcophagus (Age of Megalithicum), and various idols, bracelets, kettle-drums, and lamps, from the Bronze and Iron Age. Development of the art of painting and sculpturing during the Pre-Hindu era has shown signs of direct influence of Hindu culture flourishing in Bali. During this era, sectarian ideas sprouted out of sects of Siwa, Wisnu, Bairawa, and others. Remnants of these ideas have persisted in megalithic Pancering Jagat Temple in Trunyan and Bairawa statue in Pejeng. A bronze kettledrum in “Penataran Sasih” Temple of Desa Pejeng, is also a remainder from Pre-Hindu times. This kettledrum is more popular in Bali as “Bulan Pejeng” or “Moon of Pejeng”, being the largest bronze drum on the Earth. There are paintings of frogs, leaves of “Semanggi” Hirdrocotyle sibthorpiolides, complete with a lining of rays symbolizing a call to rain. Apart from this, the kettledrum war instrument is probably a masterpiece ever been created by human beings. During the reign of Ugrasena (896 M), in his “prasasti” inscription there is a story of “parbhwayang”. Around the ninth century (1045 - 4147), in some inscriptions issued by King of Raja Anak Wungsu, there is an _expression of “aringgit” introduced. It signals that there was a knowledge known by a group of experts skilled in painting of wayang puppets. In one of the inscriptions, there is a drawing of wayang motive picturing God of “Batara Siwa”. Following are ancient scripts in the form of “lontar” manuscript, containing pictures featuring the story of wayang or legend still favoured by the Balinese community. Pictures designed in this manuscript is a miniature of beautiful paintings, worked out by means of a tool such as a sharp-pointed knife on a flat “lontar” leaf of very tiny format with measurement of about 2 cm up to 5 cm, of length of 11 up to 18 cm. The cleft produced by the trace of the knife is filled with a mixture of oil and soot. After Dewa Agung Jambe’s governance rule, the kingdom centre moved to Semarapura. There were Dewa Agung Jambe and his whole entourage, studying in depth the Hindu religion, arts, literature, and philosophy. Dalem Klungkung currently showed great interest, rendered blessing protection and performed developing efforts to artists of Kamasan Village. These performances by the ruler have showed his role as elders close to Kamasan artists. Visually, there are two sorts of paintings distinguished from each other firstly that called by Balinese “ider-ider”, while the second being “langse” or curtain. The first paintings are made of cloth usually 30-cm wide and with a maximum length of 600 cm. These paintings are usually hung under the roof of houses or temple buildings during a religious ritual. The second paintings are hung under the temple or house roof during rituals. In present development of Bali’s tourism, cultural arts in Bali have grown dynamically not merely in painting, architecture, and literature, but also in ways of thinking and living among Balinese community members in daily events. Nevertheless, the Balinese have never just simply imitated those coming from overseas, but they have been selective and adaptive in accommodating foreign influences in concert with local values and customs. In this way, a new cultural assimilation has come to the fore between Western and Balinese culture. According to Wood (1984) and Picard (1993), in an exposition made by Pitana (2000), tourism was capable of rendering a specific dynamic development of Balinese culture of its own, preceded by conscience on internal differentiation of ever changing culture absorbing tourism influence. A more realistic approach is to look on tourism as a carrier of “foreign influence, integrated into local culture in a process known as “touristification”. Balinese culture instilled with the spirit of Hindu religion is highly complicated and dynamic in character as shown in an analogy forwarded by James Boon, a U.S. anthropologist (1997), when he wrote the following: “Balinese culture is a romance of ideas and action”. This has been due to various differentiation and accumulation of variables of respective tradition and culture, in line with the Balinese concept of “desa, kala, patra”, referring to place, time, and condition. In Balinese cultural history, it has come to the fore a syncretism process among various cultural elements during thousands of years through cultural intercourse between Balinese people and the international world such as China, Egypt, Japan, India, and Europe. Nevertheless, in absorbing foreign cultural elements, history has shown, the Balinese community have indirectly accommodated foreign cultural elements intact. What has happened is such a way of screening and modification in conform to Balinese culture. Such happening has resulted in screened element absorption, which seemingly has been originally Balinese. Bali has been conscious of the term of “artist” following the influence of the western world. Artists independently have often signed their names on their own works evidently, with an aim of publicity among community members. Nevertheless, previously, ahead of the influx of Western influence, the term of “artist” conformed to the word “tukang” (craftsman) in Bali professionally meaning artisan skilled in decoration with ornaments, known also locally as “sangging”, while artisan skilled in building development is locally named “tukang bangunan” or “undagi” (building developer). The term of “tukang” has been applied to other professions such as “tukang igel” (dancer) synonymous with “pragina”. These professions originally were an inheritance going down from ancestors among certain people. Before being engaged in the profession, one should observe a religious ritual procession of cleansing. Without existence of the term of “artists”, Balinese people have really integrated themselves in performing artist activities. It is not strange if M. Covarrubias characterised all Balinese as artists.
