Balinese Life

Religiosity in Balinese Art Performance

Virtually not a single day goes by without paying homage in Bali. No single space is forgotten in rituals. Local Hindus perform it based on their strong belief and capacity. Prayers, oblations and art performances go hand in hand. These represent the expression of mind, deed and speech encapsulated in one word - bhakti - or devotion

Ida Sanghyang Widhi or God controls every time and space. And every activity should be blessed by Him through the so-called divine inspiration, or taksu. For this purpose, the Hindus in Bali set up a taksu shrine where they pray and invoke guidance for their activity and an enlightened path to reach the goal. As a religious appreciation to the activity giving them their daily needs, they also celebrate a special festivity through a tumpek holiday. For instance, farmers celebrate the Tumpek Uye and artists celebrate the Tumpek Krulut. These festivities fall every 210 days based on Balinese calendar - pawukon.
Tumpek Krulut is celebrated every Saniscara (Saturday) Kliwon Krulut. The next one will fall on 4 October. It is especially dedicated for arts and musical instruments. On this day, they make offerings to God praying for His blessings on the instruments. These and other paraphernalia are cleansed and embellished with colorful young coconut leaves. As a representation of profound gratitude, the art troupes also present a show on this occasion.
Moreover, each time any performing arts are set up, they are commenced with initial rites through a pasupati ritual to invoke blessing and give soul to the performance. They hope the performance could have a spirit, be protected during their show and undertake its mission to link their devotion to the Creator and at the same time to jazz up the community around them.
To differentiate the art performance, especially dance, they have been classified into sacred dance and entertainment dance. How to distinguish them? Sacred dance is always performed in ritual context; becomes an integral part with the ritual itself; and brings along with it typical ritual paraphernalia, while the dance classified as entertainment is mostly performed in non-ritual context or is commercial; merely as entertainment for general public and does not necessarily bring along ritual paraphernalia.
Bali as a tourist destination also presents some cultural performances as the attraction. However, the local government makes a distinction about which dances can be performed for tourists and which ones not. It is intended to maintain the purity of the sacredness and not confuse the use of sacred dance for commercial purposes. Some examples of sacred dances are the Sanghyang, Rejang and Sidhakarya mask, while the entertainment dances are the Joged Bumbung, Kecak and various modern creation dances.
In the meantime, particular dances like Barong Dance transforms in development from traditional norm into the modern one in keeping with the social changes occurring in the community over a long period. According to IGN Sudiana (2006), originally Barong Dance was only performed in a religious context. However, in line with the development of tourism industry, it is now also performed as a tourist attraction. The latter is especially made for the profane barong dance where it is merely presented on private stages by art troupes at regular times pursuant to the schedule of tourist visits. It does not take the theme of the sacred Calonarang anymore, but the Kuntisraya.
Hopefully this measure could meet the demand of change by consistently upholding the original function, for sacred need. On the one hand, this sustains the holiness of sacred dances and does not diminish the bhakti of devotees. On the other hand, visitors could also benefit to enjoy the uniqueness and lure of local culture without ‘disrupting its root.’ At least, the art performance remains to link the human devotion to the creator while at the same time it could also be enjoyed by community themselves and give the artists an income. It’s the wisdom bridging the two! (BTN/pun)