The Role of Small Industries

Small industries have contributed much to the economy of Bali. There are a lot of them, but only some specific industries are as yet well-known to the public. Everybody knows about Bali’s popular weft ikat, fishing, and salt industry, but many cottage industries are still unknown to tourists.

Take the example quarrying of limestone blocks on the Bukit in the southern part of Badung which are used in buildings like brick, mostly near Pecatu to the east of the road leading to Pura Uluwatu. Most of the quarries operate on a small scale to the south of Jimbaran, while some of these operations have simply shifted to another site.
Production of very large blocks of stone needs various kinds of implements such as very long crowbars (linggis) simply pounded into the rocks straight down, and very long one-man rock saws with extremely coarse teeth, manipulated in the hand of family and friends, each of whom work individually rather than for an employer.
The limestone, once sawed, does not harden in the air. Cement mortar allows it to retain its strength such as it is. There has been no change in business, even with the competition of concrete blocks. Limestone blocks commonly reach buyers as far away as Tampaksiring or Karangasem with loading and unloading entirely done by hand.
There has been attempt to make lime (pamor) from limestone rather than from coral, the usual source. In fact, there is a place in Jimbaran that makes lime from irregular limestone blocks using kerosene as a source of heat, encountering less success. The hampering block has been the expensive price of the kerosene use.
It is impossible to simply perform the way of production by wood fires used by most of the coal makers. An alternative is to consider the small industry that converts coral to lime in view of the fact that both coral and limestone by way of definition are principally calcium carbonate.
There are many kilns (gerombong pamor) commonly found in the wherever there is supply of coal in the isthmus area between the main part of Bali and the Bukit. The typical Balinese limekiln is a square tower-like brick structure, about 3 x 3 meters in length and width and 2 meter high.
There is usually a basin dug in the ground for water to slake the lime. The kiln is generally loaded at about 3 a.m. The bottom layer is wood mixed with coconut husks, packed tightly together in a mixture with firewood. The layer is about half a meter high. Next comes a layer of coral of about 25 cm in height followed by another layer of half a meter of firewood.
Slaked lime (quicklime) has suffered more and more from the drop of price on sale in market because people are switching to the use of stronger, but more expensive, cement, and there is an oversupply. A small quantity of quicklime, fresh from the kiln, goes to those buyers who purify it for chewing in the betel quid, with betel leaf, areca nut, and gambir. Nevertheless, people supplement their income from lime by also making salt from seawater in the usual fashion of the Jimbaran area
There two other facets of the small industry picture of this island, firstly, dealing with the production of the common alcoholic drinks, including tuak, arak, and berem, and secondly the commercial farming of seaweed. Preparation of alcoholic beverage is a spontaneous process wherever there is some sort of sugar and a suitable of yeast to produce it.
Sugars abound in plant products, usually in the form of ‘sap’, which is essentially a diluted solution of some sort of sugar in water. The same is true with many fruits. The seeds in a fruit are often surrounded by a fleshy tissue rich in sugars which invite animals to eat the fruit and thus disperse the seeds. Similarly, wild yeasts abound in nature. Yeasts are one-celled fungi. Lacking chlorophyll, they cannot convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars, the normal energy and food deriving chemical reactions for green plants. Rather, yeasts derive their energy by the conversion of simple sugars to carbon dioxide and alcohol.
Yeasts contain a number of enzymes that speed up this process. Vintners generally rely upon wild yeasts found in the skins of grapes. Fermentation is almost inevitable when there are sugar, water and wild yeast around. Nevertheless, it is a tricky business to harness this process to make consistent beverages. The reason is that the primary product of fermentation often quickly changes chemically.
One effective way to prevent an alcoholic drink from spoiling is to drink it right on the spot, as soon as it is produced, as done by the Balinese. Imported drinks are expensive, while the average Balinese prefers one or another of the three main varieties of cheap ‘home-brew’, tuak. This is a product of the fermentation of a liquid obtained by cutting the undeveloped flower of a plant most often of a coconut tree as well as the fruit beluluk.
The standard volumetric unit for measuring production, consumption, purchase, and sale of tuak is the beer bottle, making tuak lovers of hearts. Tuak drinking is quite a social affair in Bali. There are innumerable tuak stalls in Bali. On the other hand, arak is another product of cottage industry recruiting many housewives to do thework. Arak is really a distilled tuak.
Berem is a rice wine, which is also a product of booming industry made from a glutinous rice (ketan) largely as commercial commodity in big factories, the most visited one is in Sanur, by the name of ‘Fa Udiyana’. Only small quantities of berem are made for home use or retail. Berem is also a beverage necessitated for such-called matabuh in many religious ceremonies.
The factory sends the product periodically to Bogor, West Java, for analyses. It typically runs 7 to 9 percent alcohol by volume, and 20 to 25 percent sugar. Compare it with arak typically anywhere from 20 to 50 percent by volume alcohol. Tourist could also acquire berem in stores, hotels and restaurants. Foreigners are fond to drink it over ice or mixed with arak, to take the sharp edge off the latter. The factory also observes Tumpek Landep ceremony because of the large amount of iron materials and machinery
Seaweed refers to a group of primitive plants that have no true leaves, stems, or roots, the algae. Almost all contain chlorophyll, but not all are green. Members of this group range from one-celled plants such as found as the scum on fresh water ponds, to giant sea kelp. Its individual members range up to as long as 45 meters. Perhaps the most widespread use of wild algae has been in the preparation of agar-agar, appearing in the market as a tan powder.
There is nothing new about using seaweed for commercial purposes. It is an ancient industry to collect wild seaweed for various purposes while in Bali those who live along the coasts have collected seaweed as long as we have had written records.
The innovation has been the introduction of scientific methods for actually farming special strains of seaweed, harvesting them on a continuing basis, treating seaweed as any other crops like rice, and exporting the harvest to foreign countries, where it eventually ends up in marketing by huge multinational corporations.(Surawan)

Culture and Trade in Buleleng

If you are in Bali for ‘Tumpek Landep’, it is a good idea to travel around the villages or to visit the pande (black smith) houses in Bali. You can visit owners of all kinds of weapons and factories which use engines or other iron tools. This ceremony starts from daybreak until late, following the preparation of the ceremony. It is common for offices or factories (which use engines in their production) to hold ‘Tumpek Landep’ during working hours. The workers wear Balinese costumes as it is a time for prayer.

The main part of Bali is simply a succession of volcanoes with intervening saddles and alluvial slopes covered with rich ash. The chain is located in the northern part of the island, affecting a very narrow coastal plain on the north edge of Bali, including Buleleng Harbor, the site of early tourist arrivals which started in 1920.
The civilization and culture here encourage early tourism. The tourist trail started in Buleleng, north of Singaraja City, following the highways to see Pura Meduwe Karang and Tampaksiring until reaching Sanur. This early tourism development was supported by the annual cultural event of a traditional ‘gamelan’ orchestra contest and ornamented bull race.
Such development stimulated cottage industry, including those which produce drinks known among Balinese as tuak, berem, and arak. One of the small producers of tuak is that of Jagaraga Village, Kloncing Sub-Regency, about 10 km to the East of Singajara. Menyali is known for its blacksmiths who make household utensils of zinc, marketed as far as Semarapura (Klungkung).
Jagaraga community formerly had a Gong Ensemble as well as prominent dancers such as I Gede Manik. The life of Gede Manik promoted not only the performing arts in Buleleng, but also inspired painters to make a better living in the pre-WW II period.
For example, Sukangaja, was a painter who lived in Jagaraga and made paintings for a local dance ensemble, including legong dancers. The painter, who studied in the Netherlands in the 1950’s earned some money by selling his pictures in Pasar Baru, Jakarta.
(Surawan)

1 2 3