Karangasem, On the Wallace Line

Karangasem's Silver Handicraft Center

Budakeling located about 87 km to the east of Denpasar and 7 km away from Amlapura City, is a silver and golden craft center in Karangasem Regency. The heart of the center is Budakeling’s Banjar Pande. One of the handicraft producers, I Wayan Astawa, S.H., who is also deputy chairman of the local DPRD Legislative Assembly, said there are about one hundred craftsmen in the ‘banjar’.

Tourists often visit the center to purchase its products, which reach the overseas market as well as the local one. Customers can go to Budakeling, known also as cultural center, by paved road, while enjoying the beautiful scenery on the way to this part of the island.
Budakeling really has developed and diversified its produce to an iron blacksmith center producing household and farming implements such as sickles and kitchen knives. The blacksmith shops stand in rows along Budakeling’s street close to Bebandem village. There are still smiths who make implements for religious rituals.
This business is certainly related to the existence of many artists and priests there, as shown clearly the production of silver-made bowls and other implements usually used during religious ceremonies, Astawa claimed.
Recently, the marketing of Budakeling’s products has fallen, following Bali’s bombing tragedy of October 2002, followed by U.S. invasion of Iraq and the danger of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) which has spread from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
Nevertheless, according to Astawa, orders lately have started to flow in again from European countries. Astawa is the owner of Arunia Silver Art Shop.
(Bud)