‘Ngelawang’ : A Balinese Traveling Performance

In Bali today we can still see wandering troupes of artists during Galungan and Kuningan Holy Day, socio-religious holidays celebrated annually according to the traditional Balinese calendar. Even the 25th Bali Arts Festival held in Denpasar Cultural Park during June and July this year features tghis performance in its program on stage on 14 June 2003.

The ‘ngelawang’ art is in effect exotic in character, but is a combination of serious and relaxing. In appreciating the art performance, you don’t have to keep certain courtesies as there is a free choice of sitting, standing or even hanging down.
The ‘ngelawang’ tradition still takes place in mountainous villages without regard to place, room or time. Barong performances may go well under large trees, topeng mask troupe may perform on the bank of a river, ‘arja’ dance drama is equally attractive to the public on the street or in the market place.
The troupes could appear both at twilight or in the evening or even at dawn, but only in a communal atmosphere. Encircled by a crowd of people, dancers are able to decorate themselves in peace, while several helpers may go around to collect voluntary donations preceding the elegant performance.
In case of ‘arja’ theatrical performances, its melody communicates to a highly appreciative public toward the ‘ngelawang’ entourage, even towards a solo entertainer skilled in promoting ‘topeng pajegan’ dance capable of representing variety of characters in a single show, rich in interactive communication between the performer and the viewers.
Nevertheless, it seems an alteration of values, crushing a cultural mosaic and energy having spiritual, artistic and entertaining aspects. ‘Ngelawang’ tours at present have gone aside resulting in the scarcity of its sights during Galungan and Kuningan Holy Day, while preferring to step up from hotel to hotel in a climate of bias in spiritual poverty context to run after monetary purse by presenting performance for tourist consumption.
The ‘ngelawang’ artist troupe has suffer disgrace with position downgraded not only in abstract meaning but really down to the real state of affairs into real role of cows transported live in open trucks. This represents a cultural transformation just bringing about a multidimensional consequence within variety various aspect of life.
Traditional socio-agricultural atmosphere, enclosed in psycho-religious viscosity, may be contextual to conducive breeding for the existence of traditional ‘ngelawang’ tour of the former time, while present value dynamics and confrontations with other values have been hand in hand with the rising rationality, pragmatism, and secularism in an atmosphere of high-rated commercialization and permissiveness exploited by Bali’s international tourism industry.
Now, the performers of ‘ngelawang’ art, in a degrading condition, stand on a crossroad to make a decision in Post-Bali Black October whether or not to return to the harmony and spirit of the ‘ngelawang’ ritual amid the ruin emerging out of the criminal bombing event. At the end of this road, peace of mind among Kuta community in particular, and of Bali in general, are awaiting us in view of confidence that aesthetic dimension is capable of disseminating peac. (Kadek Suartaya)

Bali’s Temple Festivals

There are a great variety of temples in Bali, from local deserted ones to the largest mother temple of Pura Besakih on the slope of Mt. Gunung Agung, which held the great Eka Dasa Rudra by the end of 1970s. Each of them has a scheduled festival known as the odalan ceremony, ranging from simple little family affairs to great celebrations. Someone estimated that there are more than 20,000 temples in Bali.

The odalan ceremony is to celebrate the temple’s anniversary as defined by two different calendar systems, the lunar (Saka) calendar or the 210-day calendar, known also as the Pawukon calendar. Otherwise, the Balinese still use the standard Gregorian calendar adhered to worldwide.
Nevertheless, a practical Balinese calendar has facilitated people’s life in this Island of Thousand Temple both to locate the Gregorian date and to determine when a Balinese traditional holy day occurs for the sake of its celebration, ‘annually’ repeated in six ‘months’ or within 210 days. Balinese consider a ‘month’ to be five seven-day weeks, making it 35 days in length.
In world tourism, Bali has emerged popularly as Island of Thousand Temples or the Island of God just because of the countless temples or pura existing on this tiny island. As well as the mother temple of Pura Besakih, there are some temples worthy of mention as follows: (Pura) Jagat Natha, Payogan Agung, Maospahit, Bukit, Dalem, Pengubengan, Kesiman, Taman Ayun, Tirta Sari Manik, Sakenan, Buleleng’s Medue Karang, Pulaki and a lot of ancestral temples.
There are many kinds of temples according their use. There are temples for the dead called Pura Dalem, Pura Ulun Danu, built on the holy site of a lake and Pura Segara, built on a beach. The Balinese calendar itself has listed a timetable column denoting dates when and where odalan occurs in a temple, while the Denpasar Government Tourist Office has issued the best listing. Most odalans take place over three days, although some of them go on for more than a week and a few last for just one day.
Before the odalan ceremony one can see streams of people dressed in their very best traditional clothes with frangipani or hibiscus blossoms woven into their hair or tucked behind their ears. They wear lovely batiks and brocades, walking in the afternoon with a natural grace and poise which befits the balanced beauty of Bali.
The women carry offerings on their heads consisting of fruits, colored rice cakes, and meat skewered on to the central pillar of a banana plant stem. Others may be relatively simple offerings made of cut and woven coconut leaves shaped into the form of small square baskets and containing multicolored flowers.
Entering the middle area of the temple, you will see a gamelan club mostly consisting of children striking their gong instruments, while a group of older men loudly read out ancient palm leaf lontar manuscripts in verses called Kakawin, interpreted by others so that the audience can understand its contents.
Worship to God takes place in the inner space of the temple with a priest leading the crowd of worshippers. There may be special guests at some odalans in the form of one or more visiting Barongs, as in Batulan (Sukawati Sub-District, Gianyar Regency), about nine kilometers away to the east of Denpasar. Some of the Barongs represent more or less human type creatures.
During the evening there are almost always very sacred dances in the temple inner space, in combination with the famous Wayang Kulit shadow play of in the outer space, aimed at inviting deities to come during the temple festival. (Surawan)

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