|
Balinese Handicrafts
Stone Carving
Stone carving, like any of the activities
in Bali that Westerners call "artistic,"
is not a secular, or individual, undertaking.
While an individual carver may have a reputation
for producing quality work, and his services
in particular may be sought out by a village
to carve its temple walls, he is not considered
to be "great" in the same way
as a Western artist. His work and the Balinese
world for all craftsmen is the generic "worker"
is just part of the many necessary and cultural
life of Bali.
The stone vegetation carved on the walls
of Bali's temple vies in profusion with
the live vegetation in Bali's fields and
forests. And out of this riot of decoration
the visitor is peered, leered, grimaced,
and smirked at by bewildering variety of
toothy stone faces with bulging eyes and
fangs. Balinese stone carving is not religious
carving in the sense that what are produced
are icons. Stone carvings are frequently
portrayals of religious figure, perhaps
event deities.
The stone used for carving is known mineralogical
as "tuff", called paras in Bali.
It is a kind of volcanic stand stone; a
compacted combination of ash and dust contains
some sand and clay. Bali's several volcanoes
have, through the millennia, regularly spewed
ash, which has accumulated on the flanks
and alluvial slopes of the peaks. Full essential
mineral mater, this ash is responsible for
the island's lush vegetation and rice fields.
In places, the ash has been compacted into
a soft stone, and these beds of paras are
revealed where the streams cut their gorges
down the volcanic slopes.
There are several Balinese architectures
like in the temple that decorated by stone
carve: aling-aling (freestanding wall directly
inside kori agung), Bale kulkul (the tower
of the kulkul log drum), Padmasana (a symbolic
representation of the tripartite Balinese
universe), the candi bentar that usually
lavishly carved, kori agung, it usually
elaborated carved and above the lintel is
a huge carving of the head of Bhoma, very
definitely a coarse character. At centers
of less artistic focus is found the Karang
Bintutu Design and Karang Curing design
and all over everything there is a profusion
of carved leaves, vines and tendrils. Perhaps
one could fine hidden, Freudian meanings,
but the Balinese just love to decorate things,
and walls and blank spaces are great outlets
for carving creativity.
Balinese stone carving is not religious.
There are no holy statues that are worshiped
per-se. Even when the spirits are invited
down from heaven to enter and occupy the
carved figures, the Pratimas, that is located
in the shrine for that purpose. Stone carvings
are often portrayals of religious figures,
perhaps manifestation of God. The other
popular stone-carving theme is in the portrayal
of the great Hindu epic poems, especially
the Ramayana and the Mahabharata,
Mask
Making
When a Westerner put on a mask he pretends
that he is someone else. When a Balinese
dancer puts on a mask he becomes someone
else. A traditional performing mask in Bali
is not just a piece of costuming; it is,
in a very real sense, alive. Objects, particularly
objects used in the performance of sacred
dance and theater, such as masks and wayang
kulit shadow puppets, are sometimes charged
with a kind of spiritual magic - kesaktian
and are said to be tenget.
Thus, the traditional mask maker is not
just a sort of carpenter, hacking away at
a piece of wood with mallet, chisel, and
knife. He is not creating decoration. He
is crafting an object that will, at the
very least, be handled and treated with
great respect, and the most, venerated in
the most sacredand formal manner of which
the Balinese are capable.
All of these activities involve powerful
supernatural forces, and its takes a strong
man to insure that these forces do not inadvertently
get out of hand and create imbalance. There
are two kinds of masks; sacred (tenget)
and not sacred masks.
A sacred mask is considered to be literally
alive it will be kept in a temple or shrine,
and when the performer puts on such a mask,
this power enters his body. The other kinds
of mask is not sacred, but event these are
handled with great care and respect. Traditionally
masks are treated almost exactly the same
as the puppets, since both portray characters
who are sacred, or participate in sacred
dance dramas.
There are three principal genres of mask
dances: topeng, wayang wong and the Barong-
Rangda drama. These involve masks that are
respectively, human-like, animal-like, and
demon-like. There are two kinds of topeng:
topeng pajengan and topeng panca.
Traditional mask makers always use the wood
of the punyan pule, a common tropical tree
found from Sri Lanka to Australia. The wood
is light-colored, strong, and of low density.
The ceremony for felling a punyan pule for
mask wood is called ngepel, derived from
the Balinese word pel, "cut".
On the appointed day, the mask maker goes
to the chosen tree and wraps the bottom
of the trunk in a white cloth. After some
procession than the wood cut off, carried
home and left, along with the offering,
in the family temple for several months
before it can be worked.
Endek
Today Balinese men and women wear ordinary
pants, shirts, and dresses while they work.
Traditional clothing is worn only in informal
settings around the home and village, and
at every formal events- temple ceremonies
or important social events.
Endek the only native textile made in quantity
in Bali woven, tie-dyed weft clothe this
product also called "kain tenun"
(woven cloth). Endek is produced in dozens
of factories, large and small, scattered
all around the Denpasar and Gianyar areas
in South Bali. Balinese endek is tied and
dyed before the threads are woven into cloth.
And the designs are planned, and regular.
This is an exceedingly complex operation.
In preparing endek, the weft or cross threads
are dyed; the warp, the threads that are
initially strung on the loom, are left in
a solid color. To prepare the pattern, the
weft threads are temporarily strung on a
frame and workers use strips of plastic
tape to "tie" a pattern into the
threads. The threads are taped off in bunches,
and then the threads are remove from the
frame and soaked in vats of dye. They are
dried, the tape removed, and the thread
is spun onto a shuttle. When the dyed threads
are woven into a loom set up with a solid
warp, the design reappears. Because the
warp threads are taped off in bunches, and
because perfect registration of the design
is impossible, the finished endek pattern
has an attractive, fuzzy-edged look.
Endek is typically woven that made of either
rayon or cotton, in sheets that are 110
centimeters wide (43 in) by a bit over six
meters long (20 ft). The pattern can be
made more fine by using fewer windings for
every ribbon laid out on the tying frame.
Of course the rack would have to be twice
a high and there would be twice as many
rows for the men to tie. This kind of fine
work gets very expensive.
In recent years endek made from mercerized
cotton has become very popular. It is more
expensive than the usual coarser cotton,
but its surface is smooth, and it has a
texture almost like that of rayon. (BTN/"sekala
niskala")
|
