Like most other Balinese gamelan instruments, rindik are tuned in pairs, one being tuned slightly higher than the other. This is what produces the characteristic humming sound. A rindik is played with either two or three beaters, one held in the left hand and one or two in the right. Normally, the left hand carries the melody and the right plays a pattern that creates interlocking configuration between the two right-hand parts. Although it may look effortless, playing rindik is a masterful skill that takes many years to learn.

Hundreds of compositions have been composed for rindik, and each region—even each village—in Bali reveals different styles and repertoire. Most of the compositions were inspired by nature and have been named after flowers and animals. I love some of the more humorous ones, like Caplok Bangkung (Snapping Pig) or Dongkang Menek Biu (Tree Frog Climbing a Banana). It never ceases to amaze me how many compositions some of these “lobby musicians” know, and they’re all committed to memory!

Since the onset of tourism in Bali, traditional musicians such as rindik players have been undervalued and terribly underpaid compared with say rock/jazz/fusion or pop musicians. This is a real tragedy because it is yet again another example of cultural imperialism and the lack of value place on indigenous art-forms. Generally, this is a worldwide phenomenon.

However, Mekar Bhuana Conservatory is trying to fight against the trend by training musicians who are professional, reliable and an adept to the challenges of the tourism industry. Over the past 12 years, the conservatory has been providing professionally managed rindik groups as well as other gamelan orchestras, such as pelegongan, semar pegulingan, Gambuh, gender wayang, selonding, baleganjur and genggong for quality performances. You can support their efforts and these musicians by hiring their troupes.

If you are interested in purchasing rindik instruments or recordings of bamboo rindik music, you can visit www.mekarbhuana.com – an online store that specialises in professional Balinese gamelan music and dance products.

© 2012 Mekar Bhuana

To increase awareness of and exposure to this beautiful art-form and the orchestra, Mekar Bhuana has opened selonding lessons for the general public of all ages. A minimum of 6 people are needed to play the instruments, with a maximum of 8 when playing gambang style music. Mekar Bhuana has engaged a young teacher from Karangasem, Pande Widiana, whose father is a selonding guru, and whose great uncle, Sri Mpu Tusan, is an authority on selonding in Bali and Java: author of a 535-page book on selonding that was published in 2002. Sri Mpu Tusan is the founder of the Selonding Foundation (Yayasan Selonding) which actively studies, documents and reconstructs selonding sets all over Bali. So far, the foundation has reconstructed more than four sets under the guidance of Sri Mpu Tusan and with funding from the Karangasem Regional Government.

Mekar Bhuana’s selonding set was made in Denpasar at Tapa Karya, and was the last set of selonding instruments made by the famous blacksmith Sri Mpu Ketut Sandi. Like the Besakih set, the tuning was modeled on the Bugbug set, but due to a discrepancy in the regularity of the tuning between each instrument, the tuning was altered slightly according to the taste of Mekar Bhuana Co-founder, Vaughan Hatch.

When Mekar Bhuana’s selonding set was blessed in early January 2012, when young members of Yayasan Selonding (boys and girls around 10-12 years old) played the set. Mekar Bhuana recorded the ceremony and the music for posterity. The group played repertoire from five different villages in Karangasem and Bangli: Bugbug, Bungaya, Ngis Manggis, Tenganan, Kedisan and Batur. The music was serene and peaceful, yet powerful and mystical.

Mekar Bhuana hopes that through education and study more people will soon have the opportunity to appreciate the surreal beauty of these ancient art-forms.

At some stage, certain objects are determined sacred by the Balinese. It may be due to their great age or historical; sometimes they ‘come alive’ by themselves without warning and I’ve heard numerous stories about such phenomena. Giant fiery boars in the banyan trees, weeping maidens in the rocks, faceless musicians in the gamelan – hardly a day passes without hearing an anecdote or two.

Many traditional Balinese musical instruments known as gamelan have peculiar, unexplainable powers, and depending on the nature of the gamelan, it may have to have offerings made to it just to touch it or use it. The ultra-sacred gamelan selonding orchestras from Tenganan Village, for example, may only be touched and played by certain members of the village. Any outsider, including Balinese from other villages, may not touch or photograph the gamelan, or even record certain gending (pieces). The villagers told me of one occasion recently when a tourist intentionally touched the instruments, in spite of the fact he was aware of the rules of the village, and a huge purification ceremony was required. I bet you he was surprised when he had to foot the bill for numerous offerings including a mother pig!

The way that certain objects are treated can even harm people directly. The ancient semar pegulingan gamelan housed in Payogan Agung Temple, Ketewel is one of these magical relics. Hundreds of years old, perhaps dating back to the time of the Majapahit kingdom of Java and Bali, this orchestra cannot even be tuned for fear of causing great sickness amongst the musicians. A priest and expert on the history of this gamelan once told me that if the instruments are misused – for example thrown around or stepped over – they can cause paralysis in the matter of days.

An old gamelan gong kebyar set in Banjar Dangin Peken, Sanur is so revered for its magical powers that certain instruments are given special names and referred to as such. What’s more, the resonance of the large gong is great enough to crack any gong that is paired with it in a matter of months – no amps needed here!

Balinese firmly believe that certain gamelan can play by themselves: for example, I’ve heard that the large gong of the Gong Gede of Sulahan Village in Bangli will sound when there is imminent danger. The mysterious ‘self-playing’ was prophesized before the fall of the Klungkung Palace, the original home of the orchestra. In vain, the king at the time moved the gong to another village to stop it playing by itself. By the time it found its final home in Bangli and stopped ringing, the kingdom had fallen and the prophecy a reality. Now, on auspicious occasions the gong ‘weeps’, dripping water for no known apparent reason – could it be homesick?!

I’m convinced that a ‘Bali’s Believe It or Not’ could be next on the cards for Bali TV, and it may just leave the Ripley’s version for pixie dust. One thing’s for sure – on the Island of the Gods, things are not always as they seem.

© 2012 Vaughan Hatch

Balinese dance dates back more than 1000 years and there are hundreds of different dances that have been created and developed over the centuries. With origins in Indian, Chinese and Javanese dance, Balinese dance movements are highly stylised and closely interconnected with gamelan orchestral music. Each movement, position, transition and mimic has a specific name, and students learn these as they study with a teacher, who will chant these words in a sing-song manner.

Whilst the terminology is well documented in text form, little has been produced in other media – such as video – which is now a much more popular media than the written word. Award-winning dance instructor and co-founder of Mekar Bhuana Conservatory in Bali, Putu Evie Suyadnyani, saw the need for both documenting the Balinese terminology in video form; whilst at the same time producing a tutorial series to help students study prior to or as they learn.

The first in the series is entitled ‘Balinese Female Dance Movements Part I’ and explains some of the most basic positions, transitions and mimics for those with no or little prior experience of Balinese dance – basically a ‘Balinese dance for dummies’, ‘Balinese dance for those with two left feet’ edition to get you started from absolute zero.

Filmed at Mekar Bhuana Conservatory in Denpasar, the tutorial takes students on a dance journey step by step to the peaceful looping melodies of Mekar Bhuana’s 100-year-old semara patangian (pelegongan) gamelan orchestra.

The video is narrated in English with Indonesian subtitles and English translations of the Balinese dance terms. Evie believes that having all three languages is important in making Balinese dance more global, and more easily accessible to people all over the world.

A bonus feature in the DVD is a dance performance by the conservatory’s professional dancers accompanied by their antique seven-tone semara pagulingan set (this DVD, entitled ‘Semara Pagulingan with Gambuh Dances’ is available on www.mekarbhuana.com. This dance, called Gabor, was filmed in a beautiful historic temple in central Denpasar that dates back hundreds of years.

Evie hopes that this DVD tutorial, and later its downloadable version, will help to spread the beauty of this ancient art-form further around the world – after all, Mekar Bhuana in Balinese means just that: ‘to blossom around the world’!

Released in 2011, the DVD is available on Mekar Bhuana’s online store, as well as at numerous CD stores in Bali.

Dutch occupation meant that the palaces lost their power and many court art-forms, including wayang wong, were left to the villages carry on. In a few villages it was sanctified and subsequently well preserved, presented at temple ceremonies in the outer courtyard as an offering to the gods.  However due to the sheer size of the troupe, there are still a number of villages that have dormant traditions.

A wayang wong performance is completely different from the tourist Ramayana performances which you can see in most hotels in Bali, as it is not copied directly from the Javanese Ramayana tourist performance you find in Prambanan and other parts of Java. The dance movements, adopted from Gambuh and wayang kulit, are also highly stylised with the characters introduced slowly with much reverence by their servants.

In the Ramayana version, the characters all wear masks, thus their utterances are not clear. The Balinese have dealt with this performance issue by added a narrator, called a ‘juru tandak’ who not only speaks for the characters, but also narrates the story in a typical Balinese singing style.

What is particularly attractive about the Ramayana version of wayang wong is the brightly coloured, delicately carved masks that transform the human dancers into other worldly beings. Add to this the musical dimension of the lighter sounding gender wayang and bebatelan gamelan accompaniment, the tourist version that employs a regular, noisier gong kebyar gamelan orchestra pales in comparison, with less dramatic spirit and atmosphere.

Unfortunately, these copy-cat performances are what are generally on offer to your average tourist. In fact, in the 1970s, the explosion of Ramayana ‘sendratari’ performances in the the tourism industry in Bali sadly led to the destruction of many beautiful court gamelan sets, such as semara pagulingan, pelegongan and bebarongan, as they were melted down to become gong kebyar ‘Ramayana’ gamelan orchestras. All this in spite of the fact that a traditional wayang wong performance presents much more of a Balinese twist on these wonderful epics.

© 2012 Vaughan Hatch

An enclave of furnaces and fire pits, Tihingan was recently discovered to be even more ancient than what was once thought. Uncovered by local archaeologists, a hearth from a now-disused unknown foundry just north of current settlement was dated it to the 11^th century AD. Indeed the Pande (smith) clan that makes up the majority of the population of Tihingan has always proudly claimed ancient roots. Apparently, the current generation of gong-makers is made up of only five somewhat-extended families. Bronze smiths in other parts of Bali are said to originate from this village which was settled by migrants from Central Java all those centuries ago. You can find bronze smiths in a number of other villages in Bali today, including Sawan in Singaraja, Blahbatu in Gianyar and in Tabanan. The only places you can make the round gong kettles (terompong and reong), however, are in Tihingan and Sawan. Around a century ago, gongs used to be made in Bali, but these days all large bronze gongs are manufactured in Java due to the marked difference in production costs.

Tihingan, with its characteristic gamelan-flavoured street names – Jl. Gong Gede, Gang Saron, Gang Curing – is a quaintly sleepy place, consisting of only one main road and an intersection centred upon a monstrous banyan tree. The majority of the small family homes which line the main road at either foundries or workshops which sell gamelan instruments as well as accessories. Some larger workshops also make and carve the heavy wooden casings for the instruments. A good time to make a trip to Tihingan in the morning when it’s cooler and the smiths are working in the foundries pouring molten bronze into moulds, hammering keys or forging gong kettles. The village could never really be said to be a cool place even though it’s located high above sea level and surrounded by rice fields and chilli plantations. This is surely due to the fact the almost every house features a firey furnace used to melt the bronze used in gamelan keys. Being a gong smith is hard, back-breaking work as crafting even the small-sized kantil keys requires a great amount of hammering and manual labour.

It’s enlightening to watch the smiths tuning the keys. Each instrument in a Balinese gamelan is tuned in resonating pairs and depending on the smith the difference in the beating between the pair of instruments may be anything between a sixteenth and an eighth tone. Tuners still rely on the sharpness of their ears to tune a gamelan, and this ‘natural’ tuning system is what gives Balinese gamelan its special flavour. I’ve been told that a gamelan has been tuned before using a metered device, but this only left the ensemble sounding flat and lifeless.

Smiths also have their own particular tuning for different types of gamelan. These tunings are preserved by using resonant bamboo sticks called petuding. I’m told, however, that these days, most customers choose a standard tuning from one of the gamelan at the arts school in Denpasar.

The gong smiths I’ve visited seem to be constantly busy with orders, even during hard times. In spite of the fact a complete Gong Kebyar ensemble may sell for more than USD20,000 people continue to order new sets. These days, a gamelan is not the exclusively the possession of a palace, temple or banjar. In fact, private individuals make up most of the smiths’ clientele. It seems that luckily for these hardworking Balinese crafts people, ‘heavy metal magic’ is a promising way to make a living.

© 2012 Vaughan Hatch

High-register suling can either be played solo or with a gamelan ensemble, and are most commonly used to accompany rindik, joged bumbung, angklung, arja, genggong and gong kebyar. They are the most common type of flute because they are easier to play and require less breath.

Mid-register suling are used to accompany gong suling, gong kebyar, pelegongan, bebarongan and semar pegulingan. They are played in pairs and tuned slightly out from each other to produce a haunting, humming sound and accentuate the melodic line of these orchestras.

Low-register suling are only found in the gambuh ensemble. They are so long that they need to have one end resting on the ground when they are played. Since these flutes are the only melodic instruments in this type of gamelan orchestra, a gambuh flute player must be able to do cyclic breathing; otherwise the melodic line will be broken.

The cyclic breathing technique is a little more difficult to master compared to other end blown instruments such as digeridoo, clarinet, saxophone etc. This is because there is less resistance, so the instrument is less forgiving for people who have sloppy technique or are used to an instrument with more resistance.

Balinese suling have six holes, which are spaced fairly evenly. By covering the holes, the player can produce four- or five-tone modes taken from a basic seven-tone scale. To create slight variations on each tone, a hole or holes can be partly uncovered. Suling produce many other overtones and harmonics, and this is particularly noticeable on the large flutes. Balinese flute playing is characterized by a quivering sound made by wiggling the fingers over the holes and by embellishments known as ngelik.

There are thousands of flute players in Bali and many experts who will not hesitate to proudly show you their collection of suling and the different nuances of each instrument. Many people ornament their flutes with jewels, tassels and even inlay them with turtle shell. These flute fanatics will carry their instruments wherever they go, in case they feel the need to spontaneously break out into song!

© 2012 Vaughan Hatch

It is not entirely clear when this art-form first appeared in Bali. Professor Made Bandem, author of Wayang Wong, presents evidence to suggest that it could have existed “…as far back as the 11th century.” The drama adopts excerpts of stories from India’s two greatest epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, with the key difference in the performance being the use of masks: for a Mahabharata performance the actors don’t wear masks apart from the clowns; whereas for the Ramayana all the performers are masked.

A wayang wong troupe involves a large number of characters, which may range between around 20 to 60 depending on the story chosen. With each dancer costumed in gold-gilded cloth and leather, as well as colourful, exquisitely carved masks, the upkeep such a troupe can be a financial concern for many villages that have inherited a wayang wong tradition.

The traditional accompaniment for wayang wong are a quartet of 10-keyed gender wayang metallophones. These instruments are played with wooden mallets called panggul using a difficult two-handed technique, and are tuned to a 5-tone scale called selendro, which is fairly even tempered compared with the other tuning system in Bali called pelog. There are two mid range instruments called gender gede or gender pemade and two higher instruments which play another octave up called kantilan. The quartet is augmented by drums and gongs, including kendang kerumpungan wadon (female drum) and kendang kerumpungan lanang (male drum), kajar (boss-less handheld gong), kelenang, kempur (main hanging gong at medium pitch) and gentorag (bell tree). Sometimes a flute (suling) is added for the fast fight scenes called batel.

A vocalist singer called a juru tandak sings and speaks for the masked dancers who cannot be heard under the wooden masks. In modern performances he will be well equipped with a microphone (which is often at a higher volume than the rest of the ensemble).

A wayang wong performance is presented in multiple languages (Bandem, 2001): Sanskrit, ancient Balinese (Kawi) and different levels of Balinese high, medium and every day, depending on who is talking to whom). Characters are introduced by either the servants (for good characters) or the clowns (for evil ones) in a typically formal manner that would seem repetitive and overdone to modern audiences, but this is typical of ancient drama in Indonesia. Therefore, a performance may last for several hours. Some active wayang wong troupes are still found in Tejakula (Buleleng), Telepud (Gianyar), Tangkup (Gianyar), Mas (Gianyar), Tunjuk (Tabanan) and Sanur (recently reconstructed).

© 2012 Vaughan Hatch

The troupe performed rare and extinct semar pegulingan gamelan music accompanying gambuh and classical dances, with the performances extremely well-received by the international audience as well as the Indonesian Minister of Youth and Sport, Andi Mallarangeng, who was present with his wife and officials from the Consulate General of Indonesia in Guangzhou (see: article on in Indonesian Consulate General in China’s website).

“Indonesia gained a number of gold medals while I was present at the Asian Games…and I’m sure that if there had been a gamelan competition, Mekar Bhuana would have got gold too!” enthused the Minister, adding that even though he had been to Bali many times he had never seen this classical court style of Balinese gamelan and dance, especially using antique instruments.

It’s awesome to know that there are people who appreciate the efforts our musicians and dancers, who have learnt much of the material from vintage recordings, because there are no guru left in Bali who remember the art-forms. We are proud to support the preservation of traditional music and dance, and we hope that the Minister and others can help to gain further support to help Balinese document and preserve village performing art-forms.

When we were not managing the troupe, we had the opportunity to watch other groups from parts of Asia, including Burma, Iran, Mongolia and Tuva, who represented a mixture of the old and the new. The people of Guangzhou were lucky to catch such quality performances; of course, many of the shows were packed out.

We enjoyed our China experience and it was a pleasure to work with the Asian Games organising committee in Guangzhou. It was great to be able to help Bali be represented at this prestigious sporting event. We plan to organise more tours for Mekar Bhuana next year, including to other parts of Asia as well as Europe.

Check out the troupes photos, audio samples and video clips of the performances under the Multimedia tab on their website. Also, don’t forget to follow them on Facebook and Twitter: Mekar Bhuana Conservatory.

Events and festivals can get in touch with our team of event organisers by contacting us via email.

As soon as some naive foreigner buys a property at a price way above the market rate (let’s face it, people here are unashamed opportunists when it comes to selling just about anything here), all the properties in the same general vicinity go up in price over night. Big money is to be made in an instant by these middle men who hawk the housing divisions with their 100cc motorbikes, pidgin-English and bulging money belts. Tax is a dirty word for them, and their dirty profits don’t last long at the cockfights and karaoke bars.

What these investors, property agents and opportunists refuse to acknowledge is the negative impact this will have on the future of Bali, its traditions and its people. Reliable news sources such as the Bali Update suggest that future generations of Balinese could become marginalized and have to move to other islands (Bali Real Estate: Boom or Bust, 2/2/2010). After all, on an average wage of IDR1,000,000 – 1,500,000 per month, how could any local ever afford today’s property prices with the short-term mortgages that banks here offer? We are in for potentially huge social problems if things head in this direction.

There is only so much development, so many water- and power-hungry villas, a fragile island environment can take. We are already stretched to our limits now. What are we really offering and what does the future hold? Get some advice on real property prices, how to invest reponsibly in Bali, and how to assimilate with the local people from expert advisors at indOKiwi.