Remembering childhood pastimes is one of my favorite activity since it always be able to make me smile. Among my childhood pastimes, making a propeller (pindekan) is one my favorite pastimes since every time I remember the beautiful sound the propeller that my cousin and I made back in our childhood days, I can guarantee a big smile on my face.

Propeller, in Bali, is called “pindekan”. The pindekan is a slender two-bladed propeller made of bamboo or the trunk of palm (usually called buah in Bali). The blades of the propeller have a little twist to enable them to catch the wind. The pindekan usually attached on the top of a long bamboo pole to enable the pindekan to get the stronger wind thus creating louder sound.

Pindekan is usually installed in the rice fields since the sound produced by pindekan scare away the birds that feed on the rice. Pindekan is also used in a religious ceremony; a grand religious ceremony usually uses pindekan, it is said that the deities love to hear the soothing sound of pindekan.

In a kite festival pindekan is usually used to warn the participants of the incoming strong wind which is needed to fly the big kites. It is common now in Bali, a kite festival is accompanied by pindekan and sunari (Aeolian flute) contests, but the participants of these contest is far fewer than the kite festival.

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