Bali was brought to the attention of the Western world through photography. Krause’s provocative black and white shots of maidens and lads bathing, topless women going about their daily business and posed half naked women amid coconut palms evoked an island paradise where women easily gave out favors, the fruit and juices flowed and the cares of the world could be forgotten.

This perpetuation of an island paradise continued throughout the early twentieth century with the publication of Miguel Covarrubias’s encyclopedic (and romanticized vision) Island of Bali, Gotthard Schuh’s Insel der Gotter, Beryl de Zoete and Walter Spies’ Dance and Drama in Bali, Hickman Powell’s The Last Paradise and many more. Many of these early writers and photographers extolled the beauty of Balinese women and their breasts.

What is interesting to note is that when Balinese look at these images from 80 years ago, they see the malnutrition and weariness in the faces and bodies of their ancestors. Where the European saw harmony and peace and of course, the “lost paradise” they had been seeking after their countries had been torn apart by World War I, the Balinese saw the ordinary—an island filled with hard-working and poor inhabitants

Photography, by its very existence, puts up a wall between the object being photographed and the person taking the picture. Usually the tourist photographer is taking pictures of the “other” to show to his/her cohorts back home. The tourist gaze tends to focus on difference, the exotic. The Bali of the 1930s – 1950s was one of (male) fantasy: golden maidens and lads in various stages of undress conjured up a dream island of unlimited sexuality, when in fact the Balinese culture was nothing like the image represented. In the early photographs, we see little of daily life if there is not a (often posed) topless young woman involved.

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Magecel is a unique Balinese pastime which strongly related to cockfighting. Magecel can be defined as an activity of fondling and exercising fighting cock. As any activity in Bali, magecel is done collectively; sometimes four up to a dozen men bring with their fighting cocks sit under the canopy of banyan, other big tree or in the hamlet meeting hall fondling and discussing the merit and demerit of their own fighting cocks, sometimes mock battles without steel spurs are staged to exercise the fighting ability of the cocks.

photo taken from flickr.com/photos/cafiso/

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Letting their hair fall loose is taboo for Balinese women - especially in public and in traditional ceremonies - even though a girl’s hair might be ever so beautiful. Loose hair is only seen when a Balinese woman is having an argument or when she is mourning or as a result of undertaking a particular oath. Or for certain other purposes for example for black magic. Other than this, a Balinese woman’s hair must be done up, or tied back. There are various ways of tying the hair according to the situation and purpose. In everyday life, to avoid her hair coming untied, a Balinese woman will wear a cloth head dress called tengkuluk. In public places such as the market, a towel is often used like this by the women traders. The types and shapes of these head dresses are very varied.

One of them is called lelunakan, a development of the head dress which has a very attractive form. The cloth used is a beautiful light scarf: the ends are arranged neatly and there is a wide opening, so that it protects the head and ties the tightly coiled hair. It appears that the lelunakan originated from the head dress used by the women of Denpasar. In its further development it has tended to be considered the special style of the women of the whole regency of Badung. Now, because of its beauty, it has even been adopted by women throughout Bali.

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