When the gong kebyar composition first appeared in Northern Bali with the avant-garde villages such as Bungkulan, Jagaraga and villages at its vicinity in 1915, No one ever dreamed that this genre of Balinese gamelan become the most favorite kind gamelan to be played by women. As a matter of fact at that time no one would ever dreamed that Balinese women have any chance to play gamelan.

In the past, gamelan is a privilege for men and the involvement of women in the realm of art was restricted in dance and drama performance area. However, in the last three decades, it is important to note that there has been a significant democratization process within the Balinese art world. Women begun to be given wider chance to participate in every genre of Balinese traditional art; and nowadays the once male-dominated art world has been transformed into free for all art domain.

(more…)

Thousands temple anniversaries and ceremonies are held every month in Bali especially during the auspicious months of Balinese traditional calendar. Each of these temple anniversaries and ceremonies require a lot of working hours and workers to finish, not to mention the grand ceremony that need months of preparation and hundreds of workers to prepare and perform the ceremony. The need of working hours and workers for the sake of temple anniversaries and ceremonies are staggering in numbers and this massive constant need is fulfilled by Ngayah.

flickr.com/photos/awabi_mushi_77/

The word ‘ngayah’ is hard to define, it is derived from the word ‘ayah’ means ‘voluntary work,’ and the word ‘ngayah’ itself can be defined as ‘working voluntarily.’ Balinese are working voluntarily as a sign of devotion to God. In the spirit of ngayah, Balinese present their time, effort and talent as an offering to God.

(more…)