Ubud is indisputable center of Balinese art especially for painting with its numerous talented artists and many excellent paintings. However there are artists of talent emerge outside Ubud whose style and substance appear to develop entirely separately, not conforming to the styles that develop in Ubud. And one of these talented artists was I Gusti Made Deblog.

I Gusti Made Deblog was born in 1906 in Taensiat, Denpasar municipality. He learned the art of painting especially portrait painting at the age of thirty-one from his Chinese friend, Yap Sin Tin, who made his living by drawing portrait of his clients with contee (hardened coal) and Chinese ink on paper. Unfortunately drawing portrait was not Deblog’s best talent, hetried to sell his drawing but failed miserably.

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In 1915, a new genre of Balinese Gamelan was introduced in North Bali. This new composition is called Kebyar, involving a mixture of old and new melodies with new variations syncopation, so that it forms an entirely new genre of Balinese gamelan music. And by chance in the same year a young dancer from Tabanan, I Mario, saw that the dance which was accompanied by this new composition was performed rather badly and could not keep up with intricate variations, paraphrases, cadenzas and complicated rhythmic of the new composition. And saw the possibilities of a solo dance that can be matched with the new composition.

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Back in his home town in Tabanan, Mario worked out his ideas even without the help of the gamelan. The result of his arduous work was the highly demanding Kebyar dance. This is the only dance that is able to interpret the new gamelan composition in its spontaneous movements.

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The history of establishment of wayang wong* began at about the beginning of 19^th century. At the time, the king of Klungkung, I Dewa Agung Sakti, ordered the establishment of dance group consisting of thirty six people, half which were to play the role of simian army of Rama, and the other half was act the role of Rahwana’s army giants. At the time of its establishment, the group members all wore masks which characterized their role as monkeys or as giant, in the performance. The clothing worn by the monkeys was made from plant fibres (prasok) to stimulate fur.

Wayang Wong performance on The Annual Bali Arts Festival 2006

This dance group depicted stories from the Ramayana dealing with the fight between the simian and giant armies. The performance was known as Barong Blasan or Barong Kedingkling. This Barong became very popular not only in the palace but also in the village especially when performed on the holiday. The performers in monkey masks and costume would enters the village and go from house to house, clowning and entertaining the people as they went, the villager donated some money, a coconut or other kitchen utensil. The simians would even climb the coconut trees and fetch the donation themselves. These performances were always greeted with great enthusiasm by the villagers for reason other than mere enjoyment and entertaining spectacle.

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I Gusti Nyoman Lempad might be the one of the most talented artists ever born in Bali. He was a master craftsman, designing and building monumental gates, carving temples and palace decorations, making barong mask, cremation towers, nagabandas (papier-mache dragon for royal cremation) and above all painting. He was also well versed in old Balinese literature.

Title : The Dagger Attack On Rangda
Artist : I Gusti Nyoman Lempad
Media : Ink and tempera on papper
Size : 24 x 33 cm
Year : 1939s
Courtesy : Neka Art Museum

I Gusti Nyoman Lempad was born in Bedulu in 1862, he was multi-talented as is father who was also excellent craftsman, architect, and painter. In 1875, his talent offended his patron and fled to Peliatan then to the protection of the court in Ubud; Lempad was 13 at this time. He left behind in Bedulu an important legacy as architect and sculptor. He was an excellent sculptor who reputed in particular to have introduced the unfinished style of in stone sculpture, in this style the characters are roughly hewn and bereft of all iconographic traits.

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Barong Kedingkling is a sacred performance of nine masked dancers which derives its theme from Ramayana epic. It has exorcism function. It is performed when there is a pestilence hits the town or before a temple anniversary to ensure the success of the ceremony.

The origin of Barong can be narrated as follow: It is told in the village of Medangan, Gianyar Regency, that a terrible pestilence threatened the people about 300 years ago, when King Batu Renggong’s great-grandson was on the throne in Klungkung. The new king’s elder brother, I Dalem Agung Pemayun, was driven into exile after he had refused to assume the title of King of Bali for himself. After I Dalem Agung Pemayun had wandered for some time in the wilderness of the northern mountain district and meditated there, he traveled south and entered Medangan while the epidemic was raging.

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Pura Meduwe Karang at Kubutambahan, 12 km from Singaraja, and 108 km from Denpasar is dedicated to the fertility of the and is associated with the dry field (tegalan) and the fruit and vegetable gardens (abian) in the same way as the various temples maintained by the subak associations are linked with the complexes of wet rice fields. It is the temple of all those who cultivate the dry fields whether their crops be coconuts, or fruit, maize, or tobacco, or ground nuts, or coffee, or cotton, or lontar leaves, or palm sugar. The list does not include rice because the soil is unsuitable and the rainfall too low in the coastal areas of east Buleleng for the cultivation of rice in the dry fields.

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