This Saturday, 17th May, 2008, Tumpek Wayang, one of my favorite Agama Hindu Bali Holydays honors, respects and celebrates Wayang Kulit shadow play. On this day the Dalang, (shadow artists) display their Wayang (shadow characters) and place offerings around the characters, Gamelan instruments, and other objects (the screen, lamp, etc) used in shadow performances.

About 15 hours after this ritual occurs on Bali, especially in the Banjar Babakan community of Sukawati, it happens again in a tiny section of California, in the Banjar Mission Hills community of Los Angeles, where devoted students of Wayang and Gamelan reside. Since we are unable to find flowers like cempaka or ylang2, or snacks like jajan kampung, we must substitute. Desa, kala, patra - a teacher once told me - do what you can depending on where you are, when it is, and what you can obtain, something like - it’s the thought that counts!

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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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The term Wayang Wong comes from the two words wayang meaning shadow and wong meaning man. Wayang Wong, which translates to shadow men, is a human dramatization of the Wayang Kulit (shadow puppet) show, wherein the dancers imitate the jerky movements of the puppets. Wayang Wong is one of several Balinese performance art forms which meld dance, drama and music. In Bali, there are two kinds of Wayang Wong, Wayang Wong Parwa which adapts stories from the Mahabharata for the stage, and Wayang Wong Ramayana, which takes stories from the Ramayana.

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