Voices in Bali: Energies and Perceptions in Vocal Music and Dance Theater

Kala

!(ala Dewasa and the arrangement oftime In discussing the mystical and pedagogical implications of nusup 'penetration ' and the desa kala patra of experience, a friend offers the analogy of Bali being a small boat and Jakarta a big boat. For circumnavigating a harbor , being small gives freedom of movement and diverse possibilities. A Balinese cultural trait found in all aspects of life and art involves breaking everything down into smaller units, allowing detachability of parts and flexibiiity. In a complex rendering of kinds oftime according to an elaborate calendrical system, each day has different inherent qualities and character traits, appropriate for some activities and not others. Wayan Diya likens the interpreter of wariga 'reckoning of time' to a chemist, mixing together aspects of kala 'time'. There is a balancing of inside and outside experience oftime, viewing it both as qualities and as visible social and cosmological (lunar) forms. There are days, dewasa, auspicious for every conceivable activity, from cutting a baby's hair or starting construction ofa new house, to holding a cremation, wedding, or tooth-filing ceremony. And every temple, from an individual family's pura sanggah to large community temples, has its own birthday, or commemoration festival, generally once in the Balinese 2ro-day yearly cycle. Many performance genres are associated with specific days and places: barongwith Tumpek Landep, the day honoring sharp objects ranging from farm tools to the sacred kris 'dagger' and landep 'ceremonial lances'; wayang wong with Galungan, the ten-day festival of ancestors; gambuh with odalan 'temple anniversary festivals' at the pura desa 'community temples' of a Brahmana 'high caste' village or at a great celebration or cremation ofa raja; and Calonarang with a pura dalem 'temple of the dead'. Kala I ro3 Barong landung in Ubud (1972). Photo by Beth Skinner. There is a collective experience, shared by performers and their fellow villagers , as a date approaches and the gambelan is rehearsed each evening in the open air in a public area, and costumes and masks are brought out by day and repaired as needed. In order to schedule another study session, Pak Tempo consults the calendar studiously, to find a day during which all, or almost all, aspects are favorable. The next day, already chosen for the premiere performance of his sendrotari group, is very favorable, but he says that one aspect favors anger, which could affect the propitiousness of the day. As it turns out, while they are setting up that next evening, one of the performers gets angry at some guys playing volleyball near the bale 'performance area'. They argue, as he insists they are hampering and obstructing the performers' preparations. Then, just as the performance is about to begin and everyone is in costume, rain comes pouring down, and the audience is much smaller than expected. The younger dancers are disappointed and do not consider the performance a success, because of the light turnout. The next morning, while we are there, Tempo explains to v 0 I c E s I N B A L I I 104 the performer who had gotten into the argument how he had predicted that the one obstacle that could affect the dewasa was that of anger, and that was the cause of the rain, the subsequent small audience, and the subsequent artistic disappointment Pak Tempo explains that kala also refers to the character of a yuga 'era' or 'epoch', as each dynasty has varied throughout history. The first offour in the rotating cycle ofyugas is a time ofpeace, union, openness; second, the beginning ofjealousy, likes, and dislikes; third, an era ofstealing and transgressions ; and fourth, our own era of war, jealousy, coveting of materials, destruction. Another aspect of time is that of the seasons, moons, and agricultural cycles. And yet another aspect of time can reflect the character of a very specific place and context. The people of Manukaya have a sacred stone enshrined at the holy watering place, Tirtha Mpul, (an eleventh-century Shivaite cavehermitage ) in the mountains near Tampaksiring, along the Pakrisan River. The stone is carried "on the full-moon day of the fourth month of the year to be ritually bathed in the holy waters of Tirtha Mpul. The content of the stone's weathered inscription was unknown to the villagers. Upon deciphering it, Stutterheim found that it was the charter ofTirtha Mpul's foundation, in the fourth month, on the day of the full moon...