now blogging from the Asian Art Museum's website

Woohoo! We've got the blog figured out for the Asian Art Museum. So if you were following the Bali Art Blog you may also be interested in following that one. It has a wider focus, not just on Balinese art, but on art from all over Asia. Right now lots of posts are around the coming exhibition "Lords of the Samurai" which is an exhibition of Japanese art from the Eisei-Bunko Museum in Tokyo.

As we get closer to the opening of the Bali exhibition, in February 2011, you will see more posts about that project, including posts from other folks, such as the curator, the registrars, and marketing folks.

Please link to the Asian Art Museum's blog so we can get more people engaged. The posts have been pretty interesting.

a new dance production from Bali: "Sri Tanjung: The Scent of Innocence"

I receive posts from the Bali Art and Culture Network listserve, and at the risk of circulating the same information to the same people with the same interests, I pass along a recent post that caught my interest.

http://blog.baliwww.com/bali-news-events/2920/
reports on a new dance drama production retelling an old story about an innocent women killed by her jealous husband. She goes to the spirit realm and is returned to life, and a remorseful husband who then challenges her accuser, the king to a duel. Heady stuff! Wish I could see it.

According to the blog:
"The story of Sri Tanjung goes back to the 13th century in East java where we are still able to see the story engraved on various archaeological sights such as the Batur Pendopo of Candi Penataran in Blitar and Candi Surawana in Para, Kediri. In the 17th century, the story was written down in the Middle-Javanese language and came to be known as the Kidung Sri Tanjung. It was also once a popular repertoire for arja [Balinese dance-drama] and ritualistic wayang [I'm not sure if here they mean wayang dance or wayang kulit, the shadow puppet theater, which has a ritual form performed in temples as part of ceremonies] in Bali, but is now all but forgotten. Now, the story is brought back to life through a thorough creative process of research, narrative interpretation, script writing, music and vocal composition, and choreography. . . . Under the leadership of Kadek Suardana, artists of different generations from various disciplines of the performing arts have been brought together to try out their capacity in the exploration and hybridization of traditional idioms (dance, instrumental and vocal music, wider culture)."

NEH grant preparations & Interesting article on barong and rangda

I have been swept into other projects at the museum--Afghanistan programs, budget planning, Bhutan and Samurai exhibition planning--so my Bali posts have suffered. But over the past few weeks the curator, Natasha, our grant-writer, Dino, and I have been working on a grant proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide lead funding for the Bali exhibition. It has been fun to think again about our plans for this exhibition, which will be the first of its kind in the US, and the first of its kind at the Asian, in the sense that the performing and ephemeral arts will play major roles unlike ever before.

I enjoyed the attached article on how the Balinese distinguish between art for sacred purposes and art for commerce using the Barong and Rangda as examples. Just as the Barong and Rangda represent the polars of good and evil that are in constant flux and realignment (rituals are enacted to maintain a healthy balance), the two uses for sacred arts--ritual and commerce--may also be seen as a contiuum that the Balinese expertly keep in balance.
http://www.baliaround.com/barong-and-rangda-balinese-two-opposites/

I was fortunate to see two Barongs enlivened, one in a temple procession and one danced on stage by professionally trained dancers (the latter in the picture above). Both experiences are etched in my memory and make me want to see the Barong again.

Leadership Limbo at Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI) in Denpasar

Bali's national art institute, the Indonesian Arts Institute ISI, is apparently in turmoil after a dispute over who should serve as the rector of the school. I heard that students have barricaded the offices and are boycotting classes. I have only been able to find these two articles in the Jakarta Post about the struggle for the top position of the school.

"Rai re-elected despite mass opposition," by Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, 8/27/2008
"ISI dispute to go to the minister," by Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, 9/2/2008

In the first article it mentions that student protests included a performance of the comic shadow theater, Wayang Cenk Blonk. I am not totally clear on the meaning of "cenk blonk" as opposed to the term Wayang Kulit, which means literally "shadow" (wayang) "leather" (kulit). In the book Balinese Dance, Drama, and Music: A Guide to the Performing Arts of Bali by I Wayan Dibia and Rucina Ballinger they write about "Wayang Cengblong" which "is an anachronism for Nang Klenceng and Nang Eblong, the names of two clowns prominently featured . . ." and that there "is much more joking than in a regular Wayang show. " (p. 50). Can anyone enlighten me if these are one and the same?

There are lots of YouTube clips of Wayang Cenk Blonk, but none when I searched "Chengblong." Maybe the spelling has changed . . . Here is one of the videos I found:

Can and should the museum commission a cremation tower for its exhibition?

We had our second Bali team exhibition meeting last week and we discussed what ephemeral arts we might include. If money is no obstacle, which of course it always is, we would like to see if we could possibly commission a bade (cremation tower) to be erected in front of the museum or in Civic Center Plaza.

What issues might this raise for people? I imagine we might meet with concerns about religious art in public spaces. Might there also be discomfort from the Balinese community about having a sacred art form with a very specific funerary function commissioned for purely aesthetic and cultural education purposes? What will we do with the bade once it is dismantled? Clearly we need some input from the Balinese community on these questions.

My first step will be to reach out to local Balinese advisers and specialists, and at the same time to folks I met in Bali to see if a) this plan is even feasible and b) if it can be done without making a serious cultural gaffe. Tomorrow I will have a chance to bounce this idea off some folks with intimate knowledge of Bali, as I am attending the open house hosted by Gamelan Sekar Jaya in their new Oakland studio.

Great Photos of Bali

I have been ogling the gorgeous photos taken by one of the museum's Jade Circle members, Dennis, in Bali on the recent trip in July. These shots in particular stopped me in my tracks.













I am not sure where he took the image of people having ritual purification at the temple baths, but the image on the right was from the Royal Cremation procession in Ubud on July 15, 2008. I missed the procession as I had positioned myself at the temple so as to try to get a better view of the ceremonies there. It is great to see these images from different places along the procession route, since no one person could take in the whole event given the difficulties of moving from place to place.

Photos by Dennis Lenehan

Balinese cremations on YouTube

I was searching Youtube to see what videos might have been posted about the cremation ceremony I witnessed in Ubud this past July, and found some interesting videos of the cremation of AA Gede Oka Djelantik posted by "stiffchilli" from 2007. These videos show some of the aspects that few people could see in the cremation in Ubud this year due to the sheer number of people crowding everywhere. This part shows the body carried to its nine-storey tower conveyance (bade).



Another segment of video from stiffchilli shows the body being washed, which I think chronologically would have happened before the body is loaded into the tower. This practice is surprising from a western perspective, where we have been conditioned to be timid, if not a bit freaked out, around the dead. When I was about nine years old, my cousins dared me to touch my great grandmother at her viewing, and I felt ashamed to have been so disrespectful to have taken the dare and touched her cheek with my hand. If I had been a Balinese kid maybe it would have been OK.

village to hotel--bookending Balinese dance

Readers may recall from my July 18 post a discussion about art created for the Balinese in a village context and art created for the tourists. I have posted images from that memorable day, which included a morning visit to Asak, a village in the eastern part of the island, and an evening performance at Tandjung Sari Hotel.

Looking at the pictures, you may notice differences in place/staging/lighting, and makeup/costume. Most striking to me, although not obvious from the photos, was the difference in attitude of the dancers. At Asak, the young village women dance the way any young person participating in their community life does--with a mix of eyes-rolled obligation to family, peer bonding, and excitement of being able to dress up and fulfill a central role on the community stage. The performers at Tandjung Sari represent the budding talent of professional Balinese dance. They may also perform at their home village temple ceremonies, but their skill and training sets them apart as an elite artist with the potential to earn a relatively high status (if not particularly lucrative) living from their talent.













At yet another event in Singapadu I witnessed what seems to represent a third category of dance performance in Bali--that of professional dancers performing for a Balinese audience in a hybrid of sacred ritual and pure entertainment. The Singapadu performance featured highly trained, world-class Balinese dancers on a stage mounted in the village temple, but with rather professional lighting and staging. The stage backdrop is painted to mimic a temple gate and is set up for such special performances. The powerful, boar-headed temple barong was danced at the beginning of the evening. Everyone was dressed in formal temple costumes and the sassy boys kicking my chair and goofing for my cameras still had rice stuck to their foreheads from being blessed earlier. But judging from the anticipation of the crowd who lined up chairs in front of the stage, the dance part of the ritual clearly provided entertainment on top of whatever sacred function it served.

We had heard about this performance from the master dance teacher, scholar, and choreographer I Wayan Dibia who had danced the evening before at Singapadu. That afternoon, he arranged for us to meet the renowned, senior mask maker I Wayan Tangguh, and his son, I Ketut Kodi, a great topeng dancer. Pak Kodi was shy and distracted when we met; we had called him away from temple preparations for the evening ceremony and performance. On stage (see the bottom right image) he was like a completely different person. He reminded me of the great Shakespearean character actors, who give life, humor, and sparkle to classic tales. Even though I could not understand the dialogue, I found myself laughing at his antics, and was completely caught up in his character.

The Singapadu performance in a way evokes the state of Balinese dance today--a vessel supported by three legs: village, hotel, and academy. To survive, Balinese dance will likely have to be relevant to Balinese temple life AND tourist dollars. Although many people I spoke with bemoaned the homogenizing influence of the dance universities on Balinese dance, this institution provides needed connective tissue as village teachers die off and young people get distracted by modern life. This remains one of the most compelling debates about the future of Balinese dance--how can dancers retain their particular village traditions while training at the professional and standardized dance academies?

--DC

Images:

Top left: Asak temple dance
Top right: Tandjung Sari Hotel dancer
Bottow left: Barong dance at Singapadu
Bottom right: Pak Kodi as "The Old Man" in Singapadu

Cremation Ceremony Blog and the best of YouTube

It is been too long since my last post. Returning home from Indonesia on August 1, I was slammed with backlogged work, and I am still digging out. I had about 1800 unread emails! Much was spam, but you still have to wade through them all somehow....

My other projects at work include going to lots of meetings, finalizing programs for the autumn exhibition on Afghanistan (I am very excited about the possibility of Rory Stewart coming to give a lecture, details still TBD), working on grant proposals, and trying to set up an online videocasting process for the Society for Asian Art's Friday lecture series, which begins on August 29, with our new director Jay Xu giving a talk on "Mysterious Creatures, Towering Trees and Lofty Figures in

Sacrifice: The Lost Civilization at Sanxingdui, China." One could spend a lifetime studying the various fascinating burial practices and attendant magical creatures found in the arts all across Asia.

I have been working at home to upload some of my Bali images--please take a look on my Flickr site. I will write some posts related to these sets.

Some of the most indelible memories of my time in Bali circle back to the cremation ceremony. There were 1000s of folks with cameras there besides me and many of them got great shots. There is a fascinating official press blog about the events to be found at http://pelebon2008.blogspot.com/
Of particular interest are links to some YouTube videos of such things as the artisans creating the tower (bade). You can go directly to the YouTube clip here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvUmbj_ohkA

The other video link from the official blog is this very slick ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAmYa4EkJXE
promoting the cremation ceremony apparently to encourage tourism for the event. This is an interesting approach to marketing--come see us burn our dead, it's beautiful, peaceful, harmonious, sacred. Funny thing is that the video looks nothing like what I experienced. I am not saying that the actual event lacked in majesty or sacredness, in its way, but it wasn't so clean and controlled as the video characterizes. All for the better.

For a sense of the chaos and excitement of the actual event, better to look at videos such as this one posted by Schooo1980
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYPx87Mjjjs&feature=related
of the bulls being carried down the main street in Ubud to the temple.

Or this one posted by putrasinggih of the flames in full force. Listen to the master of ceremonies, who switches to English and asks the crowd to calm down so that they can get the fire hose in position to dampen the flames.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmvCJ60NFc0&feature=related

Of course, these videos are only of the most public part of the cremation activities. I know that there were probably many quiet, private moments shared only by the family, quietly chatting while making offerings, praying in small groups, and the like.

To see my humble assortment of photos of the cremation, please click here http://www.flickr.com/photos/clearwaters/sets/72157606589742137/
I have lots of video footage, which is less accessible to me until we upgrade our video editing station at work. But in a month or so I should have some clips of this footage that I will share on YouTube.

Bali Royal Cremation Ceremony July 15, 2008

The Ubud Royal Cremation yesterday, July 15, 2008, was unbelievable. The towers were like a 10 story building, and carried by 100 or so guys, sometimes moving very fast. They had to cut down some trees beside the road and all the telephone wires were down for a few hours to allow the towers to pass. The procession started at the Ubud royal palace and traveled down the main road about 1/2 mile to the Royal Cemetery. There were ramps built at both ends to load the bodies into and out of the towers some 30 feet off the ground.

There were mobs of people--I went to the cremation ground early to try to get a good spot from which to video, but all efforts were rather futile once the throngs arrived and jockeyed for sight lines. I was often holding my camera overhead using the tripod. I had a good view of the front of the procession of the immediate family members, with two younger members dressed really finely in traditional costume and carried in palanquins.

When the towers arrived, there was a swelling of excitement in the crowd. It was so impressive to see these massive things move, you almost couldn't believe what you were seeing--like some sci-fi movie of a giant walking down the street. Bearers climbed up the ramp to bring the bodies down. There were two elegant caskets, probably TJOKORDA GDE AGUNG SUYASA, head of the Ubud Royal Family and the leader of the traditional community in Ubud since 1976 and TJOKORDA GEDE RAKA, a senior officer in the police force in Denpasar until his retirement in 1992. One person was in a plain white cloth. Perhaps this was the effigy of GUNG NIANG RAKA.

The bearers held the three bodies overhead for more than an hour while the bull sarcophagi were positioned on the cremation platform. The space was tight and there were so many people it was like threading a needle with these huge unwieldy sculptures.

Everyone, not least of which, the purple-shirted bearers, cheered loudly when they finally placed the second bull on the platform. The backs of the bulls were cut open to place the bodies inside.

The MC asked everyone to sit for the sacred ceremony, which none of us could really see or hear, but took about another hour. I did see some offerings and beautiful cloths being carefully placed on top of the deceased and heard faint singing or chanting from the platform. Some family members said final farewells from scaffolding placed adjacent to the bull openings. One man came down and was very distraught, but was immediately surrounded by others to comfort and shield him from the hundreds of cameras. Finally the top of the bull was re-attached enclosing the bodies.

The family which led the procession reemerged from the pavilion and circumambulated the cremation platform several times with offerings. Meanwhile a warrior dance was performed with live gamelan, crowds surrounding and almost moving with the spear-weilding dancers. Suddenly the naga serpent appeared, as if swimming through the sea of people, and danced around a little before it too was placed on the platform between the two bulls.

It was now almost completely dark. You could see people loading kindling and chopped firewood beneath the bulls. Then the fire was lit. It started as a small glow, then quickly grew into a roaring fire with red ashes soaring up. Hundreds of camera flashes added to the light show. I was standing about 50 yards away and could feel the heat of the fire. It was strangely comforting, not too hot or smokey as I feared it might be. The heavens seemed to be drawing all the smoke and fire upwards and away. It was stunningly beautiful. You could still make out the beautiful bulls' heads almost the whole time, at one point they seemed to be spewing steam from their mouths. Eventually both heads fell over.

As soon as the fire seemed a little out of control the fire truck waiting nearby sprung into action, spraying down areas that might pose danger to the crowds around. It was amazing to watch them control the blaze, alternately fueling it with fire accelerant hoses and diminishing it with water. It was the most finely orchestrated planned mayhem I have ever witnessed. It surely cost the royal family a mint, and one wonders how long they will be able to keep up with cremation costs, as the cost of living in Bali has greatly increased in recent years.

We had been standing for about 12 hours with little water a no food. We were completely spent, but certainly we were nowhere near as tired as any one of the participants, from the royal family members who have been sitting vigil for months, making offerings, taking care of volunteers, and visitors; to the scores of vounteer bearers, whose back-breaking work was in some ways the most moving contribution to the event. Surely they could more easily load the towers onto large trucks, like the Macy's Parade, but this would make absolutely no sense in this context, where personal effort must be expended to make the whole thing work. To show the deceased how much they were loved in life, and how much they are and will continue to be honored in death.

I have yet to download pictures, but when I do, I will post them. Please check back for some images and video footage.

--posted from Marco Polo Business Center internet cafe in Ubud

countdown to Bali

In less than 24 hours I will be boarding a plane to Bali. It is a long journey and I am tight on carry on space so I have to decide what to bring to read. I may have to hit the bookstore at the airport if it is still open at 11pm.

Here is one of Dennis L's latest photos from the Jade Circle trip. Soon my own eyes will see such gorgeous scenes. Dennis is quite the photographer. I will soon try to compete with him using my new Canon Rebel XTi 400D.



I have to work tomorrow, we have a tea program, but I am mostly packed. Someone remind me to bring my passport, OK?

Bali in the words of Margaret Mead

My colleage Natasha emailed me this evocative quote by Margaret Mead with the remark "a bit objectifying, but..."

Upon the hundreds of stone altars of Bali, there lay not merely a fruit and a flower, placed as visible offering to the many gods, but hundreds of finely wrought and elaborately conceived offerings made of palm leaf and flowers, twisted, folded, stitched, embroidered, brocaded into myriad traditional forms and fancies. There were flowers made of sugar and combined into representations of the rainbow, and swords and spears cut from the snow-white fat of sacrificial pigs. The whole world was patterned, from the hillsides elaborately terraced to give the maximum rice yield, to the air which was shot through with music, the temple gates festooned with temporary palm-leaf arras over their permanent carved façade, to the crowds of people who, as they lounged, watching an opera or clustered around two fighting cocks, composed themselves into a frieze…Their lives were packed in intricate and formal delights

Preparing to visit Bali

It has been a while since my last post. I have been swamped getting ready for my 3 weeks in Indonesia--getting camera equipment, batteries, gifts, summer clothes, sunscreen, and trying to talk to lots of people about whom we should meet, and what performances we should see and document.

Some members of the Jade Circle Bali trip have already arrived and have posted some images, such as these gorgeous shots by Dennis L.




Even though planning for the Asian Art Museum's Bali exhibition is the main reason for my visit to Indonesia, I felt compelled to add a detour to Java. I will visit Borobudur and will also meet up with my San Francisco-based Sundanese dance teacher and his master teacher in Bandung, Pak Achmad Farmis.

personal account of a cremation ceremony

Those of us non-Balinese fortunate to be in Bali for the upcoming royal cremation may experience the event as an overwhelming, exotic spectacle.

With the road in front of the Palace now closed, Ubud’s traffic is starting to slow to a snail’s pace. There is a feeling of excitement in the air, of a great event about to happen. There is no denying Ubud is the cultural center of Bali; a title of which we are proud but one that has been upheld through a consistent commitment to the religion and the people.

And on July 15, with the royal white bulls leading the way, followed by more than sixty black bulls and red tigers racing down Jl. Raya to their respective cemeteries, you are guaranteed to be filled with emotion. This is the culmination of a thousand or more hours of work.

This quote comes from a blog post "Ubud busily prepares for a royal cremation" by Janet Deneefe, which also chronicles her personal experience of preparing for the cremation ceremonies of her parents. Janet's moving essay makes real the long days of preparation, the survivors' sacrifice of money, time, comfort, and sleep, and the coming together of community support to ensure that the dead are celebrated in death like they never could have been in life.

She also provides some helpful details about what to expect on July 15. I will post what images I can from Bali and will surely set up a Flickr set about the ceremony after my return on August 1.

What to wear to a Balinese Temple

The group going to Bali from the Asian Art Museum talked about appropriate wear for visiting a Balinese temple. I will have to buy my temple outfit when I arrive, but I have a simple cotton batik kain or kamben (often mistakenly called a sarong by us Westerners). The difference is that a true sarong is a tube of fabric which you step into, and gather around the waist. As I understand, it is more informal than a kamben, which a long rectangle of fabric that is wrapped around the waist and tied. I have no idea of the proper way to tie these, and hope someone knowledgeable in Bali will help me.

I found two helpful descriptions of Balinese dress online at:
http://www.geocities.com/bali_traditional_life/bali_costume.htm
http://www.murnis.com/culture/articlebalinesedressandtextiles.htm

and some photos of people wearing it


Photo by Nick O'Neill


Photo by Damian White

More on Balinese Royal Cremation Ceremonies

I am trying to find out more about "bade," the pagoda-like structures used to convey the body of the person to be cremated to the cremation grounds. What are they made out of and by whom? How long does one for a royal personage take to make? Are the artisans full time bade makers or do they make art for other uses? I am waiting for a book on Balinese offerings to arrive from Singapore that I hope will answer some of my questions.

Meanwhile, in searching "google" I came across a blog (on the third page into my google search) bemoaning the lack of educational content coming out of a google search on Balinese flower offerings,(http://1944keen.blogspot.com/2007/03/bali-flower-offerings.html). The poster complained about all the adds including one for 1-800-Flowers to which one commenter suggested doing a search on http://scholar.google.com/ instead.

There was a royal cremation for Tjokorde Istri Putri and Tjokorde Istri Inten from Puri Mas and Puri Anyar in 2006, about which there is an interesting photo-blog by ablteam at http://blog.baliwww.com/guides/119/

Image source: http://blog.baliwww.com/guides/119/

Royal Cremation Ceremony in Bali July 15, 2008

According to the website of the Ministry Of Culture And Tourism, Republic Of Indonesia (http://www.my-indonesia.info/page.php?ic=7&id=3947)
the Ubud Royal Family will hold a royal cremation ceremony on July 15, 2008 (the day after I arrive in Bali) for the bodies of two prominent elders and effigy of one member of the family, who was cremated in December soon after her death:

TJOKORDA GDE AGUNG SUYASA, head of the Ubud Royal Family and the leader of the traditional community in Ubud since 1976
TJOKORDA GEDE RAKA, a senior officer in the police force in Denpasar until his retirement in 1992
GUNG NIANG RAKA, whose body was cremated in a smaller ceremony in December soon after she died, will also now be given a full cremation ceremony

My experience of funerals in the United States have been somber family affairs. A stranger to the family would never dream of intruding. According to what I've heard, death rituals are much more public in Bali, and the Indonesian Ministry of Culture has issued an open invitation to tourists to attend the grand cremation ceremony in Bali next month.

The following description of the ceremony is adapted from the Ministry of Culture website. I have added pictures, links for more information, and italics to non-English words:

"The cremation procession and associated ceremonies are important rituals in the [Balinese] Hindu rites of passage. The bodies of the deceased will be carried through the streets of Ubud by thousands of local people on top of a nine-tiered tower called bade.

The procession will be accompanied by an elaborately decorated and venerated bull effigy (Lembu) and a mythical dragon-like creature (Naga Banda), with a five meter-long tail. The naga is reserved for only the elders of the Royal family and is thus seldom seen in cremation ceremonies.

Ngaben is the principle funeral rite in Bali's Hindu society which aims to return the remains of the deceased to the elements from which all living things are created and to release the soul from all ties to this life.

Ngaben is comprised of many rituals, culminating in the burning of the corpse in an animal-shaped sarcophagus, as well as the burning of the cremation tower (bade) whose sole purpose is to transport the corpse from home to the cremation grounds.

The Ngaben is not a sad event, it can even be happy, it is a way to make the spirit of the dead happy, and to avoid disturbing him by crying. However it requires an enormous amount of time, energy, and money! All of the relatives and friends share the cost but often months, or even years, will be required to gather enough money and to make the mountains of offerings involved. One solution is for ordinary community members to join the funerals of wealthier individuals of high caste, or to organize ngaben massal (mass cremation) among the villagers, to reduce the costs.

In Ubud, such 'mass' cremations are held only every 3-5 years. On 15 July, 2oo8 three members of the Royal Family of Ubud will be cremated along with approximately 70 other deceased from the local community.

This ceremony is very much a public one and visitors are welcome but everyone is reminded to dress appropriately, with legs and arms covered, and to abide by any instructions and announcements."

Video of a cremation ceremony


Images

Top: Image: "Bade," the pagoda-like tower in which to body of the deceased is processed to the cremation ground. Photo courtesy of Sidarta Wijaya (http://blog.baliwww.com/arts-culture/1330/)

Middle: Bull effigy or "lembu." Photo courtesy of I Wayan Wardika's Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/62565299@N00/2443194960/)

Bottom: The serpent deity or "Naga Banda." Photo courtesy of Jelantik's Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jelantik/260500635/)

Dinner and Gamelan FAQs

A Lovely Dinner
Tonight I was very fortunate to be included in a dinner hosted by the Consul General of Indonesia in San Francisco, Mr. Yudhistiranto Sungadi and his wife Mrs. Nenny Yudhistiranto. The dinner was to give a send-off to the members of the museum's Jade Circle who are going to Bali on a 10-day study tour led by the museum's Chief Curator, Forrest McGill. The Jade Circle raises hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to support the museum in its educational mission. They are an amazing group of individuals from all different fields and backgrounds. Many have lived or do business in Asia, some collect art, some are docents, some are board members, all are avid supporters of the museum and give their time and money to support our many outreach programs. The Consul General and his wife treated us to a lively and warm evening, and a delicious Indonesian meal in their gorgeous 1905 Pacific Heights home that was featured in a few San Francisco movies, including Sudden Fear (1952) starring Joan Crawford and Jack Palance. The Yudhistiranto's couldn't have been nicer to our group.

Gamelan FAQs
On a totally different note, I have been reading other blogs about Bali and came across one (http://blog.baliwww.com/arts-culture/1459/) that mentioned an interesting website created by a group in Washington, DC, Gamelan Mitra Kusuma, providing frequently asked questions about gamelan music. I found it helpful, myself knowing very little about gamelan other than the most basic information. The page provides some answers to the following questions that gamelan musicians often hear from their friends and families:

1. Gamelan? What the heck's that deal?
2. What instrument do you play? 3. Where is Bali?
4. How do you learn how to play?
5. Is there musical notation?
6. Are you all Indonesian?

From what I understand, gamelan is the musical accompaniment to virtually every Balinese dance, with very few exceptions, such as the Kecak dance, which is accompanied by chanting (see historical photo at left from Cornell University.

This particular dance has an interesting history, which is partly told in the Wikipedia article about Kecak. More on this topic later.....