The aim of the author's research was to study 1) the thematic elements and the composition of the plays (lelampahan wayang), and 2) their religious and cultural background. She concentrates on one particular play: the story of Bima Swarga. The study is based mainly on fieldwork carried out in Bali over the period 1972- 1976, when materials were collected from oral and written sources.

The aim of the author's research was to study 1) the thematic elements and the composition of the plays (lelampahan wayang), and 2) their religious and cultural background. She concentrates on one particular play: the story of Bima Swarga. The study is based mainly on fieldwork carried out in Bali over the period 1972- 1976, when materials were collected from oral and written sources.

This volume is about puppetry, an expression of popular and folk culture which is extremely widespread around the world and yet has attracted relatively little scholarly attention. Puppetry, which is intended for audiences of adults as well as children, is a form of communication and entertainment and an esthetic and artistic creation. Of the many aspects of puppetry worthy of scholarly study, this book's focus is on a central and dominant feature--humor and comedy.

This book is an examination of the music of the Balinese gendér wayang, the quartet of metallophones - gendér - that accompanies the Balinese shadow puppet play - wayang kulit. The book focuses on processes of musical variation, the main means of creating new music in this genre, and the implications of these processes for the social and historical study of Balinese music, musical aesthetics, concepts of creativity and compositional methods. Dr Nick Gray tackles a number of core ethnomusicological concerns in a new way, including the relationship between composition and improvisation, and also highlights issues specific to Balinese music, including the importance of flexibility in performance, an aspect that has been largely ignored by scholars. Gray thus breaks new ground both in the study of issues relating to improvisation and composition and in Balinese music studies.

The studies in this book examine traditional performance genres in the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali. They cover puppet and human theatre, dance, sung narrative, narrative temple reliefs, and vocal and instrumental music, span a period of more than a thousand years, and range over four cultural complexes: Sundanese in western Java, Javanese in central and eastern Java, Chinese in eastern Java, and Balinese in Bali.

The Central Thesis Of This Book Maintains That The Need To Preserve Pluralism In Indonesia, And The High Price Paid By Its People Anytime Pluralism Had Been Trampled Upon In The Past, Are The Two Essential Aspects Of Their Historical Experience. This Thesis Is Particularly Relevant For The People Of Indonesia Today As They Are Grappling With The Problems Of National Unity And Transition To A Modem Pluralistic Democracy. Two Parts Of This Book Articulate This Thesis. Part I Explains The Origin Of The Hindu-Buddhist Dualism During The Srivijaya And Sailendra Periods In The Viii- Ix Centuries Ad. The Process Of Javanization Then Extended This Dualism By Incorporating Into The New Synthesis The Indigenous Ancestral And The Rsi Cults During The Majapahit Period, Particularly Under King Wuruki'Ls Rule From 1350 To 1389. This New Pluralism Was Further Extended By Absorbing Elements Of The Kalang/Palang Culture And The Bhima Cult, Culminating In The Grand Synthesis Of The Core Values Of The Hindu-Javanese Culture As Expressed By The Iconography Of Candi Sukuh Erected In 1437. Two Factors Are Identified As Contributing To The Decline And Then Demise Of Majapahit In 1527. First, Attempts By China To Build Its Own System Of Dependencies In Southeast Asia By Detaching From Majapahit Its Overseas Territories, And Then Its Intervention In The Dynastic Rivalries In Java During The Paregreg Civil War From 1400 To 1406. Second, The Penetration Of Islam From The Coastal Areas Of Majapahit Into Its Heartland, And The Gradual Establishment Of Its Hegemony Over The Core Values Of The Hindu-Javanese Civilization. Part Ii Of The Book Explores The Interaction Of Islam With The Deeply Rooted Substratum Of The Hindu-Javanese Values, And Then The Absorption Of Islam Into A New Synthesis And A Higher Form Of Pluralism Forged During The Long Process Of The Islamization Of Java And The Javanization Of Islam. This New Pluralism Was Further Enriched By Incorporating Various Strands Of Christianity During The Colonial Period. In Its Fmal Form This Pluralism Provided The Social Cohesion And The National Ethos And Consciousness Which Propelled Indonesia Towards Its Statehood And Independence In 1945, Leading To The Establish- Ment Of A Secular State To Accommodate The Imperatives Of This Higher Pluralism Under The State Doctrine Of The Pancasila. The Book Then Surveys The Post-Independence Period To Show How This Pluralism Fared Under The Successive Regimes Of Sukamo, Suharto, Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid, And How It Fares Under Megawati Sukamoputri Today. The Survey Con- Cludes On A Sobering Note That Most Of The Problems Experi- Enced By These Regimes Had Their Roots In The Violation Of The Pluralistic Nature Of The Indonesian Society. In This Context There Is Little Doubt That The Continued Attempts Of Some Islamic Groups, Mostly Incited From Abroad, To Wage A Jihad For The Replacement Of The Existing Secular State By An Islamic One, Would Plunge The Country Into A Civil War Of The Paregreg Type. These Attempts Might Not Succeed Given The Rnilitaryns Staunch Commitment To The Pancasila And The Secular State. However The Cost Of Thwarting Them Would Be Very High.

In Storytelling in Bali, Hildred Geertz makes a case for the importance of the role of informal storytelling as an engine of social change in Bali in the 1930s. This is a study of more than 200 texts dictated by the painters of the village of Batuan in 1936 to the anthropologist Gregory Bateson. It is completed by three years field work in Batuan in the 1980s. The tales reveal a set of strong ambivalences about the magical powers of kings, priests and sorcerers, and about social strains within villages and families. These narratives were related in the daily settings of home and coffee shop and also in the spectacular dance-dramas of the time.

First published in 1987. This book began in Bali during 1970–72, during the author’s Ph.D. research on the shadow theatre for the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. However, two subsequent trips to Bali in 1980 and 1984, when I studied other forms of dance-drama and ritual, greatly contributed to the work. The shadow theatre in Bali is described and its place in the society and culture explored. It is so called, as during the night performance puppets cast vibrant shadows against a white cotton screen which is illuminated by a flickering coconut-oil lamp.