For
over a thousand years Batuan has been a village of
artists and craftsmen, old legends and mysterious
tales. Batuan's recorded history begins in A-D. 1022,
with an inscription that is housed in the main village
temple, Pura Desa Batuan. The name "Batuan"
or "Baturan" mentioned here prompts villagers
to joke about being "tough as stone" or
"eating rocks" - as batu means "stone"
in Balinese. But it likely refers to an ancient megalithic
tradition in which standing stones served as meeting
places and ceremonial sites for the worship of ancestral
spirits.
Famous
families
Batuan's
central location in south Bali is the primary reason
for its historical importance. Besides the ancient
village temple, there is a temple called Pura Gede
Mecaling which is said to be on the site of the old
palace of the demon king Jero Gede Mecaling, whose
name the Balinese are afraid to even utter. He is
supposed to have moved from here to the island of
Nusa Penida, where he still reside.
In
the 1600s the famous family of Gusti Ngurah Batulepang
dominated south Bali, living as prime ministers based
in Batuan. They remained prime ministers until the
early 1700s, when a branch of the Klungkung royal
family was established at nearby Sukawati. At that
time the chief centers of the kingdom were Sukawati,
Batuan, and the nearby sea side village of Ketewel.
Batuan still has ritual links with Ketewel that commemorate
that era.
The
family of Batulepang scattered to the far corners
of Bali in subsequent centuries as the result of a
priestly curse, but a small temple for Gusti Batulepang
remains on the site of his palace. The Buddhist priests
or pedanda boda who later made Batuan a great spiritual
center built a house, the Griya Ageng on that part
of Batulepang's temple where death rituals were once
held. They then marshaled powerful Tantric forces
here.
Brahman
majority
Because
Batuan became a center from which Buddhist priests
and brahmans spread to main court centers of south
Bali, the village has an unusual preponderance of
brahmans DeZoete and Spies, in their famous book Dance
and Drama in Bali, describe it almost as entirely
a brahman village. This is not really true, but much
of the village near the main Denpasar to Ubud road
is inhabited by the extended family of the Buddhist
Griya Ageng and of a smaller number of Siwa-worshipping
brahmans who came later to Batuan. The other main
high caste family the Dewas, related to the Batua,
or extended palace family, who are in turn closely
related to the Gianyar royal family. Batuan is unusual
in that commoners actually form a minority in the
center of the village.
The
western area of Batuan, known Negara, was a separate
village and court center in the 19th century. It grew
so powerful that it revolted against the main house
Gianyar in 1884, destroying the kingdom and setting
south Bali on a path of inter conflict which opened
it up to Dutch conquest. In 1900, when the Dutch took
over Gianyar, Negara was incorporated within Batuan
Similarly, the adjacent area of Puaya, a famous center
for dance and theater ornaments, puppets and other
objects made from hide, is regarded as being quite
separate.
Dancing
ancient tales
The
Buddhist brahmans of Batuan, in concert with the famous
former king of the village, Anak Agung Gede Oka (1860
- 1947), were responsible for making Batuan the center
on Bali for the most courtly and elegant of all Balinese
dance forms, the gambuh. In all of Bali only two troupes
from Batuan still perform this theatrical presentation
of tales of ancient princes and princesses.
The
first is led by I Made Jimat, Bali's most celebrated
dancer of modern times, whose genius never fails to
leave his audiences breathless. The second consists
of the extended family of the greatest dancer of the
generation before Jimat - the late I Nyoman Kakul
- who passed on the skills and techniques of gambuh
and of the other important dance forms such as the
masked topeng plays and the operatic arja theater.
I Ketut Kantor, Kakul's son, now leads the troupe.
In
his day Kakul was able to call on the mask-making
skills of Dewa Putu Kebes, whose topeng masks were
charged with the spiritual forces of kings and heroes
from the Balinese past. Since his death, his son Dewa
Cita and grandson Dewa Mandra have maintained the
combination of immaculate skill and divine inspiration,
which made his work so powerful. A pupil of the family,
Made Regug of Negara, also upholds the fine carving
tradition.
Besides
the dances, performed in the central part of the village,
Batuan is also famous for its wayang wong, masked
performances of stories from the Ramayana. This is
exclusively performed in the banjar (hamlet) known
as Den Tiis.
The
'Batuan style'
From
Den Tiis also came the inspiration for the modern
Batuan style of painting. In the 1930s, two brothers,
I Ngendon and I Patera, began experimenting painting
with ink on paper. The result was powerful black and
white images of magic and of Balinese life. The families
of these two artists are still influential in the
village, and now own the Art shop Dewata on the main
road leading to Ubud.
Ngendon
and Patra originally studied under a traditional painter
living to the east of the palace, but from them. The
painting tradition spread back to the main part of
the village where it was enthusiastically embraced
by a number of their fellow villagers. The present-day
generation of artists includes Made Tubuh, Wayan Rajin,
Ida Bagus Putu Gede and Made Budi who has become famous
through his humorous and insightful depictions of
tourists in Bali. more..
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