Stories from Bali are always interesting to read. For non-Balinese, they are exotic and contain mysteries from the island of a thousand gods.
Ordeal by Fire is claimed to be the translation of a collected short stories titled Mandi Api, originally published by Penerbit Buku Kompas (Kompas, January 2006) that received the 2006 Khatulistiwa Literary Award.
Mandi Api contains 21 short stories, of which 13 were translated into English and published in Ordeal by Fire, and three other short stories were added, "Granpa Cekol" (1973), "Heaven for Farmers" (2006) and "The Dancer from Timuhun" (2007).
Eight short stories were excised from the collection, according to the author, because they do not convey the real Balinese culture, while the one of three additions was first published in 1973 and two were published after the publication of Mandi Api.
Most stories reveal tourism's tragic impact on Balinese culture and people.
Beautiful, Fertile Rice Fields is about the ironic beauty of rice fields that are slowly and "gentlemanly" appropriated by Pak Jamah who was initially so kind and generous to the villagers. His helping hands slowly show their claws and overpower the whole village.
The negative impact of tourism is also expressed in The Coconut Orchestra, The Dancer of Timuhun and Rinjin's Painting.
We sympathize with the tragic fate of Balinese artists in different fields: musician, dancer, and painter.
The Coconut Orchestra is about the hope of Mangku Rajed to revive the almost extinct local traditional musical instruments and orchestra when his village musical team was invited to perform in Bali Art Festival.
They promised that the Bali governor would attend their performance at Denpasar Art Center. In fact, when the team arrived at the Art Center, there was no special welcome, and when they performed, only a few people attended, including five foreign tourists who stayed until the end of the performance, and bought the all instruments for Rp15 million (US$1500) from Wijil, a member of Mangku Rajed's group, without his consent.
The Dancer from Timuhun more or less portrays the irony of the Balinese joged dancer who revolts against the building of the new stage in front of the temple, because for her this will destroy the sacredness of the temple.
People of Timuhun believe the joged they have preserved was originally created during the war of independence, when the revolutionaries and the spies disguised themselves as the musicians and the dancers when the Dutch soldiers entered the village.
Gusti Banturan the owner of Antarbuana Tour who financed the construction of the new stage insisted that it would bring the village of Timuhun more money because more tourists would come.
When Landri and her group protested against the plan and told them that they would stop dancing there, Gusti Banturan was proudly claimed that the bupati (regency head) already agreed with the plan that was believed to bring prosperity to the villagers.
In response to the protest, he brought a group of musicians and beautiful dancers from Denpasar Art Institute to perform there.
Landri persisted to leave Bantiran to stay with her grandmother, and on her way Landri passed tour buses full of foreigners heading towards Timuhun village. Very sad ending but this is the very fact about Bali!
Rinjin's Painting tells the same irony about the life of Rinjin, a master painter who fell under the power of Geria, an art shop owner who paid his painting for Rp125,000 ($12.5) but at the same time sold it to tourist for $750.
Read the closing paragraph: Wayan Rinjin took a step forward, and Geria moved aside, grasping the money even more tightly. He thought Rinjin was going to leap on him.
It was the money that matters, destroying humanity!
Other short stories deal with Balinese customs, religion and culture, including Ordeal by Fire, High Caste Walls, The Lie, Wayan Tanggu's Grave, and A Roast Chicken.
The Gumatat Gumitit Puppets is partly about the tradition and partly about the impact of tourism, and surprisingly, about cruelty of Karpu in killing Soroh, his own "student" in the art.
For me, the most beautiful story is Heaven for farmers, which is about an old farmer who was allowed to enter Heaven by Jogor Manik, the Guardian of the Gate of Heaven, while a respectable priest had to wait long at the gate and yet not be allowed to enter, and he chose to be reborn as a baby of a poor farmer so that later he expected to be allowed to enter Heaven, The question of the farmer at the end of the story : "Is this heaven?" is fully satirical.
All the sixteen beautiful short stories about Bali, its people and culture are worth reading to more deeply understand them.
Shortly after winning the prestigious Khatulistiwa Literary Award in 2006, Aryantha said, "There have been too many stories about Bali written by non-Balinese that superficially represent the island and its people.
The bitterness and irony of the Balinese people are not captured and not genuinely explored by those who are not native. Bali is replete with paradox. It is always complicated, tangled, but from outside it seems loose, open and genial."
After reading this book you will learn that for yourself.
Sunaryono Basuki Ks is an author and book lover, living in Singaraja, Bali.
Ordeal By Fire
Author: Gde Aryantha Soethama
Translator: Vern Cork
Publisher: Arti Foundation, Denpasar, December 2008, viii+ 152
