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Art and dance as a state of being
As the sun sets: Performing artist Made Djimat plays the deep notes of the soling gambuh flute that helps carry souls to the gods after cremations
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span class="inline inline-none">As the sun sets: Performing artist Made Djimat plays the deep notes of the soling gambuh flute that helps carry souls to the gods after cremations.
Made Djimat smiles as he discusses preserving the arts. 'It's important to care for culture, because the arts have softness,' the 65-year-old says. 'They don't want war.'
'Arts are peaceful and friendly and bring joy to people. It is very important that the government supports the arts. People enjoy seeing the arts ' they are not made for the big and important people, but made for all and make all happy,' says Djimat at his home in Batuan that, since 1997, has played host to the Tri Puskah Sakti foundation.
The group teaches a range of arts, including dance and music, to people from all over the world. It has also been bastion for preserving ancient dance forms and rare instruments that Djimat says could all too easily become extinct.
One Djimat's concerns is the genggong, a humble instrument with a powerful history.
Made from sugar palm stems, the wind instrument is just 20 centimeters long with a reed sliced along its center. As one's breath vibrates the reed, a string is pulled at each end of the genggong to increase the reverberations and form a melody. According to Djimat, the genggong dates back to East Java in the 13th century.
'This little instrument that very few people today can play comes from the story of Gadjah Mada, when he was still known as Si Tapak. There was a great drought at the time so Si Tapak had a dam built. As he was waiting for the water to fill the dam, he grew bored so decided to make some music and created the genggong to while away the time,' says Djimat lifting an even smaller instrument known as an engung played during the frog dance.
Well under 10 centimeters long, the engung resembles the reed section of a harmonica: As one's breath travels across the reed a single woody, flute-like note is created.
Like the genggong, however, few today know how to manipulate the simple engung to make music.
In olden times, however, the genggong was the sleeping pill of kings.
'Genggong was music made to make the king sleepy when he was stressed out from too much work. Musicians would play the genggong and that put the king to sleep,' says Djimat.
However, finding young people keen to learn the instrument these days has been difficult. 'There may be a couple of players in Karangasem and a few also here in Batuan, but young people have no interest in the genggong. It is actually very difficult to learn and I fear it will become extinct in the near future,' says Djimat.
To stop this, he established Tri Puskah Sakti.
'We established the foundation in 1997 as a family. I am a dancer, my son and grandson also are performers, hence the word tri meaning three. Jointly, we saw the need to care for the culture of Bali,' says Djimat. 'We share that with others.'
Since its inception, Tri Puskah Sakti has attracted artists and those interested in the arts from Bali and around the globe.
This week, visiting Brazilian Hodrigo Braga spent hours under the tutelage of Djimat learning the basic moves of Balinese dance.
'I came to Djimat to study dance because I am an actor in Brazil and have studied a lot of different techniques. Here I can learn from Djimat some Balinese dance, which I like so much because my theater work in Brazil is a mix of dance and theater,' says Braga.
Under Djimat's guidance, he performs the mask dance, transforming from a young artist into a decrepit old man acting out his last days.
'I can see men dancing as second nature to themselves,' Braga says. 'Through the study here, I am learning how I can make in my movements that sense of second nature.
'The movements are not easy. The choreography demands many movements ' and that is just for the basic techniques.'
Braga plans to take his skills back to Brazil to share a taste of the Balinese performing arts with those half way around the world.
'Balinese dance' he adds, 'is one more state of being'.
' Images by J.B.Djwan
