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Soul: A special Saraswati Day celebration - 'Transmitting the Balinese language worldwide'
Last Friday night, on the eve of Saraswati Day, a Balinese Hindu holy day to pay homage to the goddess of knowledge, traditional Balinese art performances took place at Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA ) in Ubud
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Last Friday night, on the eve of Saraswati Day, a Balinese Hindu holy day to pay homage to the goddess of knowledge, traditional Balinese art performances took place at Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA ) in Ubud.
Dozens of children from Citra Usadhi art group, led by scholar Nyoman Catra, performed the Puja Saraswati dance, which was followed by an amazing performance by Balinese dance maestro Ayu Bulantrisna Djelantik with her team from Bengkel Tari Ayu Bulan. A Janger performance by the disabled artists of Bakti Senang Hati Foundation was also presented.
Celebrated every 210 days, Saraswati Day is when Balinese Hindus praise and thankthe goddess of knowledge for bestowing the ability to read, write and understand nature upon humans.
Saraswati is portrayed as a beautiful, four-armed goddess holding a different object in each hand; a lontar manuscript, prayer beads, a lyre and a pot of holy water. The four arms represent the four aspects of
human learning; mind, intellect, alertness and ego.
Deciding that Saraswati Day was an ideal opportunity to bring the Balinese language and culture to the world, this year the celebrations extended beyond the normal prayers in schools to incorporate Poetry Slam Saraswati 2015.
Dance, music and poetry reading were performed by Indonesian communities living around the world courtesy of Banjar Bali USA in Washington, DC , Banjar Shanti Dharma Belgia in Luxembourg, Banjar Buana Vasa in Sweden, Nyama Braya Bali Berlin, Banjar Suka Duka Belanda in the Netherlands, Banjar Bali Tokyo, Banjar Bali Finland, Mahindra Bali Melbourne in Australia, and Kelas Bahasa Indonesia Akar in New York.
Indonesian communities overseas read Balinese poetry in several languages; one poem was Saniscara Umanis Watugunung by Balinese poet Mas Ruscitadewi.
The simulcast was broadcast from Bali and from the Indonesian consulate and embassy offices in seven countries (the US, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Australia) and presented on livestreamasia.com and embassyofindonesia.org.
A Balinese language poetry anthology was also launched during the event. 'I hope that this anthology of Balinese language poetry can make us more aware and help the continuation of creations in the Balinese
language so that it continues to develop,' Ruscitadewi said.
The special celebration was jointly held by non-governmental organization BA SAbali.org, Udayana University, Banjar Bali USA, ARMA Museum and Indonesian embassies in the US, Europe and Australia. Unfortunately, technical problems meant that the online broadcast did not run smoothly.
BASAbali.org program director Ayu Mandala said that the event was aimed at taking Balinese language international. 'The message from this event was that the Balinese language can go international by using interactive media. With all the gadgets we have, this event could be watched all over the world,' she said.
In cooperation with Udayana University and Badan Bahasa (the Language Agency), BASAbali.org launched BASAbali Wiki, a digital Balinese-English-Indonesian dictionary on the website dictionary.basabali.org as part of the efforts to conserve the Balinese language. In an attempt to encourage more people to use Balinese, a monthly poetry competition is also held on Facebook.
'It began from a simple idea. We hope that more people will want to use Balinese as it is not only a language, it is part of our culture and part of our daily life,' she said, adding that she was concerned that many younger Balinese tended not to use Balinese language in their daily conversations.
Ayu Mandala hoped the digital dictionary would make it easier for everyone who wanted to learn to write or speak Balinese.
I Gde Nala Antara, expert team coordinator of BA SAbali Wiki, added that the Saraswati celebration had been a great way to bring the Balinese language to the world. 'By broadcasting the event online from eight
countries, the Balinese language echoed worldwide,' he said.
