ART AND ARTIST

THE PLASTIC ARTS IN MODERN BALI

intricate groups of figures which are filled with an all-over pattern of clouds to indicate the atmosphere. When there are various episodes to a story, each is separated from the next by a conventional row of mountains or flames, with the heroes repeated in various attitudes.

Battle scenes are crowded, bloody, and desperate, a tangle of arms, legs, and blood-spattered bodies, with all the space around .filled with flying arrows and strange weapons. Faces are drawn in three-quarters, rarely full face, and never in profile. The characters are " refined " (alus) ..gods, princes, and heroes and " rough " (kasar) ones - devils, giants, retainers. Coarse characters have wild bulging eyes and fierce mouths full of pointed teeth, their attitudes are violent, their colour dark, and their bodies thick and hairy. The refined ones have long, thin arms and legs, delicate hands with curved fingers reminiscent of Indian frescoes, and their attitudes are studied and graceful. Their noses are fine and their mouths full and smiling, even in
the midst of a fierce battle. They all wear elaborate clothes and jewellery of a type found only in ancient sculptures.

An important distinction is made between the eyes of men and those of women, which are always downcast - a straight line for the upper lid and a curved one for the lower lid - while the eyes of men are of the same shape but inverted, with the straight line for the lower lid, giving them a proud and inquisitive look:

Everything is restricted for the painter: his subjects, his types, his compositions, and even his colours: light ochre for the flesh. of refined characters and darker brown for evil ones; jewellery is yellow, costumes are either in red and blue or more rarely yellow and green. The Balinese painters use five colours: red (barak) , Chinese vermilion called kentju; blue (pelung) , vegetable indigo; yellow (kuning) made from a sort of clay called atal; mineral ochre (kuning wadja) ; black (selem) , soot with vegetable juices; and white (putih) from calcinated pig's bones. They can make green (gadang) by mixing atal and indigo, and brown (tangi) by mixing black and vermilion. These colours come in the form of stones which have to be laboriously ground together with the medium, a sort of fish-gelatine from China called antiur. Formerly paintings were made on hand-woven cotton cloth or on bark paper made by the Toradjas of Celebes, but today imported cloth or paper and even three-ply wood are used. :The cloth is .prepared with starch and glossed with a smooth shell. The preliminary outline is drawn in ochre with a bamboo style (penclak) or with a lead pencil, and the colours then applied with a home, made brush (penuh), a piece of sharpened bamboo, the fibres of which have been loosened by pounding with a stone. The picture is finished with steady black lines drawn with the bamboo pen, with a second outline in reddish brown inside the black one for all the parts that represent flesh or wood, and the whole glossed once more.

Highly specialized branches of the graphic art are the illustrations of palm-leaf manuscripts (Iontar), and the making of leather puppets for shadow-plays (wayang kulit) . In Singaradja there is a library of these manuscripts, the Kirtya Liefrinck van der Tuuk, where are preserved some splendid old lontars with illustrations (or copies of them) such as the famous Dampati Lelangon, taken from the palace of the Radjas of Lombok at the time of the war; the Tetumbalans of Kamenuh and Sawan, the Bhima Swarga, Pari Bhasa, Adi Parwa, and so forth. These are masterpieces of the art of illustration, with miniature pictures incised with an iron style on the blades of the lontar palm, the scratch filled in with a mixture of soot and oil. These manuscripts are in the form of books. The lontar leaves are cut evenly into strips an inch wide and from a few inches to two feet in length. They are preserved between two boards of some precious wood cut to the size of the leaves and bound together by a cord that passes through a bole in the centre of each leaf.

The shadow puppets, the wayang kulit (described later in greater detail), are fashioned from buffalo parchment, cut out with special iron dyes into the most delicate lace and painted. The style of the wayang is highly conventionalized although it is considerably more realistic than its ancestor, the Javanese wayang. It is curious that' the art of painting pictures is not altogether dependent on the wayang forms, as it happens to be in Java, where the whole of the art consists in reproductions of stylized wayangs; their outline is always in profile, while in Balinese paintings a face in profile is never found. However, the influence of these forms in the - aesthetic education of children was, patent when Jane Belo, distributed paper and water-colours among the children of the small village of Sayan, to see what children without artistic training would do; the majority turned out pictures that were arrangements, of elementary interpretations of wayang shapes.

Together with sculpture, painting underwent a liberating revolution after boys from around Ubud started to paint pictures in a " new " style. These were curious scenes from daily life on backgrounds of Balinese landscapes and village scenes, a mixture of realism and of the formal stylistic, with naive figures of ordinary Balinese: a woman feeding chickens, men working in the fields, a cremation, and a dance performance, subjects that were never attempted before by Balinese painters.

This developed rapidly into a more mature, naturalistic style, producing a new crop of fine artists, each with a definite individual mark, such as I Sobrat, Made Griya, and Gusti Nyoman from Ubud, Ida Bagus Anom from Mas, and the group of young painters from Batuan who draw fantastic forests and strange figures in half-tone against solid black backgrounds. Theseartists were encouraged by Spies and the Dutch painter Bonnet,'who bought their pictures,.and provided them with materials; being careful, however, to keep, undesirable influences from them, and helping them to sell their work in the museum of Denpasar, a clearing-house where only pictures of high quality are exhibited.

New materials, increased the, possibilities of the newly liberated art. The introduction of European paper, Chinese ink, hair brushes, and steel pens resulted in a new style of pictures in black and white, mosaics of delicate black lines with washes of various tones of greys and black, often touched with gold and red. But there are also formal paintings on wood or cloth done in the old Balinese pigments in which they attempted to give atmosphere.

If you are interested in seeing the Bali ritual Performances such as the Barong and the Rangda, cremation ceremonies, dances or seeing other ritual ceremonies, or bali art tours or you have other ideas on what you want to see we can design the package just for you. please send us an email to bali_info_4u@yahoo.com

and mood through colour: night scenes in beautifully, harmonized colours that are decidedly a step forward, from, the limitations of the pure vermilion, blue, and ochre of the old style paintings. Besides the scenes from daily life, the modern,Balinese painters paint episodes of mythology in which the general), conception has become freed from the old conventional rules. There are the same elegant gods, beautiful princesses, and other fantastic characters, painted among jungles in which every tree and plant is drawn with, each leaf carefully outlined and shaded, jungles that have been wrongly compared with those of the douanier Rousseau, but which resemble more the drawing of Beardsley and Persian or Indian miniatures, none of which the Balinese artists have ever seen. Favourite subjects are from the Balinese.AEsop's fables, the tantri stories, in which the artists find amusing incidents between animals living in the tapestry-like forests of fantastic leaves and flowers.

The birth of individualism rescued Balinese painting from its latent state and placed it on the same level as the emancipated sculpture new arts that, considering the searching intensity and liveliness of the Balinese spirit, will perhaps develop unpredictable achievements.

The Crafts: Perhaps one of the most charming qualities of the Balinese mentality is the happy combination of the ~ primitive simplicity in which they live, with a highly refined and rather decadent taste. The.Balinese are a people who retain a close contact with the soil, living practically out of doors in simple thatched houses, using artifacts belonging to a primitive culture and going ordinarily almost nude; but they gather for festivals in. elaborate buildings of carved stone and dress in silks and gold to, enjoy themselves, worshipping the forces of nature by means of, flowers, good food, music, dancing, and works of art that only the most highly developed technical skill can produce.

In sharp contrast with their super-elaborated sculpture, painting, and dramatic arts, are the purely functional objects stylized wayangs; their outline is always in profile, while in Balinese paintings a face in profile is never found. However, the influence of these forms in the - aesthetic education of children was, patent when Jane Belo, distributed paper and water-colours among the children of the small village of Sayan, to see what children without artistic training would do; the majority turned out pictures that were arrangements, of elementary interpretations of wayang shapes.

Together with sculpture, painting underwent a liberating revolution after boys from around Ubud started to paint pictures in a " new " style. These were curious scenes from daily life on backgrounds of Balinese landscapes and village scenes, a mixture of realism and of the formal stylistic, with naive figures of ordinary Balinese: a woman feeding chickens, men working in the fields, a cremation, and a dance performance, subjects that were never attempted before by Balinese painters.

This developed rapidly into a more mature, naturalistic style, producing a new crop of fine artists, each with a definite individual mark, such as I Sobrat, Made Griya, and Gusti Nyoman from Ubud, Ida Bagus Anom from Mas, and the group of young painters from Batuan who draw fantastic forests and strange figures in half-tone against solid black backgrounds. Theseartists were encouraged by Spies and the Dutch painter Bonnet,'wbo bought their pictures,.and provided them with materials; being careful, however, to keep, undesirable influences from them, and helping them to sell their work in the museum of Denpasar, a clearing-house where only pictures of high quality are exhibited.

New materials, increased the, possibilities of the newly liberated art. The introduction of European paper, Chinese ink, hair brushes, and steel pens resulted in a new style of pictures in black and white, mosaics of delicate black lines with washes of various tones of greys and black, often touched with gold and red. But there are also formal paintings on wood or cloth done in the old Balinese pigments in which they attempted to give atmosphere

and mood through colour: night scenes in beautifully, harmonized colours that are decidedly a step forward, from, the limitations of the pure vermilion, blue, and ochre of the old4style paintings. Besides the scenes from daily life, the modern,., Balinese painters paint episodes of mythology in which the gentm), conception has become freed from the old conventional rules. There are the same elegant gods, beautiful princesses, and other fantastic characters, painted among jungles in which every tree and plant is drawn with, each leaf carefully outlined and shaded, jungles that have been wrongly compared with those of the douanier Rousseau, but which resemble more the drawing of Beardsley and Persian or Indian miniatures, none of which the Balinese artists have ever seen. Favourite subjects are from the Balinese.AEsop's fables, the tantri stories, in which the artists find amusing incidents between animals living in the tapestry-like forests of fantastic leaves and flowers.

The birth of individualism rescued Balinese painting from its latent state and placed it on the same level as the emancipated sculpture new arts that, considering the searching intensity and liveliness of the Balinese spirit, will perhaps develop unpredictable achievements.

The Crafts: Perhaps one of the most charming qualities of the Balinese mentality is the happy combination of the ~ primitive simplicity in which they live, with a highly refined and rather decadent taste. The.Balinese are a people who retain a close contact with the soil, living practically out of doors in simple thatched houses, using artifacts belonging to a primitive culture and going ordinarily almost nude; but they gather for festivals in. elaborate buildings of carved stone and dress in silks and gold to, enjoy themselv~s, worshipping the forces of nature by meansof, flowers, good food, music, dancing, and works of art that only the most highly developed technical skill can produce.

In sharp contrast with their super-elaborated sculpture, painting, and dramatic arts, are the purely functional objectsof daily stylized wayangs; their outline is always in profile, while in Balinese paintings a face in profile is never found. However, the influence of these forms in the - msthetic education of children was, patent when Jane Belo, distributed paperand water-colours among the children of the small village of Sayan, to see what children without artistic training would do; the majority turned out pictures that were arrangements, of elementary interpretations of wayavg shapes.

Together with sculpture, painting underwent a liberating revolution after boys from around Ubud started to paint pictures in a " new " style. These were curious scenes from daily life on backgrounds of Balinese landscapes and village scenes, a mixture of realism and of the formal stylistic, with naive figures of ordinary Balinese: a woman feeding chickens, men working in the fields, a cremation, and a dance performance, subjects that were never attempted before by Balinese painters.

This developed rapidly into a more mature, naturalistic style, producing a new crop of fine artists, each with a definite individual mark, such as I Sobrat, Mad6 Griya, and Gusti Nyoman from Ubud, Ida Bagus Anom from Mas, and the group of young painters from Batuan who draw fantastic forests and strange figures in half-tone against solid black backgrounds. Theseartists were encouraged by Spies and the Dutch painter Bonnet,'wbo bought their pictures,.and provided them with materials; being careful, however, to keep, undesirable influences from them, and helping them to sell their workin the museum of Den Pasar, a clearing-house where only pictures of high quality are exhibited.

New materials, increased the, possibilities of the newly liberated art. The introduction of European paper, Chinese ink, hair brushes, and steel pens resulted in a new style of pictures in black and white, mosaics of delicate black lines with washes of various tones of greys and black, often touched with gold and red. But there are also formal paintings on wood or cloth done in the old Balinese pigments in which they attempted to give atmosphere

ART AND THE ARTIST. IL95 and mood through colour: night scenes in beautifully, har. monized colours that are decidedly a step forward, froin, the limitations of the pure vermilion, blue, and ochre of the old4style paintings. Besides the scenes from daily life, the modern,., Bib., nese painters paint episodes of mythology in which the gentm), conception has become freed from the old conventional rules. There are the same elegant gods, beautiful princesses, and other fantastic characters, painted among jungles in which every tree and plant is drawn with, each leaf carefully outlined and shaded, jungles that have been wrongly compared with those of the douanier Rousseau, but which resemble more the drawing of Beardsley and Persian or Indian miniatures, none of which the Balinese artists have ever seen. Favourite subjects are from the Balinese.AEsop's fables, the tantri stories, in which the artists find amusing incidents between animals living in the tapestry-like forests of fantastic leaves and flowers.

The birth of individualism rescued Balinese painting from its latent state and placed it on the same level as the emancipated sculpture -new arts that, considering the searching intensity and liveliness of the Balinese spirit, will perhaps develop unpredictable achievements.

The Crafts: Perhaps one of the most charming qualities of the Balinese mentality is the happy combination of the ~ primitive simplicity in which they live, with a highly refined and rather decadent taste. The.Balinese are a people who retain a close contact with the soil, living practically out of doors in simple thatched houses, using artifacts belonging to a primitive culture and going ordinarily almost nude; but they gather for festivals in. elaborate buildings of carved stone and dress in silks and gold to, enjoy themselfs, worshipping the forces of nature by meansof, flowers, good food, music, dancing, and works of art that only the most highly developed technical skill can produce.

In sharp contrast with their super-elaborated sculpture, painting, and dramatic arts, are the purely functional objectsof daily stylized wayangs; their outline is always in profile, while in Balinese paintings a face in profile is never found. However, the influence of these forms in the - msthetic education of children was, patent when Jane Belo, distributed paperand water-colours among the children of the small village of Sayan, to see what children without artistic training would do; the majority turned out pictures that were arrangements, of elementary interpretations of wayang shapes.

Together with sculpture, painting underwent a liberating revolution after boys from around Ubud started to paint pictures in a " new " style. These were curious scenes from daily life on backgrounds of Balinese landscapes and village scenes, a mixture of realism and of the formal stylistic, with naive figures of ordinary Balinese: a woman feeding chickens, men working in the fields, a cremation, and a dance performance, subjects that were never attempted before by Balinese painters.

This developed rapidly into a more mature, naturalistic style, producing a new crop of fine artists, each with a definite individual mark, such as I Sobrat, Mad6 Griya, and Gusti Nyoman from Ubud, Ida Bagus Anom from Mas, and the group of young painters from Batuan who draw fantastic forests and strange figures in half-tone against solid black backgrounds. Theseartists were encouraged by Spies and the Dutch painter Bonnet,'wbo bought their pictures,.and provided them with materials; being careful, however, to keep, undesirable influences from them, and helping them to sell their workin the museum of Den Pasar, a clearing-house where only pictures of high quality are exhibited.

New materials, increased the, possibilities of the newly liberated art. The introduction of European paper, Chinese ink, hair brushes, and steel pens resulted in a new style of pictures in black and white, mosaics of delicate black lines with washes of various tones of greys and black, often touched with gold and red. But there are also formal paintings on wood or cloth done in the old Balinese pigments in which they attempted to give atmosphere

ART AND THE ARTIST. IL95 and mood through colour: night scenes in beautifully, har. monized colours that are decidedly a step forward, froin, the limitations of the pure vermilion, blue, and ochre of the old4style paintings. Besides the scenes from daily life, the modern,., Bib., nese painters paint episodes of mythology in which the gentm), conception has become freed from the old conventional rules. There are the same elegant gods, beautiful princesses, and other fantastic characters, painted among jungles in which every tree and plant is drawn with, each leaf carefully outlined and shaded, jungles that have been wrongly compared with those of the douanier Rousseau, but which resemble more the drawing of Beardsley and Persian or Indian miniatures, none of which the Balinese artists have ever seen. Favourite subjects are from the Balinese.AEsop's fables, the tantri stories, in which the artists find amusing incidents between animals living in the tapestry-like forests of fantastic leaves and flowers.

The birth of individualism rescued Balinese painting from its latent state and placed it on the same level as the emancipated sculpture -new arts that, considering the searching intensity and liveliness of the Balinese spirit, will perhaps develop unpredictable achievements.

The Crafts: Perhaps one of the most charming qualities of the Balinese mentality is the happy combination of the ~ primitive simplicity in which they live, with a highly refined and rather decadent taste. The.Balinese are a people who retain a close contact with the soil, living practically out of doors in simple thatched houses, using artifacts belonging to a primitive culture and going ordinarily almost nude; but they gather for festivals in. elaborate buildings of carved stone and dress in silks and gold to, enjoy themselvs, worshipping the forces of nature by meansof, flowers, good food, music, dancing, and works of art that only the most highly developed technical skill can produce.

In sharp contrast with their super-elaborated sculpture, painting, and dramatic arts, are the purely functional objectsof daily of daily use found in every home implements of labour, simple but effective tools made of bamboo, wood, and iron, walls of split bamboo, cool mats for sleeping made of finely woven pandanus leaf, light but strong baskets and pocketbooks, and clay vessels to keep water cool. The common objects of daily requirements are beautiful in their simplicity, in the handling of elemental materials such as wood, bamboo, palm-leaf, and clay. In contrast are the lavish taste, labour, and money spent on their objects of luxury: their temples and musical instruments, their jewellery and textiles worn on ceremonial occasions, their weapons, and so forth. Their love, of display often goes to extremes, as in the case of the costly towers, biers, and other accessories for the cremation of their dead, which are destroyed in a few minutes after hundreds of. guilders and months of labour are spent to produce them.

I have mentioned the gringsing cloth, the scarfs from Tenganan, which are one of the rare examples in the world of the art of " double " ikat - that in which both the warp and the weft of the cloth are, patterned by the elaborate process of dyeing only sections of the threads before weaving by binding them with fibres, the designs of both being made to fit afterwards when the scarf is woven. The ikat process is characteristic of Indonesians, although today the laborious double ikats are made only in Tenganan in Bali. Single ikats in cotton - those in which only the warp is previously patterned - are still made in Nusa Penida and in Mas, but in Klungkung they make " ikated " silks of amazingly elaborate patterns.

K1ungkung is also famous for its brocades (sungket) in red silk with woven designs in gold and silver thread. The Balinese often decorate pieces of silk by the tie-and-dye process (plangi) ; the fabric is knotted tightly in certain places and dipped in the. dyes so that when the knots are loosened, a regular pattern results, leaving uncoloured patches where the dye could not, penetrate. Interesting also are the striped and chequered cloths in cotton and silk made all over the island, some of which are very popular, and the open-work scarfs (k2mben 4,erik) wom by the women around the breasts for feasts. There is a peculiar cloth in black and white checks (kamben pol6n) like the enlarged design of gingham, to which is attributed magic protective qualir ties. It is worn for certain magic dances like, the baris tekok djiago and is the garment of magic characters such, as Bhima, Twalen and Merdah.

Although not a part of the weaving art, the gilt cloth (kamben prada) used for theatrical performances is also important. This is coloured silk boldly patterned with applications of pure -goldleaf (vrada) -valued onto the fabric with Chinese gelatine (antiur) by a special process. It is curious that despite tbefact that every Balinese wears Javanese batik for everyday dress, there is no evidence of their having adopted this popular process of decorating cloth. I have found strange, batiks in a rough handwoven cotton of a non-Javanese style, but 1,could never discover proof that they were made in Bali.

The Balinese also excel in the art of working metals, from the simple agricultural implements of iron, the parts of musical instruments, and the accessories of priests (bells, incenseburners, lamps, tripods, and so forth) cast in brass, to the extravagant gold and silver platters (lelantiang) , 'water-bottles (kendih) , and vases (sangkd and batil) , the knives and scissors for cutting betel-nut (oaket) of wrought iron inlaid in silver, and the rich and elaborate rings . , bracelets, ear-plugs, and flowers for the hair in hammered and chiselled gold set with rubies and star sapphires.

But the mostimportant examples of Balinese craftsmanship are their krisses, the famous weapons of important Indonesian men, nowadays 'worn only as synibols and as ornaments. An inherited kris that has descended in a family for generations becomes not only their. most important heirloom, but also the tangible part of the family deity and has come actually to, be worshipped as an ancestral god, 'a batara kawitan, in whom the magic strength of tbefordathers continues to live. Thus the head of a prominent Balinese family regards his kris as an important appendage and a symbol of himself. Today in the old villages it is compulsory for every man to wear his kris to attend a meeting; the kris must be worn at marriage and for all ceremoniAl or state occasions. Whoever cannot appear in person, sends his kris to represent him,, as for, instancea, judgef'zwW-.41, sj&znd cannot attend a trial. In certaincases the marriage to a woman of the lower castes is performed-by form of the kris of, her future, husband,.; A new. kris- "made "' alive " by a priest, who blesses it -in a special reciting magic formulas over it,and, inscribing imaginary'.Wo over the blade, while its owner dedicates an offering. Ancit krisses are kept alive with. offerings of flower's. and.,incenk, a neglected and rusty kris is said to be dead.

The economic status of a 'man is determined bythe,'richness of his kris, and a. good part of his fortune is invested in the gold and jewels that'decorate it. Only the blade is sacredandtbe gold parts, the precious stones and ivory can bewned in case of need and turned into cash. There are, krisses worththousands of guilders, covered with beaten gold, with handles shaped likegods or demons and set with enormous rubies and roseZiamonds'. Such are the, famous krisses of the kings of South Bali taken. by the Dutch as war booty at the time of the great'mass suicide, Den Pasar in now among`the starpieces of the Batavia Museum. These fancy jewelled krisses were made to be worn on state occasions, while simpler ones were used for actual fighting, with more practical wooden handles shaped:to ensure a good grip.

Gold hilts with prepious stones are of coursel, the, mhst stylish, but there are also some made, of horny ebony, and other precious woods, with a heavy base (bebataran) of, gold set with rubies and a small ring, of gold and rubies also, betwee6 the hilt, isid the blade. 'There is a great variety of . kris handles, but . paticularly interesting. model, is that. called kotjet-kotjetan if the representation in eb6ny of the chrysalis of a large. beetle

The sheath not only protects the kris from outside influences, both physical and magic, but, also insulates the, vibration. emanating from the kris itself, wbich, may act dangerouslyon litium beings. The sheaths of the, superornate krisses are of, wood

The shape of krisses is native Indonesian, free of all Hindu influence. It is found all over the archipelago from the Malay Peninsula to the -Philippines and is invariably known by the name of kris. The Balinese, form differs from that of the other islands only in details, and especially from the Javanese kris mainly in that it is considerably larger ~ and more elaborate, although. old Javanese blades are found in Bali, provided, however, with the richer Balinese hilts and sheaths.

The blade is the most important part of the kris; it can be straight and simple at times, but most often is fierce cooking, shaped like a flame, perhaps a form derived from a mythical serpent, a naga, since often there are krisses, not only in Bali and Java, but Aso in other parts of Indonesia, in which the body of the naga forms the blade, widening as it nears the top to make room for the curved neck and head of the naga. The upper part of the blade is full of barbs,",dents, and curlicues wrought into the iron in an endless variety of styles, each with a special name, mysterious shapes that must once have had a now lost significance. There are also krisses with representations in high telief of elephants, bulls, winged lions (singha) , and geese (angsa) , which could possibly, at one -time, have been related to the family totem, The extraordinary watered. patterns (pamor) of silvery metal against a background of blue-black iron which have made krisses famous is the msult of beating over and over alternating layers of meteoric nickel and iron layersuntil a fine more -like pamor is obtained, brought out afterwards by blacken" ing the iron layers with a mixture of antimony and lemon juice.
The kris is preserved from rust by a coating of coconut oil The blacksmiths, makers of krisses, belong to a special caste; the pande, aristocrats among the lower classes who fiery volcano Batur and are regarded, as powerfulmggicians who understand the handling of iron and fire, two elements,h614,4n reverence since earliest times. The distinguished panda,it even r espected by the, proud Brahmanas,,who consider thetw selves the highest form of humanity, and who are, required W address a pand6 in the high language when the-smith.bas.his tools in his hands.

It is said (according to Korn) that a pande Blacksmiths 'at Work (from a balinese manuscript) who engaged a Brahmanic priest to official for him took holy water from a Brahmana ") would lose his ", pande power (kepandean) and might even become a monkey. There are many popular beliefs concerning the life and power of krisses. It is said, that a witch-doctor, through trance, can communicate with the spirit of a given kris and learn its. Past history. It is also believed that the strange, fascination that a kris has on certain individuals is the cause of the temporary madness of a man who runs amuck, (amok). He is not responsible for his acts because be is compelled by a bloodthirsty kris torun wild, killing people. ' Often ancestral krisses are held to have come from the heavens a's a gift from the gods, and these krisses are powerful amulets against all sorts of cal Amities, In) Ubud, I was told of a man who fell, asleep under an oU waringin tree and dreamed that the s'iritof the tree ordered him, to cut cerht in roots for an offering. 'Imbedded among the roots, he found, an old kriss blade. Afraid to keep it, be turned it over to the feudal

lord of the.district, the Tjokorde of Ubud, who placed it in a special shrine in his family temple. But..the temple caught fire, and from then on, every place where the kris was kept soon went,up in flames. Through trances,and consultations it was learned that it was necessary to placate the spirit of the waringin tree by planting a sprig of it'in. Ubud. Then the fires stopped, but the magic kris would not, tolerate anything above it and had to be keptin- a roofless shrine. The kris cannot go through doorways,and when it is moved out of the temple it has to be carried over the wall by a bridge.

The historical tale of Ken Arok, the bandit who became a famous Javanese king of the thirteenth century, one of the great classics of Kawi literature, is in reality the story of a magic kris:

The child of simple peasants of Tumapel, Ken Arok ran away from home and joined bandits and gamblers, whom be robbed and deserted after be bad learned all be could from them. He continued in his career of crime, holding up people and raping girls, but his personality and charm enabled him always to find someone who would shelter him, until one day he fell in with the great Brahmana Lohgawe', who claimed descent from Wisnu'. Lohgawe' was so. completely won by Ken Arok that he ended by adopting him as a son and introduced him into the court, into the private service of King Tunggul Ametung. The king's wife was the beautiful. Ken Dedes, said to be the reincarnation of Dewi Sri because from her womb irradiated a glowing light. She was the daughter of a Brahmana and consequently of a caste superior, to the king who had stolen her, causing her affronted father to curse the king to die by a kris.

Ken Arok, immediately fell in love with Ken Dedes and she with him. His Brahmanic.friends saw the opportunity for vengeance and enticed Ken Arok into making love to her, telling him that he who possessed. her would own the world. They did not discourage Ken Arok when be decided to kill the king and, marry Ken Dedes. With this purpose in mind,, Ken Arok. ordered a magic kris from Mpu' gandring, most famous of black smiths, whose kriss bad the power of killing at the first thrust. The blacksmith asked for six months in which to complete the kris, after which time Ken Arok came impatiently to collect it. In a fit of temper, because the kris was not ready, Ken Arok stabbed the blacksmith with it. Before dying Mpu' Gandring cursed Ken Arok to be killed by the same kris, and his children and grandchildren also to die by it.

Ken Arok lent the kris to Kbo Idjo, his best friend, who was so fascinated by it that be wore it everywhere, boasting that it was his. One night Ken Arok took the kris from his friend and killed the king, leaving the kris near the body. Kbo Idjo was accused of the murder and was killed with the kris. Ken Arok could then marry Ken Dedes, who knew who had murdered her husband. The marriage was made possible by a proclamation of the Brahmanas declaring Ken Arok of divine ancestry. The wedding took place despite the fact that Ken Dedes was about to give birth to a child of the dead king.

The child was born and was brought up as a son of Ken Arok, who named him Anusapati, but the young prince always felt an instinctive dislike for Ken Arok. Ken Dedes gave birth to four children by Ken Arok, but he took a second wife, Ken Umang, by whom he bad a child, Tohdjaya, who became his favourite. Ken Arok grew in power and proclaimed himself Radja of Tumapel, a title nobody dared to challenge. Instigated by Brahmanas who bad been humiliated by the ruler of the empire of Singasari, of which Tumapel was a part, Ken Arok made war on him, slaying his troops and causing the king to commit suicide with his whole retinue. Ken Arok became supreme ruler of Singasari, changing his name to Radja Rajasa.

But his reign lasted only seven years. Ken Dedes had grown tired of him, and one day she told her son Anupasati of the secret of his birth and of bow Ken Arok bad murdered his father. Anupasati obtained the famous kris from Ken Dedes and bad Ken Arok stabbed in the back during a meal, by one of his servants.

Anupasati then became King Anusanatha, but his half-brother Tobdjaya bated him and one day, in the excitement of a cockfight, Tobdjaya grabbed his father's kris from Anupasati and killed him with it.- The feud continued between the sons of the two wives of Ken Arok when Tohdjaya became king. Anupasati's sons plotted against Tohdjaya but they were discovered and killed. A revolt took place, and when Tohdjaya was fleeing in a sedan chair, one of the carriers lost his loincloth, remaining naked. The king laughed so., that the carrier became infuriated, seized the king's kris, and killed him with it. The story of the kris proceeds until the full curse of the blacksmith is completed.

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