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REFIGURATION OF IDENTITIES AND FUTURES IN TIMES OF TRANSFORMATION 141private gamelan group called sanggar.Education, ngaya, TV programs and competitionBecause of the parents’ educational aims, children’sgamelan activities have certain peculiarities. The parentsrequire their children to pray to the gods at the templebefore they start their lessons. They are required togive a “Hindu” greeting to the instructor and towear the pakaian adat during the lessons. The parentsbelieve that this is one way to learn Ajeg Bali. Theywant their children to learn “Balinese” culture in the“Balinese” way in a “Balinese” setting as “Balinese.” Theproclamation of this result, the children’s attainment of“Balineseness,” is usually performed as a ngaya. A ngayais the most suitable chance to show the result of theirdaily activities to the village. To show it outside of theirvillage, the parents would arrange to have the children’sperformance filmed for a TV program, with children’s“Balinese” activities on TV becoming popular, especiallyin Bali-TV. 2 However, a lomba will attract the mostpeople. Schools send participants as representatives ofa local school and community. Schoolteachers pick outthe brilliant students in their school to form groupsthat will participate in the competition. A prize bringsgreat honor to the school, the local community, andthe children. For this reason, parents and schools needthe best instructors to give children the best learningenvironment. However, the participation of schoolsin gamelan activities causes friction with the localgamelan group. The main problem is the selection ofa representative. The selection is done by teacherswho often do not know the details of gamelan playingtechniques and the characteristics of the group. Thiscreates a feeling of unfairness and causes stiff relations.Putting children with different levels of technical skillstogether also creates some problems. The parents of theselected children pay for the expenses for lessons andspecial clothes for the competition since there is nosupport from the school. However, the school, whichcollects the prize money, does not reimburse the parentsfor the expenses. This causes dissatisfaction amongparents.Beleganjur competitions and youth gamelanactivitiesBeleganjur is a type of Balinese gamelan usually used forreligious ceremonies to exorcise evil spirits. Usually, it isplayed by the youth. It is a form of creative gamelan andnew creations of the beleganjur are very popular. Whena lomba for beleganjur is planned, the local communitybecomes excited about the competition. It can alsobe said that the competition of gamelan beleganjur isa political event. Many of the members of the groupsare chosen by and supported by the Desa Dinas (villageadministrators). The beleganjur competition is, therefore,a battle of the villages. The beleganjur competitionthat I studied was held in September 2006 as a part ofLomba Karana Teruna Teruni (Competition of YouthGroups in the Village Society). It was also done as a partof a commemorative event of a hundred years after the“Puputan Badung” (the historical mass suicide in BadungKingdom, Bali). The Desa Dinas that I studied made aneffort to participate in the competition to bring honorto the village or to not be disgraced by other villages bythe lack of preparation. It was of utmost importance forthe Desa to participate in the competition.Process for the competition, criteria and the performanceThe meeting to organize participation in a lombais usually done six months before the competition.However, the village I studied was late in makingpreparations and had the meeting only one monthbefore. At the meeting, the village mayor and thegovernment officials selected a composer to create a newpiece for the competition. Then, the selection of thegamelan players took two weeks. Practices, therefore,started only two weeks before the competition. Becauseof the lack of time, the piece was made simple andshort, just long enough for the competition’s criteria.However, there was fear that their participation mightcause the composer and players shame so they initiallywanted to drop out of the competition. However,because the delegate of the youth association wantedto bring himself honor and have his participation feereturned, he approved the participation of the groupwithout the agreement of the others. After the decisionto participate, the group practiced every day. BecauseBalinese gamelans do not use the notation traditionally,it was difficult for the selected members to memorizethe composition. The piece was completed only one daybefore the competition.Every competition has clear criteria. This beleganjurcompetition had its clear criteria outlined in its officialdocuments. Many elements of Ajeg Bali are included inthe criteria and the published theme was itself related toAjeg Bali. 3 The competition’s theme was classic storiesand the composition’s topic had to be chosen fromthe Ramayana, Mahabharata, Sutasoma or Tantri. Thework’s composition was to express a theme of greatness,bravery, humor, loyalty and virtue within a length of sixto eight minutes along the chosen story line in the styleof Sendratari. The instrumentation was to be traditionaland typical, and the number of each musical instrumentwas pre-determined. Combinations of various musicalAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows