Topeng Sidha Karya: A Balinese Mask Dance - Yavanika

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TOPENG: SIDHA K ARYA 181punta: (Speaking) It’s amazing, ah! Ah! Ah! I feel completely differenttoday, here at Besakih Temple. Why? Because I’m with our kingof Gegel, the Honorable Dalem Watu Renggong! How long he hasbeen doing this “banish the plague” ceremony here at Besakih, themother temple, in order to totally rid Bali of this epidemic?! Why,everyone, from the court officers to the little people, is intent,working together toward the success of this ceremony here at Besakih.My brother, Tut-Tut-Tut! [Tut is short for Ketut. All Balinese aregiven a name from one to four indicating their birth order. Ketut is thefourth sibling.]kartala: (Singing)Raga lempung pinereng wedana [Beautiful body withwaist so svelte].punta: Tut!kartala: What’s the matter?punta: You sing away as though you were on top of the world!kartala: We have to create our own contentment. To live happy insuch times, who can we count on for entertainment but ourselves?Don’t rely on others to make you happy. We thought trusting otherpeople, letting them come here, not holding them to proper, localrestrictions, would make us happy. But instead it blows off ourheads like this recent bomb blast. [Kartala here references JavaneseMuslim immigration to Bali, which has supplied labor for the tourismindustry, but also facilitated terrorist infiltration.]punta: That’s why we must be extra careful.kartala: So I sing to myself. My song is meant to wake up my dormanthappiness. Look, everybody has two principles in opposition,rwa bhineda: the good and bad, the happy and sad. [This concept oftwo in opposition is central to Balinese thinking (Eiseman 1990: 2), andforces must be kept in balance to safeguard the world.] So, you got sleepinghappiness and waking happiness. Since, my happiness is snoozing,I need a song to rouse it.punta: What makes you so sad?kartala: How’s it going, this exorcism the boss is undertaking, callednanggluk merana, banishing badness? This ceremony is directedtoward the ocean.punta: To the ocean?kartala: You want to know why?punta: The reason?kartala: Because this epidemic comes from the ocean! Purity andimpurity both can be traced back to the sea. [Balinese thinking seesa continuum from higher (mountain-kaja) to lower (ocean-kelod). Kajaelements are more positive and holy, while kelod elements are considereddisruptive. An unending cycle links the kaja and kelod. For example, water
182 Kodi et al.must rise from the ocean and be caught against the top of the volcano toproduce rain.]punta: Oh, yeah!kartala: Before performing any big ceremony, we first need to do apacification, saying: “My supreme lord Sanghyang Ananta Boga,enormous dragon who rules the entire ocean, we want to offer aceremony. [Naga or dragons are associated with water and the lowerworld, where the divine dragon/snake Ananta Boga rules. In Bali there arefive kinds of ceremonies or yadnya for five types of beings: men, priests,ancestors, gods, and demons. The pacification ceremony here is aimed atdemons.] Please don’t unleash the sea’s diseases to ruin our ceremony.You see, the sea represents both heaven and hell, both purityand impurity. We need to ritually purify the sea with our ceremony,so that the disease won’t permeate the land. (He sings whilemoving in a drunken, indirect walk.)punta: Geez! Stay put and don’t lurch around. In our predicament,you can’t drag around sorrow or you will die sad. Make like me:ignore your feelings! (Standing still ) Hey, Tut-tut-tut! (To audience)What the hell is he doing? He doesn’t listen to his own brother!(kartala continues his erratic path, and Punta, who can’t resist, joinsmoving even more erratically.)kartala: Slow down!punta: Slow down?kartala: If you go, go slow and you can really take things in. If werush, we miss everything. Slow is better: if there is a coin leftbehind, we can pick it up.punta: What are you talking about?kartala: Slowly, we sweep the temple floor, and when we find a Chinesecoin left behind from the ritual [Chinese coins with a hole in thecenter are a customary part of offerings], we give the coin to the priest,because it is temple property.punta: We hand it over.kartala: The next day we slowly sweep the temple again, and ifthere is a five-thousand rupiah bill left . . .punta: We hand it over again!kartala: Nope! We pocket it.punta: Oh! How come?kartala: Because the priest is not at the temple to give it to. The villageleader is also gone. We plan to hand it over the next day, butafter all, the wind would blow it away if we left it carelessly aroundthe temple! But going home from the temple, we pass a meatballsoup peddler, and, oh! the stomach’s uncontrollable appetite
Page 1 and 2: Topeng Sidha Karya: A Balinese Mask
Page 3 and 4: 172 Kodi et al.when referring to th
Page 5: 174 Kodi et al.island, close to the
Page 8 and 9: TOPENG: SIDHA K ARYA 177of the isla
Page 10 and 11: TOPENG: SIDHA K ARYA 179dalem watu
Page 15 and 16: 184 Kodi et al.kartala: (To the aud
Page 17 and 18: 186 Kodi et al.dalem: (Recited by p
Page 19 and 20: 188 Kodi et al.dalem: (Recited by k
Page 21 and 22: 190 Kodi et al.punta: (Translating)
Page 23 and 24: 192 Kodi et al.punta: . . . Demon d
Page 25 and 26: 194 Kodi et al.each pig’s mouth.
Page 27 and 28: 196 Kodi et al.The ceremony at Besa
Page 29: 198 Kodi et al.Figure 4. No longer

Topeng Sidha Karya: A Balinese Mask Dance - Yavanika

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