Bali Tourism

Bali Art and Culture on European Tour

The Gigir Manuk Cultural Dialogue in cooperation with the Indonesian Department of Culture and Tourism, the Bali Tourism Authority and the Bali Tourism Board are conducting a road tour of Balinese Art & Culture to Europe from November 11-27, 2006.

Land Under the Rainbow

The cultural program, entitled "Land Under the Rainbow", will form the backdrop for a series of cocktail receptions hosted for the international travel industry, during which art & cultural performances by the renowned Bajra Sandhi Group will be presented during visits to the following European cities:

1.
Brussels and Antwerp,
2.
Belgium Den Haag, The Netherlands
3.
Luxemburg
4.
Paris, France
5.
Aachen, Germany

Bajra Sandhi Performance Troupe

Founded in 1991, the Sanggar Seni Kreativitas Bajra Sandhi, more commonly known as Bajra Sandhi, is a group of Balinese artists who emphasize the spiritual connection between God and the

arts. Striving for purity, truth and beauty through the arts - the troupe is comprised of 14 performers who alternate roles as dancers, musicians or singers " depending on the number being presented.

Past performance have brought the group to Athens, Greece where they performed in events paralleling the opening of the 2004 Olympic Games; to Hanoi where they helped celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Vietnam; and to numerous performance venues across Indonesia.

Among the highlights of the coming European tour, the group will present:

1.
Gender Wayang - Music normally reserved as the accompaniment of a shadow puppet performance or for performance at a Balinese rites of passage - the Gender is based on a technically demanding rhythm motif, blending intertwined melodies with lively contrapuntal movements. Resonations created give a shimmering and vibrating quality, extremely rich in overtones, emanating from bronze keys struck with bare wooden mallets utilizing the pentatonic 'Slendro' tuning.
2.
Baris Tunggal Dance - Inspired from the original Baris "Warrior" Dance, the name of this dance derives from the word "baris" meaning rows but also meaning troops of soldiers. With its recent development into a solo performance, the dance now describes the strength and grace of heroic movements of a soldier marching off to war.
3.
Legong Keraton Dance - By legend, the Legong is the heavenly dance of divine nymphs. Of all classical Balinese dances, it remains the quintessence of femininity and grace. Girls from the age of five aspire to be selected to represent their community as Legong dancers. Foremost among the Legong repertoire is the Legong Kraton - formerly reserved for presentation only at Bali's royal courts. Highly stylized, the palace version of the dance enacts a drama performed by three dancers: the 'condong' - a female attendant of the court, and two identically dressed Legong dancers who adopt the roles of royal persons.
4.
Jauk Dance - Taken from Bali's rich tradition of masked dance, the Jauk depicts a crooked and wicked giant king.
5.
Sutasoma - A Balinese tari drama or dance-drama, the Sutasoma tells the story of the birth of Jinapati " the pure soul that arrives on earth with the birth of each newborn baby. Deriving his power from wisdom and peace, Sutasoma defeats the evil giant Purusadha through goodness and enlightenment.

The musical accompaniment in the dance drama derives from the rhythms of traditional lullabies for babies and children, where it at the same time also serves as a divine summon for the unseen 'good' forces to guard the infantile pure souls in this chaotic world.

Indonesian Profiles

INDONESIA Profile

Indonesia is a vast equatorial archipelago of 17,000 islands extending 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) east to west, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans in Southeast Asia. The largest islands are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), Sulawesi, and the Indonesian part of New Guinea (known as Papua or Irian Jaya). Islands are mountainous with dense rain forests, and some have active volcanoes. Most of the smaller islands belong to larger groups, like the Moluccas (Spice Islands).

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, is 87 percent Muslim—and the largest Islamic country, though it is a secular state. Indonesians are separated by seas and clustered on islands. The largest cluster is on Java, with some 130 million inhabitants on an island the size of New York State (60 percent of the country's population). Sumatra, much larger than Java, has only about a third of its people. Ethnically the country is highly diverse, with over 580 languages and dialects—but only 13 have more than one million speakers.

After independence from the Netherlands in 1949, the new republic confronted a high birthrate, low productivity, and illiteracy—areas in which progress has since been made. The government used a "transmigration" policy to address uneven population distribution by relocating millions of people from Java to other islands. Unity and stability are improving, although outer areas of the archipelago resent domination by Java. The Asian financial crisis hit Indonesia extremely hard. Public unrest, including violent rioting, forced President Suharto—in office since 1967—to resign in May 1998. One year later Indonesia conducted its first democratic elections since 1955.

The democratic government faces many problems after years of military dictatorship. Secessionists in the regions of Papua and Aceh (northwest tip of Sumatra) have been encouraged by East Timor's (now Timor-Leste) 1999 success in breaking away after 25 years of Indonesian military occupation. Militant Islamic groups have become active in recent years, and religious conflict between Muslims and Christians recently flared in Sulawesi and the Moluccas. The island of Bali, a center of Hindu culture, suffered a terrorist bomb blast in 2002 that killed over 200 people—mostly tourists.

Export earnings from oil and natural gas help the economy, and Indonesia is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Tourists come to see the rich diversity of plants and wildlife—some, like the giant Komodo dragon and the Javan rhinoceros, exist nowhere else.

ECONOMY

Industry: petroleum and natural gas; textiles, apparel, and footwear; mining, cement, chemical fertilizers.
Agriculture: rice, cassava (tapioca), peanuts, rubber; poultry.
Exports: oil and gas, electrical appliances, plywood, textiles, rubber.

Text source: National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition, 2004

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