Bali Echo Magazine Edition 52 | Wayang Wong Tejakula

The highly spiritual dance drama, wayang wong Tejakula, has its roots in a migrant community. Alpha Savitri explores this history, and the mystical tales that surround it. Kintamani is 98 kilometers from Denpasar. But so beautiful is the landscape you traverse on traveling there, the kilometers pass quickly by - especially once one enters the cool, refreshing ambience of the highland Gunung Batur area. It is the silhouette of this mountain which. forms the back drop to the village of Tejakula - a fertile, village located on the side of a hill. on the north coast of Bali. Tejakula welcomes visitors with an stounding temple. Homes and shops line the main road into town. Unlike most Balinese villages, the houses here arc tiny, and most of them do not follow traditions of Balinese domestic design.

This is unusual, for in most Balinese villages, local architectural traditions continue to be strictly upheld. Such traditions stipulate that a domestic compound must contain a family shrine (pemerajan), a master bed room where the family heirlooms are stored (bale daja), a family bedroom (bale dauh), a room for family ceremonies (bale dangin) and a rice store (jineng). But in Tejakula, only large landowners can affront such luxuries. The history of this village is one of immigration, not only by Balinese migrants from other area, but by Chinese and Persian migrants as well. Indeed ' Tejakula. was once a trading port that outstripped Benoa in Denpasar and Padangbai in Karangasem in size and fame. Based on archaeological data, it is estimated that the area has been populated since prehistoric time. Nyoman Tusan, a painter and cultural commentator and a native of Tejakula, asserts that the area has had trading links with the outside world since the first century. Many foreign artifacts, such as ceramic pots have been found in the area, suggesting that Tejakula functioned as an important crossroad where traders from all over the world came together. The original inhabitants of Tejakula were the Balinese aborigines, the Bah Mula.

This means that the people of Tejakula are not descended from the Javanese who invaded Bali when the kingdom of Majapahit began to fall in the 15th century, as are most area, the Bali

	Aga people dominated the local population until the end of the 16th century. It is believed that Balinese from Blahbatuh, Karangasem and even Bangli migrated to this area in large numbers durig the 17th century. Tejakula was favored, it seems, for its volcanic, fertile earth which acommodated cultivation of rice and oranges alike, although it is difficult to know for certain why such migration took place. There is a legend, well known among Tejakula locals, concerning this period of migration
. As the legend goes, a miracle took place in the village of Kulandih, in east Tejakula. A bright light with a yellowish glow began shining from this village, and could be seen from all over Bah and beyond the light is said to have struck shadows as far as China. Many believed the light to be a sign of the village's prosperity.As a result, it drew throngs of migrants; to it, including those from China, who subsequently settled there. Nowadays, one of the village's temples, Pura Sekar, as well as the regular shrine (pelinggih), contains shrines reserved for the area's Persian and Chineseinhabitants. At Pura Sekar, therefore, there arc three pelinggih: the Arab Ratu Gede Sedabat, the Chinese Ratu. Gede Subandar and the Balinese Ratu Ayu Jong Daluh. The migrants and the original Bah Mula locals of Tejakula coexist here in peace. Even before the migrants came and settled in the area, the original Bali Mula inhabitants greed that a condition of becoming a resident of Tejakula should be the willingness to live according to certain Bali Mula 'democratic' ideals. The Bah Mula, that is, reject the social hierarchies that characterizes main stream Balinese society in order to enter their Community, nobles must be prepared to renounce their nobility and live like jaba (literally 'outsiders', refers to the majority of Balinese who do not belong to the 'trinity of castes' brahmana, ksatria or wesya). Those who agree to these conditions would be given land. Those who didn't agree were not allowed to live in Tejakula. That is why in this village no one uses the title Anak Agung (the title for ksatria), even if they are descended from the puri (the house of ksatria). Further, it is also why 'refined', or high Balinese (bahasa halus) is not used to communicate with these people from the puri, as is the case in the rest of Bali. Cultural influences from Bangli, Karangasem and Buleleng and the force of 'democratization' in this area caused local art to flourish, for it provided the context in which local artists were encouraged to develop their ideas. But not only did such democratization contribute to the proliferation of local art forms, it also freed the artistic realm to pursue multi-faceted and contestatory interpretations of performance modes. Thus, in a Tejakula rendition of the dance drama gambuh, a brahmana. or a ksatria may well be caste as a serf or even a servant and, conversely, a jaba actor may well be caste in the role of a king if indeed their performance skills thus allowed. This contrasts the mainstream mode of performance, in which it is extremely rare for actors of tri wangsa (three castes) descent to take on lowly roles in a traditional dance-drama. Tejakula is well known for its performance arts - gong kebyar and arja as well as wayang wong. But it is also renowned for its architecture, and in this a number of stone carvings in the village temple and some of the buildings around the town are notable. It Is also famous for its prominence in the world of shadow pup petering. Nowadays, there are only three puppeteers (dalang) remain active in Tejakula, but several years ago the village was home to as many as eight active dalang an astounding figure given that most village only have at the most two active dalang. Indeed, a number of artistic forms have flourished in this area. But Tejakula is best known for its wayang wong. For most residents of Bali, mention of Tejakula immediately conjures an image of the wayang wong