The Village of Payangan Payangan is a market village of a few thousand people that dates back at least to the ninth century, when the second oldest temple in Bali was established near the central crossroad. The village has been the hub of an extensive system of smaller villages for centuries. The people of Payangan have managed, despite modern pressures, to preserve their traditional village structure and its special manifestations, which reside most notably in the realms of music, cuisine, and horticulture. Some of these derive from a close trading relationship in the early 19th century between the king of Payangan and the emperor of China. For years there was a resident Chinese community, attested to by a large Chinese cemetery. The beautiful lychee trees that are such a noteworthy feature of the landscape have descended from a gift from the emperor himself. In the mid-19th Century, the king of Payangan was defeated by the king of Buleleng (on the North Coast), and his palace was burned. The foundations are still visible near Flower Mountain. The king fled into exile. His beautiful daughter, who had been the prize sought by the king of Buleleng, committed a puputan by stabbing herself in the main road (opposite the present meeting house for Melinggih banjar), after having first killed all of her younger sisters so that their blood could not be mingled with that of the enemy. Payangan has remained a proud community, and its many cakordas recall the aristocracy of the past. In spite of some striking natural surroundings, the village has, by choice, resisted the temptation to promote itself as a tourist destination, even though it is just twelve kilometers from Ubud, presently regarded as the island's cultural center and one of Bali's top tourist venues. One of the reasons that the idea of a Payangan Festival has been embraced enthusiastically by the local Kecamatan (rather like a county administrator's office) is that it has been planned to concentrate on the old traditions of gamelan music preserved by many active performing groups in the banjars (traditional neighborhoods) of the village. The festival offers a way to celebrate Payangan's rich heritage at a time when the Balinese people can use a revitalizing dose of local pride. Music in Payangan Payangan has been a repository for some very old and impressive styles of Balinese music, like the sekatian, for instance, whose antique repertory was collected from a remote mountain village by one of the former kings of Payangan, probably in the 18th or early 19th centuries. This rare set of compositions, which uses three players at the otherwise soloistic trompong instrument, is still heard at important events in local temples, and its impressive musical qualities, although generally unknown outside of the area, are quite remarkable. By providing a serious setting for public performance of the unique music preserved by some of Payangan's many gamelan groups, and by offering incentives to bring back some of the special repertory that is in danger of slowly being forgotten, the Payangan Festival can offer a stimulus to the conservation of important Balinese cultural treasures. From a world viewpoint, Payangan's greatest musical claim to fame has come through the fact that Colin McPhee, the Canadian composer and ethnomusicologist, collected numerous pieces for his authoritative "Music in Bali" from a legendary local artist and musical leader, Guru Lunyuh, during the 1930's. Out of thirty-three compositions notated in "Music in Bali," all but six are from Payangan. The story of their collection, and of the old guru's weekly 10-mile walks to McPhee's abode in Sayan, is related in his classic "A House in Bali," as well. The 2002 Payangan Festival was dedicated to Colin McPhee and featured three gamelans with which he was closely associated. The 2003 festival was dedicated to Payangan's Guru Lunyuh and included six performance groups from different Payangan neighborhoods playing old styles of music, as well as six very rare ancient ensembles from other areas of Bali. Payangan Festival III The Center for World Music's long presence in Payangan has made it possible to develop creative partnerships with some of the local artists and community leaders. This led to the first Pesta Payangan in 2002, which was held in conjunction with the Center's summer study program, and featured local performance ensembles, as well as visiting performers from the workshop who presented a variety of world music and dance. The greatly expanded Festival in 2003 combined local performance groups, groups from other areas of Bali, performers from Java and Sunda, and in the World Music Weekend the residents of the Center for World Music's annual Bali workshop. Both events were well received by the village, and demonstrated how, with proper support, the festival could become an annual affair that would greatly benefit Payangan and its satellite villages by generating good will, pride, and eventually, a new source of income. At the same time, it was realized that it could also be a vehicle for preserving neglected or lesser-known musical compositions that are unique to Payangan and of notable cultural significance in Bali. This consideration has been integrated into the performance plans for future festivals, which encourage gamelan groups to re-learn old pieces that may be fading from memory, or even to extend their repertory by learning pieces from other performing groups. By limiting the gamelan gong performances to compositions like gong lelambatan and sekatian, and including ensembles like gong gede, selunding, semar pegulingan, luang, gambang, etc., that represent the old traditional forms of music so amazingly well-preserved from the past in Bali, its special focus is made clear. As a natural development old traditions of Balinese dance and theater are also represented in the performances. At the same time, the world music, dance and theater performances that take place in the final days not only open up to more recent forms of Balinese music, but to the whole world of performing arts, as well. Presentations for Central Java, Sunda, or other areas are seen as an agreeable means to help diminish potential tensions between Indonesia's primarily Muslim population and Bali's primarily Hindu population--tensions perhaps exacerbated by the terrorist bombing of October, 2002. On the one hand, Pesta Payangan explores the depths of local tradition; on the other, it opens to the widest possible range of world performance traditions, and the possibility for enhancing cross-cultural understanding through the performing arts. The officers and members of the Center for World Music's Board of Directors who have participates in the Payanga Festival have become energized by the festival's potential as a symbol of peaceful collaboration on many levels. The goal is to provide a grand celebration of artistic creativity, both in Bali and around the world, through presentations that emphasize the beauty and diversity of traditional cultures. It seems utterly fitting to hold such a festival in the environment of Payangan, a historic village with rich cultural traditions located in the very heart of Bali. |
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Modified: December 6, 2003 |
