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Monumental Bali. A.J. Bernet Kempers
Читать онлайн.Название Monumental Bali
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isbn 9781462911547
Автор произведения A.J. Bernet Kempers
Жанр Книги о Путешествиях
Издательство Ingram
A sarcophagus found at Puyangan contained several bronze objects, beads, etc. Since there is no rest for the dead without cremation, the villagers who discovered the stone coffin performed an act of burning on behalf of the person buried in it—in effigy, in the absence of any bodily remains. Did they do so out of compassion, or for purposes of safety, to prevent the dead from haunting the site?
There are sarcophagi in which the dead had been laid out in full length, others in which they were placed in a squatting position. In 1960 an undisturbed sarcophagus at Cacang (Bangli) was systematically investigated. A contracted male skeleton was revealed, accompanied by his funeral gifts: arm and foot rings, cornelian beads, and bronze socketed shovels.
TERRACED MONUMENTS
In this context, mention should be made of the stepped pyramids in the neighborhood of Sanur along the coast of South Bali, illustrated in connection with one of the first excursions in the Guide (Figure 63). Similar terraced monuments have also been found in the Sembiran region in northern Bali. Just like certain other natural or man-made sanctuaries, such step pyramids may be seen as ageless survivals from a prehistoric past, which over the centuries retained their place in the Balinese conceptual framework, and have been taken care of accordingly.
KETTLEDRUMS
By far the most intriguing metal objects of the Southeast Asian Bronze Age are the so-called "kettledrums," modern Indonesian: nekara (from the Arab-Persian word naqqâra, for a special type of non-metal drum). Bali possesses one of the most important specimens, an in-its-own-way unique drum, that is still in situ in the Pura Penataran Sasih at Pejeng (Intaran), where it has been housed for many centuries.
As opposed to most other drums (like the said naqqâra) the kettledrums are not "membranophones," producing sound with the aid of a membrane such as a piece of hide. Along with those drums, in the restricted sense, they are in the category of "percussion instruments," but otherwise there are important differences. They are of a class that typically do not need any extra gadget (membrane) to produce their sound. They are "idiophones," sounding all on their own, provided that they are being struck in one way or other. The "drum" part of their name has to be taken in a wide sense. The "kettle" part refers to their being all metal like a kettle or, for that matter, a bell, a cymbal, a gong and most of the Javanese or Balinese gamelan orchestra percussion instruments. (The orchestra as such is called gong in Bali, too.) It so happens that the peoples of Southeast Asia have a deep liking for all kinds of objects which are all-metal and preferably modeled and cast "auseinem Guss," monocast, in one piece, "solid" in that special sense of the word (which does not preclude the possibility that the object has an opening and is hollow). The external shape of a kettledrum may be comparatively simple or extremely complicated. The main thing is that it should be "in one piece" (whatever its "prototype," we may add—a matter to be discussed later). Most of the kettledrums answer that description. It is just part of their reason for existence in the view of the peoples' concerned. There is one notable exception to the rule that kettledrums had to be produced in one piece: the Balinese "Pejeng type" metal drum which essentially consists of two parts—a body and a top— that have been turned into one single, nominally solid piece of metal. This "Pejeng type" of drum is the main theme of the present section.
Figure 10: The Pejeng Moon, after Nieuwenkamp's drawing.
Figure 11: One of the Moon's heads. After Nieuwenkamp.
We shall start with a very brief general description not merely of that Pejeng type, but of any Southeast Asian kettledrum. A comparatively wide metal (bronze) cylinder, with a threefold "waisted" profile, recalling the old-fashioned "Römer" wineglass, turned upside down— not really shaped like an hour-glass, although this is the usual description. The body (mantle, case) is open at the botton and closed at the top by means of a metal plaque (tympan). Although there are notable exceptions, such as the big drum at Pejeng (a tall man's height) the size normally varies between about 36 and 126 cm or a bit more in diameter; about 40-92 cm—if not more—in height. There are also miniature versions for various purposes, either funerary or monetary. The kettledrum's walls are extremely thin in relation to their size, hardly more than a few millimeters, which is necessarily quite a problem to their casters. The tympan and the lower brim of the mantle are heavier, sometimes twice as thick (up to 6 cm). These parts for natural reasons needed more "body." A positive result was that whereas the thin walls of drums did not survive, a good number of tympans did. In the case of the Pejeng type drums our illustrations, drawn from solitary surviving tympans, are there to support this statement.
Figures 12 and 13: A head on the Manuaba printing mold.
Kettledrums, in the general sense referred to so far, have been known for a long time in an extensive territory stretching from China, Burma, Thailand and northern Vietnam far into the south and even all the way through the southern parts of Indonesia, up to the islands off Irian and to Western New Guinea itself. In agreement with a classification proposed by the Austrian ethnologist, F. Heger in 1902, four main types are usually distinguished.
Figure 14: The Bebitra tympan-cuff connection. After Soejono. To the right a similar solution. Pacung drum. After McConnell and Glover.
The first of these, "Heger I," is of special interest. Metal drums of all types over the centuries have played an important part in the musical and artistic life of the peoples concerned, but also (and even much more) in their social, religious and economic existence. Heger I is not merely a matter of academic interest to students of the Indonesian archipelago for the simple reason that a good number of Heger I types and subtypes have been found in that part of Southeast Asia. For various reasons merchants, political fugitives and other people from the countries where Heger I drums had developed, in particular northern Vietnam (Tonkin), may have been involved with the dispersion of these costly objects that represent several chronologically differentiated stages of the Vietnamese "Dongsonian" Bronze Age civilization in its heyday (4th century B.C.—first century A.D.) in mainland Southeast Asia. During and even after that period Heger I drums spread southwards. So did some of the people concerned with their making and usage. In the present connection we need not talk about other types of kettledrums—Heger II, III and IV, Yunnanese and otherwise—with one, in the cultural history of Indonesia very important exception: the "Pejeng type" drums.
Heger I drums have been discovered in many locations in the archipelago. Among them are some of the most elaborately decorated and from a technical point of view most developed specimens. These locations include certain faraway and isolated islands only to be reached after long and adventurous wanderings, and the drums were preserved under circumstances that were intriguing in their own right. They may have been imported in one way or another during the first half of the first millennium A.D., but a few specimens of much earlier Heger I drums may have reached the western parts of the archipelago long before that. The spread of Heger I drums in early Indonesia is an interesting problem in itself, which in the present context need not be detailed. So far no Heger I drums have been found in Bali. On the other hand, some of the Balinese Pejeng type tympans (the last remnants of complete drums that found their way westwards) have been traced to Central Java, or to some other place, although their ultimate origin must have been Central Bali. The total