Bali is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller offshore islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan to the southeast. The provincial capital, Denpasar, is the most populous city in the Lesser Sunda Islands and the second-largest, after Makassar, in Eastern Indonesia. The upland town of Ubud in Greater Denpasar is considered Bali's cultural centre. The province is Indonesia's main tourist destination, with a significant rise in tourism since the 1980s. Tourism-related business makes up 80% of the Bali economy.
Balinese is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken on the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as Northern Nusa Penida, Western Lombok, Eastern Java, Southern Sumatra, and Sulawesi. Most Balinese speakers also use Indonesian. The 2000 national census recorded 3.3 million people speakers of Balinese, however the Bali Cultural Agency estimated in 2011 that the number of people still using the Balinese language in their daily lives is under 1 million. The language has been classified as "not endangered" by Glottolog.
Ikat is a dyeing technique from Indonesia used to pattern textiles that employs resist dyeing on the yarns prior to dyeing and weaving the fabric. The term is also used to refer to related and unrelated traditions in other cultures. In Southeast Asia, where it is the most widespread, ikat weaving traditions can be divided into two general clades. The first is found among Daic-speaking peoples. The second, larger group is found among the Austronesian peoples and spread via the Austronesian expansion. Similar dyeing and weaving techniques that developed independently are also present in other regions of the world, including India, Central Asia, Japan, Africa, and the Americas.
The culture of Indonesia has been shaped by long interaction between original indigenous customs and multiple foreign influences. Indonesia is centrally-located along ancient trading routes between the Far East, South Asia and the Middle East, resulting in many cultural practices being strongly influenced by a multitude of religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Islam, all strong in the major trading cities. The result is a complex cultural mixture, often different from the original indigenous cultures.
The Sasak people live mainly on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, numbering around 3.6 million. They are related to the Balinese in language and in ancestry, although the Sasak are predominantly Muslim while the Balinese are predominantly Hindu. Sasak people who practice pre-Islamic beliefs are also known as Sasak Boda in reference to the name of the Sasak people's original religion, Bodha.
The Balinese people are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the Indonesian island of Bali. The Balinese population of 4.2 million live mostly on the island of Bali, making up 89% of the island's population. There are also significant populations on the island of Lombok and in the easternmost regions of Java.
Songket or sungkit is a tenun fabric that belongs to the brocade family of textiles of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. It is hand-woven in silk or cotton, and intricately patterned with gold or silver threads. The metallic threads stand out against the background cloth to create a shimmering effect. In the weaving process the metallic threads are inserted in between the silk or cotton weft (latitudinal) threads in a technique called supplementary weft weaving technique.
Gelgel is a village (desa) in the regency (kabupaten) of Klungkung, on Bali, Indonesia. The village, near the coast four kilometers south of the regency capital Semarapura, contains some structures of cultural interest and is known for its pottery and handwoven ceremonial songket cloth.
The History of Bali covers a period from the Paleolithic to the present, and is characterized by migrations of people and cultures from other parts of Asia. In the 16th century, the history of Bali started to be marked by Western influence with the arrival of Europeans, to become, after a long and difficult colonial period under the Dutch, an example of the preservation of traditional cultures and a key tourist destination.
Tenganan Pegringsingan or Pageringsingan is a village in the regency of Karangasem in East Bali, Indonesia. Before the 1970s was known by anthropologists to be a secluded society in the archipelago.
Karangasem Regency is a regency (kabupaten) of the island and province of Bali, Indonesia. It covers the east part of Bali, has an area of 839.54 km2 and had a population of 396,487 at the 2010 Census which rose to 492,402 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2022 was 511,300. Its regency seat is the town of Amlapura. Karangasem was devastated when Mount Agung erupted in 1963, killing 1,900 people. Karangasem was a kingdom before Bali was conquered by the Dutch.
The national costume of Indonesia is the national attire that represents the Republic of Indonesia. It is derived from Indonesian culture and Indonesian traditional textile traditions. Today the most widely recognized Indonesian national attires include batik and kebaya, although originally those attires mainly belong within the island of Java and Bali, most prominently within Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese culture. Since Java has been the political and population center of Indonesia, folk attire from the island has become elevated into national status.
Balinese textiles are reflective of the historical traditions of Bali, Indonesia. Bali has been historically linked to the major courts of Java before the 10th century; and following the defeat of the Majapahit kingdom, many of the Javanese aristocracy fled to Bali and the traditions were continued. Bali therefore may be seen as a repository not only of its own arts but those of Java in the pre-Islamic 15th century. Any attempt to definitively describe Balinese textiles and their use is doomed to be incomplete. The use of textile is a living tradition and so is in constant change. It will also vary from one district to another. For the most part old cloth are not venerated for their age. New is much better. In the tropics cloth rapidly deteriorates and so virtue is generated by replacing them.
Geringsing is a Tenun textile created by the double ikat method in the Bali Aga village of Tenganan Pegeringsingan in Bali. The demanding technique is only practiced in parts of India, Japan and Indonesia. In Indonesia it is confined to the village of Tenganan.
The textiles of Sumba, an island in eastern Indonesia, represent the means by which the present generation passes on its messages to future generations. Sumbanese textiles are deeply personal; they follow a distinct systematic form but also show the individuality of the weavers and the villages where they are produced. Internationally, Sumbanese textiles are collected as examples of textile designs of the highest quality and are found in major museums around the world, as well as in the homes of collectors.
The Kingdomship of Bali was a series of Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms that once ruled some parts of the volcanic island of Bali, in Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia. With a history of native Balinese kingship spanning from the early 10th to early 20th centuries, Balinese kingdoms demonstrated sophisticated Balinese court culture where native elements of spirit and ancestral reverence combined with Hindu influences—adopted from India through ancient Java intermediary—flourished, enriched and shaped Balinese culture.
It is quite difficult to define Indonesian art, since the country is immensely diverse. The sprawling archipelago nation consists of 17.000 islands. Around 922 of those permanently inhabited, by over 1,300 ethnic groups, which speak more than 700 living languages.
Bali Aga architecture refers to the architecture of the Bali Aga people, the mountain people of Bali, Indonesia. Compared to the lowland Balinese people, the relative isolation of the Bali Aga people meant that they have been less influenced by Hindu-Buddhist traditions. This separate history can be seen in the vernacular architecture of the Bali Aga which shows more similarity with the Austronesian tradition shared with many Indonesian people across the archipelago.
Tenun is an artful Indonesian technique of making a fabric by weaving different colours of threads. Tenun belongs to one of the typical Indonesian cultural arts produced by hand skills using traditional looms. The word Tenun itself has a high meaning, historical value, and technique in terms of colors, motifs, and types of materials and threads used and each region has its own characteristics. In addition, Tenun is also one of Indonesia's original cultural heritages that is still maintained and preserved to this day.
Indonesia (Bangli, Buleleng and Karangasem Regency)
