Full Moon at Ubud's Royal Palace
Posted Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 10:29 PM by Lonely Planet
In its four years, the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival has established a tradition of evening soirees in some of Bali's most inspiring venues. This year, opening night coincided with the full moon, so on Wednesday the Balinese dressed accordingly. For men, ceremonial garb is a white, short-sleeve coat and udeng, a cloth headband. For women, it's a lace kebaya, a multicoloured sarong, with a pedestal plate of fruit on the head for offering at the temple.
To accentuate their shape, women wear corsets, and to accentuate their modern fashion sense, high-heeled sandals. Just as they captivated Bali's early foreign chroniclers during the 1930s, lines of identically dressed, shapely females swayed under their loads, perhaps more precariously now than during barefoot times.
Tradition with a modern twist fits the festival's first public events, starting with the opening gala, held around dusk in the courtyard of Ubud's royal palace. Ubud's traditional royalty still serve ceremonial functions, and the orange brick palace with its traditional tapered gate posts and intricately carved doors remains the village's centrepiece. Indonesia's tourism minister spoke, but Balinese dance combining traditional forms, including fire and kecak chanting stole the show. 
Saraswati Temple, dedicated to the goddess of knowledge and arts, was the setting for The Centhini Story launch. The Javanese epic Serat Centhini is a cross between Homer's Odyssey and the Kama Sutra, an ancient text, most of the originals lost, written in a Javanese script few people can still read. The Centhini Story (Marshall Cavendish) is its first English translation.
The old story was reborn in the moonlight, through a Balinese-style dance by choreographer Nyoman Sura, readings in French-accented English by the project's godmother Elizabeth Inandiak, and hip-hop with Kill the DJ rapping in the original Javanese.
- Muhammad Cohen is at this year's Ubud Writers and Readers Festival where he will launch his novel Hong Kong On Air.
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Festivals and events
Join the Discussion:
1 Comments:
An amalgamation of East and West in literature, and attire too! Ubud Writers & Readers Festival also introduced Asia Pacific New Writing Partnership to encourage literary contributions from Australia and Pacific Islands. This will be a paradise for book lovers.
Mala Mukunda
http://www.traveling-stories-magazine.com/
Post a Comment
« Read more on the blog homepage