Bali Kite Festival still soaring in popularity

Bali Kite Festival still soaring in popularity

By Susi Andrini

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): As they fly high in the sky, kites are a
great leveler for those on the ground, loved by people of all
ages and classes as an inexpensive, easy way to have a good time.

But who would have thought that a small kite festival started
more than 20 years ago on a plot of disused land in Bali would
today have an international reputation and draw kite lovers from
across Asia, Europe and the U.S.?

The four-day 23rd Bali Kite Festival, scheduled to be opened
next Thursday by Governor Dewa Made Bherata at Padanggalak Beach,
will bring together kite flyers from within the country -- Java,
Sumatra, Kalimantan -- and outside, including Japan, Singapore,
Malaysia, the U.S., France and Australia. The festival led to the
establishment of the Association of Indonesian Kite Flyers
(Pelangi) in Lampung in 1996.

"This festival is really to preserve the culture of Bali in
particular and Indonesia in general," said festival founder Si
Nyoman Adnyana.

It's understandable that there might be a threat to tradition
in this age of computer games and the Internet, but kites do not
come up short in comparison to the modern activities. Kite flying
is a form of sport and exercise, and it takes mathematical
precision to make and fly one, cutting the bamboo for the right
length frame and judging wind patterns.

Kites in the festival are of a different class from regular
playthings, with a minimum five meters in length and each costing
from Rp 3 million to Rp 5 million. The prizes available may not
make up for the money expended on the kites, but that does not
seem to matter to the hundreds and sometimes thousands of
participants.

"What's important to me is not if I win or lose, but taking
part and having fun," says kite flyer Kadek.

The festival, always held in conjunction with the month-long
Bali Arts Festival in the period from May to August when winds
are strong, also attracts crowds of spectators.

"The enthusiasm of the people from Bali and outside is
extraordinary, including tourists and foreign residents, who
jostle to participate and watch," said organizing official Radig.

Bali is taken over by kite-flying fever during the month.
Motorists are warned to be extra careful as kids and adults, the
latter probably reliving their childhood, take to the streets
with their kites. People even fly the kites from the roofs of
their homes, with activities beginning from about 2 p.m. and
lasting well into the night.

On the positive side, the month brings a lot of business to
cottage industries producing kites for the markets at Sukawati
and Kambasari. Kite prices range from Rp 10,000 to Rp 500,000,
depending on the quality. Some kites are used as interior
decoration, hung on the walls or on the ceilings in attractive
shapes of fish, birds, boats or even dragons.

Balinese choose colors for their kites very carefully as they
usually symbolize their God in red, white, black and yellow, the
colors that must be present in Balinese kites. Red symbolizes
Brahma, the god believed to have created the universe. White
belongs to God Vishnu, a god assigned to look after the universe.
Black is the color of God Shiwa or Ishwara, the destroyer. The
three gods are a trinity on which the universe and all its
contents depend.

As for yellow, this is the color of Dewata Nawasanga, the
eight gods of eight directions.

Rites

A rite must be held before kites are flown in Bali. Incense
and flowers are offered to cleanse the kites from wickedness and
breathe spirit into the kite.

A Balinese will not make a kite on just any day of the week.
He will consult someone like a paranormal to tell him the
auspicious days for kite-making.

When the kite season is over, the kites, just like human
bodies, will be cremated in a specific rite. The cremation rite
for a kite is called dipralina, which means that the kite, into
which a spirit has been breathed, will be returned to its
original form.

Kadek, a student of the engineering department of Udayana
University, has taken part in kite festivals since he was an
elementary school student. He knows all the rites related to
kites but he also has tragic story which remains vivid in his
mind.

A kite he was flying broke and fell on a child on the ground,
killing him. Later, to ensure that his kite would not claim other
victims, a dipralina rite was conducted.

The annual kite festival is unique in that the huge kites need
many people to fly them. A kite measuring 7 m x 12 m, for
example, will need at least 50 people. Kadek said if locals won
the cash prize of Rp 5 million they would spend it on a village
feast or throw a party for all involved in the making of his
kite.

Legend has it that kite-flying originally came from mainland
China. In its earliest form, a kite was made of leaves and
stalks; in Bali, kite-flying was an expression of thanksgiving to
the creator for rice harvests. While in Java, this gratitude is
expressed to the Goddess Sri, the goddess of fertility, in Bali,
said Nyoman, it is intended for God Batara. Nyoman had the idea
to hold the first kite festival back in 1979 in an open space
near rice fields in Tanjung-Bungkak in an attempt to preserve the
tradition.

Twenty years later, Nyoman is on a mission to introduce
Balinese kites to the world. In September 2000 he was invited to
the U.S. to take part in the International Kite Festival. There
he and Wayan Laje, an expert kite-maker in Bali, received the
spectators' favorite kite award in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Two years ago he was invited to France and found the kites
produced a music-like sound because of the blowing wind. In fact,
small devices made of bamboo, leaves or plastic were added to the
kites. The idea, so he was told, came from the Balinese kites
using gewangan, something like a string of a guitar which will
produce a sound when flown.

Nyoman said to the Balinese a kite and its gewangan
philosophically symbolizes the harmony between a man and a woman.

For Nyoman, kites mean everything. They open up a window to
the world and bring in peace. When kites are flown, dancing in
the wind freely and in good balance, they symbolize mutual
respect. They will be ready to welcome visitors from near and far
in the next week.