Beautiful kites flutter in Bali's skies

Beautiful kites flutter in Bali's skies

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Contributor, Bali

Colorful kites of different sizes clouded Bali's skies when
participants of the 24th Bali Kite Festival tried their best to
outdo each other.

The introduction of stricter kite size regulations and even a
failed record-breaking attempt did not stop kite enthusiasts from
across Bali amassing at the festival ground in Padanggalak, two
kilometers north of Sanur, literally causing most activities in
the area to grind to a halt.

The regulation introduced in this year's festival, which was
held from July 25 to July 28, is necessary because several years
ago the festival did not only become the largest gathering of
kite enthusiasts, but also an annual source of irritation,
particularly for motorists and traffic police.

The nuisance, in the form of enormous, paralyzing traffic
jams, was caused by the seemingly misguided competitive spirit of
the festival's participants, who were mostly from traditional
customary youth organizations in numerous customary villages in
Denpasar and Badung. Each participant tried to outdo the others
by making the biggest kite possible and also by assembling the
largest entourage of local enthusiasts to escort the kite to the
festival ground.

Then, these groups of young men, all donned in traditional
costume and T-shirts of their respective Sekeha Teruna Teruni,
took to the streets, proudly displaying their kites all the way
to the festival ground. The result was all too predictable: Hours
of traffic jams in most parts of the city.

Some of the groups went by foot, accompanied by the blaring
tunes of their own traditional Bleganjur ensemble. Others carried
the kites by trucks, tightly escorted by the participants' convoy
of motorbikes.

The situation was even worse around the festival's ground in
Padanggalak. Thousands of kite enthusiasts from all over Bali
flocked to the area and the traffic was virtually brought to a
halt. Road users responded to this problem by repeatedly lodging
angry complaints at the festival's organizing committee.

"Objections did not only come from the general public, but
also from traffic police officers, who were frustrated with the
traffic jams," said the festival's chief of the board of judges,
Susila Patra.

Finally this year, the committee decided to do something about
the problem.

"There was never a size limit for kites at previous festivals.
This year, however, we have had to do it, otherwise people would
keep blaming the committee for causing the traffic jams," the
committee's chairman, Rai Andayana, said.

The newly introduced regulation stipulated that the size of
any participating kite must not exceed seven meters in length and
four meters in width.

"Any larger than this and the kites would take up too much
space, causing traffic jams when they are being transported to
and from the festival ground," Rai said.

The committee also strongly urged each participant to
carefully time their departure and arrival time at the festival
ground to prevent encountering other participants at the same
time, thus causing severe traffic jams.

Participants who came from areas far from the festival ground
were required to arrive as early as possible.

Most of this year's participants did not seem to object to the
new regulation and tried their best to abide by it. In the end,
the traffic jams were not as bad as in previous years.

Some participants from North Badung even followed the new
regulation to the extreme, arrived at the ground two days prior
to the opening of the festival.

Still, several participants still thought the rule was made to
be broken.

One participant deliberately broke the rule in order to set a
new record for the biggest kite in Indonesia.

"The kite was sponsored by an individual who spent at least Rp
30 million to construct this giant kite," a source said.

The kite, in the form of the traditional jangan (eagle) was
10-meters long, seven-meters wide, and with an enormous 250-meter
long tail.

Unfortunately, the team from the Indonesian Museum of Records
(MURI), and of course the kite's owner, eventually had to leave
the festival ground disappointed after the kite did not even
manage to take off.

Weak winds and insufficient human assistance -- the giant kite
was manned by only 16 people, while many smaller kites in the
festival were manned by at least 20 people each -- were two
elements blamed for the failure.

A few years ago, participants from Gumicik village in Sanur
tried to do a similar thing. They constructed a giant kite, 20-
meters long, to set a new record at the festival. The kite could
not take off and the record-breaking attempt was soon forgotten.

Participants of this year's festival were higher in number.
Some 991 groups participated this year, compared to 680 in 2001
and 590 in 2000.

"This increase (in the number of participants) amazes me. The
cost of constructing a kite is between Rp 5 million and Rp 10
million, and each Sekeha Teruna Teruni usually builds more than
three kites. With the present economic crisis, it is amazing they
can come up with such a huge amount of money to construct these
kites," an observer said.

And winners of the festival do not receive much either. The
first winner only takes home a trophy and just Rp 1.5 million in
cash.

"Well, they (the Sekeha Teruna Teruni) took part in this event
not for the reward, but for pride, so they can 'show of' their
respective village's ability and achievement," Rai said.

Initially, Rai said, Balinese farmers flew kites to express
their gratitude to the gods after an abundant harvest. This semi-
sacred function was the reason why the colors of Balinese
traditional kites are the combination of red, black, white and
yellow, the colors of the Hindu's trinity of Brahma, Wisnu and
Siwa.