'Bokor' helps refine religious ceremonies

'Bokor' helps refine religious ceremonies

Tri Vivi Suryani, Contributor, Denpasar

Every day, a myriad of offerings consisting of fresh fruits,
flowers, meals and cakes are presented to gods in Bali in an
attempt to maintain the equilibrium between macrocosmic and
microcosmic worlds, the tangible and intangible lives.

In this ritual, bokor (rounded shaped silver or gold carved
containers of various sizes) play an important role since some of
the offerings are beautifully arranged in it.

As time goes by the bokor have become inseparable from the
life of the Balinese Hindu society.

However, only a few people know the creators of these
important ritual utensils.

Nobody knows when the Balinese started using bokor as part of
their ceremonial instruments. No recorded facts or written
information are available to disclose its history.

By word of mouth, a silver bokor was said to be first made by
the famous Pande clan of silversmiths who lived in Nongan village
in Karangasem, East Bali, around 60 kilometers east of Denpasar.

The Pande family was well known for its incredible
craftsmanship inherited by each generation of the family up to
the present time. In addition to producing kris, daggers, weapons
and ceremonial utensils, the Pande family also created various
kinds of household and agricultural tools.

Pande Wayan Dangin, one of the silversmiths in Nongan village,
told his story. Unlike other members of the Pande family, Pande
Wayan Dangin did not inherit his skills from his ancestors but
from an artisan in Singaraja, North Bali. In 1958, when he was
jobless and found it hard to find work in his village, he went to
Singaraja to work as a laborer at a coffee plantation in
Singaraja. However, living as a low-skilled worker was hard as
well. There were times when work was hard to find.

"Working as a laborer promised nothing," he said.

Fortunately, he knew an artisan friend who later taught him
how to make a silver bokor.

Pande Wayan Dangin remembered that his parents still kept the
necessary equipment for producing a bokor like purungan (a fire
pump), perapen (a kiln) or palungan (water container) kept for
years by his father in their family home.

There was no machine or advanced instrument but simple tools
to manually produce each piece of bokor or other utensils.

During the Dutch colonial occupation, blacksmiths and
silversmiths in Bali faced hard times because it was difficult to
find raw materials for their products. The only way was to find
pis bolong (tin-coins) and melt them traditionally in a 200
Celsius Degree heated kiln.

Finding tin-coins was a risky job at that time. The Dutch
colonial administration would strictly punish any people who
obtained pis bolong, especially for the making of bokor.

In many cases, the captured artisans would be locked up in
prison for obtaining the coins. However, Pande Wayan Dangin took
that risk and walked as far as Klungkung just to find the coins.

Up to now, Pande Wayang Dangin created half finished bokor
before taking them to a carver in Klungkung to decorate them with
attractive ornaments.

Each bokor has its own quality. It could be sold from
thousands of rupiah to millions of rupiah each depending on the
quality. So far, there are only seven artisans who are still
faithfully following this old profession.

"Being a bokor maker is not so promising. Regeneration process
doesn't work well as our young people prefer to work in
Denpasar," Pande said.

But his love for bokor never ceased. "I can still obtain a
meager amount of money. Creating a beautiful bokor is my own
satisfaction."