Indonesian kites flying high in Pacific Coast
Indonesian kites flying high in Pacific Coast
LONG BEACH, Pacific Coast: An Invitation to Indonesian Kites, the year-long featured exhibit at the World Kite Museum, will be joined by Kites & Culture: The Spirit of Indonesia, sponsored by the Drachen Foundation and the International Kite Festival.
"The combination of lively videos, vibrant flying kites and hands-on demonstrations by the Indonesian kite flyers will make this week anything the dry and dusty fare sometimes associated with museums," said director of the World Kite Museum Kay Buessing.
Spearheaded by Terry Shields, an ardent Indonesian kite festival-goer, several Indonesian kite makers donated 32 unique and rare kites to the museum several years ago. The pieces range from a 10-foot Balinese Jangan with a 140-foot-long tail to a single leaf kite made in Southeast Sulawesi.
Kite flyers representing Indonesia are S. Nyoman Adnyana, Anshori Djausal, Lamasili, Sari Madjid and Tinton Prianggoro.
The World Kite Museum & Hall of Fame, located on the Pacific Coast, began in the late 1980s when local kite enthusiasts met to discuss the idea of forming a museum dedicated to kites and their flyers. Their goal was to create a place where people could learn about the history, art, science and fun of kites worldwide.
The project gained momentum in 1990 when the city allowed the fledging museum group to use a city building as its headquarters to begin displaying a growing collection of kites, kite accessories, kite literature and kite memorabilia. The museum opened on Aug. 21, 1990.
The first displays were from the David Chekley Asian kite collection of 700 Japanese, Chinese and Malaysian kites. It was donated by the family of Chekley, a Seattle architect who devoted his life to acquiring the kites. Chekley's 350 Japanese kites are considered the most complete collection outside of Japan.
Today the museum's kites number more than 1,400, too many to be displayed in the small building.
The museum changes exhibits regularly and rents space to store the multiple artifacts. As well as displaying its kite collection, the museum provides extensive archival materials.
The American Kite Association has combined its archives with those of the museum and private kite archives to form a major kite information source available around the world.
An international advisory board, whose members are from England, France, Japan, Singapore and Brazil, promotes the museum, obtain items for the collection and offer advice on specific projects and exhibits.
Education programs are conducted in area elementary and high schools.
Large birds, elephants, bats, gods and goddess, kites made of bamboo, cloth, paper and native leaves have been flown, bringing glory and honor to their communities.
Besides the kites, sounds of accompanying gamelan orchestras, kite hummers and bamboo xylophones, videos of kite fishing and bat catching, as well as artifact photos and interpretive panels draw viewers into the world of Indonesian kites and the culture of the exhibit.
The kites range in size from the nine-foot-tall Balinese bebean, with a tail made and flown by a team dressed in identical sarongs and turbans, to a single leaf kite, sometimes made from a single palm leaf. The kites from Sumatra are made with elliptical wings covered with a shiny, opaque paper. Elephant kites painted on nylon taffeta fly in trains, trunks swaying similar to their progress through the forest.
From Sulawesi come leaf kites in diamond picture shapes with attached hummers. A bamboo base is strung like a loom so that leaves can be woven through the strings.
Leaves are available to touch. The number one public sport, kite fighting, is also represented by two different sized kites.
The hand-painted lozenge shaped kites fly with the highly prized cutting line.
They swoop and dive, luring their opponent into positions so they may cut their line from the sky.
-- World Kite Museum & Hall of Fame