Made Wijaya still a stranger after 22 years
A Stranger In Paradise By Made Wijaya 260 pp, Rp 90,000 (hrdcover), Rp 65,000 (paperback)
DENPASAR (JP): Made Wijaya's A Stranger in Paradise, the Diary of an Expatriate in Bali 1979-1980 hit Bali's bookshops late last year. Actually, Made Wijaya is the pen name of Michael White, a landscape engineering consultant for major hotels in Bali. The writer, born in Australia, first set foot on Bali at the age of 20.
"At the time I was studying architecture," he said of his arrival in Bali. He was speaking at the launch of his book at the Four Season Resort hotel in Jimbaran.
In the early 1970s, Bali was not the bustling place it is today. There were few hotels or places to stay, let alone star- rated accommodation. Michael White therefore had to search for a place to stay in Sanur.
His landlord's family treated him as a member of the family, one reason White "lost his heart" to Bali. For him, it was like discovering a new world. He found the warmth of family life, a rare occurrence in Western families in which individuality has taken the upper hand, he said.
In 1975, White was proclaimed a member of a Balinese family and became Made Wijaya. Judging from the name of his adopted family, Made Wijaya should rightly belong to the Brahman caste and be named Ida Bagus Made Wijaya. However, he favors Made Wijaya.
The culture of Bali and the island's architecture, from the small roadside food stalls to the pompous castles of former Balinese rulers, grabbed his attention. He visited villages and hamlets, and mingled with ordinary men as well as the island's elite.
Made Wijaya considers himself lucky for having witnessed the most important ritual in Bali. He was able to watch Eka Dasa Rudra in the Besakih Temple in 1979, a ritual held once in a hundred years.
White took on any job to stay in Bali. He unabashedly admits to working as a tennis instructor and then as a English teacher from 1972 to 1981. He learned the language of the island from his students.
"I used my spare time to research my writings," he said.
Fortune was on Wijaya's side when in 1979 the Bali Post started printing a page in English every Sunday for its Sunday Bali Post.
His Sunday Bali Post column has been organized and edited in A Stranger in Paradise. It was published with help by P.T. Tribwana Indosekar, the company at which Wijaya works as a consultant. The owner of the company, Putu Suasta, nourishes great interest in culture. Putu also likes Made Wijaya's landscaping, which combines Western rationality and an irate touch of the island's architecture.
"Bali's architecture is very rich," said Wijaya.
He has already published Balinese Architecture, a book approaching ideas of art. The book is actually a photocopy version of the dummy bound in an art cover. It is comprised of hundreds of pictures of all sorts of constructions, from inconspicuous roadside food stalls, where customers can be seen holding intimate discussions with pretty young girls, to pictures of grandiose buildings of a feudalist lifestyle of a long gone era.
Apart from working as a landscaping consultant at PT Tribwana Indosekar, Wijaya is writing an Encyclopedia of Balinese Architecture -- a work requiring formidable devotion.
"Hopefully it will be completed soon, eh?" he said with a smile.
Although he has written two books about Bali, Wijaya said humbly: "There is still a lot to learn about Bali. What I know is still too little."
Made's Stranger in Paradise is lightly written and he does not delve as deeply as writers Miguel Covarrubias in Island of Bali, Beryl de Zoete and Walter Spies in Dance and Drama, or Jane Belo in Trance in Bali. His writing is an important witness to Bali on the verge of change as tourism rapidly grew at the end of the 1970s.
His daily entries speak of these changes. Made did not only record incidents and conspicuous symptoms, or sacred rituals in Hindu temples, he was also able to discover unique aspects in the island's changing cycles. He succeeded, for instance, to portray a Brahman priest wearing sunglasses while conducting a praying service. The priest had, most likely, not the slightest intention to be fashionable, contrary to today's youngsters who have been influenced by tourism culture. He wore sunglasses simply to ward off the midday sun.
His first story in the Sunday Bali Post (Feb. 11, 1979), was an eye witness report of the Pelembon, the cremation of Ida Cokorda Agung Sukawati together with the scattering of Rudolf Bonnet's ashes which arrived in a parcel by post from the Netherlands. Bonnet and Ida Tjokorda were often in each other's company. They guided an art group, the Pita Maha, in the 1930s in Ubud, which was the start of Ubud's fame. And like the foreign tourists expressing surprise when witnessing a ritual before cremation, Made Wijaya was equally impressed by the lion, cow and dragon containers, and the thousands of Ubud people who watched the historical event.
On the night of the cremation, Jimat (now Bali's top Jauk dancer) performed the sacred Baris dance in the Puri Ubud. Made felt like a stranger in the crowd following the procession. To him it was like watching a prehistorical scene of people holding a ritual for spirits.
While these medieval rites are still alive today, various modern objects have made their entry. People no longer write on lontar leaves, they use keyboards. They walk less, preferring motorcycles, cars and trucks to get around. However, these modern objects have been formatted to suit their traditions and culture. Purification of these objects, the blessing of them on certain days, never stops to amaze Made Wijaya. On Tumpek Landep day, for instance, all iron objects (cars, typewriters, motorbikes), are worshiped. Tumpek Bubuh day, is a day when plants are worshiped. The day is dedicated to appreciating nature.
On another occasion, one Saturday afternoon in 1979, after a Qantas 747 plane had disgorged its human load, Made Wijaya immortalized the welcoming rites conducted by a priest at Ngurah Rai airport.
"Bali's culture is extremely adaptable," Made writes in his newest book. Made has emphasized this ability in the many multiethnic photographs of Caucasians clad in traditional Bali attire and of foreign researchers socializing with the locals. Amazingly, these changes have not caused social conflict or lead to an uprising.
In spite of his 22-year tenure in Bali, Made Wijaya still feels like a stranger. There are so many corners in the culture of Bali still unknown to him. The island's culture is like an endless stream. The rites of a pura, for instance, encompasses religious teachings, social ethics, music, dancing, carving and literature.
-- Putu Wirata