Kamasan

Village on Bali, Indonesia

Kamasan is a village on Bali, Indonesia. It is known for a style of painting named after it and has a cultural importance on a Bali-wide level.

Situation

Kamasan is located just next to Semarapura (north-west) and to Gelgel (south), in the Klungkung regency, between the south-east coast and the mountain range of Gunung Agung. Denpasar is 31 km south-west.^[1]

Administratively, it is part of Gelgel territory.^[2]

Population

In 2014 its population was about 4,000 people.^[2]

Painting: Kamasan wayang style

The various 'traditional' styles of painting on modern Bali are derived from the "Kamasan wayang style", or Kamasan shadow puppet painting, which in turn takes it patterns from ancient Java.^[3]

Kamasan wayang painting is a 2-dimensional painting depicting shadow puppet performances.^[4] It has been listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage (WBTB) in 2015 by the Indonesian Government.^[5] It was proposed to Unesco for registration as Intangible cultural heritage in 2018 and 2022.^[4]

Historically, artists from Kamasan were used by the many raja courts that existed on Bali up to the early twentieth century.^[3] Some became known with the emergence of the kingdom of Klungkung and its palace, which replaced the kingdom of Gelgel at the end of the 17th century;^[6] for others, this reknown started earlier, in the 16th century.^[7] However, the name of Kamasan is mentioned as early as 1072 AD (Saka year 994), during the reign of Bali king Anak Wungsu.^[4]

Other arts

The village also provided gold- and silversmiths, dancers, musicians and puppeteers. The painters have a particular ward in Kamasan, the Banjar Sangging. The smiths are located in another ward, the Banjar Pande Mas.^[3]

References

^ "Kamasan, map". openstreetmap.org.
^ ^a ^b Campbell 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c Eric Oey, Bali, Island of the Gods. Singapore: Periplus 1990, p. 169.
^ ^a ^b ^c Ariani, Ni Made (2022). "Classical Painting of Wayang Kamasan to be UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage". Bali Tourism Journal. 6 (1, January–April): 17–20. doi:10.36675/btj.v6i1.74. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
^ Hartanto, Arief; Atmadiredja, Genardi (2024). "The Inheritance of Skill and Knowledge of Kamasan Painting as Part of Culture Preservation". Proceeding of The International Conference on Multidisciplinary Studies (ICOMSI): 39–48. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
^ Widari, Ni Putu Eka (2021). "Jargons Used by Wayang Kamasan Painter Community". Linguistics Initiative. 1 (2): 110–120. Retrieved 2024-05-10. See p. 112.
^ Ariani 2022, p. 18.