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.

Pre-1920 Kamasan Palindon Painting detail, an example of Kamasan-style classical painting

Situation

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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

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

Painting: Kamasan wayang style

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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 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

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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

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  1. ^ "Kamasan, map". openstreetmap.org.
  2. ^ a b Campbell 2014.
  3. ^ a b c Eric Oey, Bali, Island of the Gods. Singapore: Periplus 1990, p. 169.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Ariani 2022, p. 18.

See also

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Wikipedia articles

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Bibliography

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