ASEAN Journal on Hospitality and Tourism, Vol. 1, pp. 117—132 Printed in Indonesia. All rights reserved.THE IMPACT OF TOURISM THE IMPACT OF TOURISM ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF UBUD PAINTING ART SALMON PRIAJI MARTANA Centre for Research on Tourism Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia This article will delineate the impact of tourism on the development of Ubud painting art, starting from the establishment of Balinese Kingdom to the present day. It argues that prominent figures like the historic figures that existed in parallel with the art history of Ubud is needed, in order to help the society in transition like that of Ubud to anticipate radical changes and to strive for the survival and maintenance of their art life. Bali, Ubud, painting art, traditional The impact of tourism on art life which are practiced by local community members and artists varied from one place to the other. In many developed countries, art life enjoys positive tourism impact. Singapore for example, succeeded in conserving and revitalizing life in its Chinatown and Little India cultural enclaves using a specific scientific policy in the middle of the 1980’s. Through a contemporary process called disneyfication, Singapore has built several theme parks to increase citizens’ appreciation to local culture (Teo & Yeoh, 1997). But an opposite situation can happen in more traditional societies. Their more simple character makes them susceptible to abuse by tourism. Take the Aborigine in Australia for example, who were forced to change the size of their traditional musical instruments to meet the tourist demand for souvenirs. This is an act regarded as a betrayal to the original cultural values. In another location, Papua New Guinea, a group of local dancers attacked tourists with bows and arrows following unfair judgments in local arts festival (Lea, 1988). Tourism negative impact on art also took place in Bali, particularly in Desa Ubud, a well known cultural tourism destination. Bali, a 5,800 square kilometer island, might be considered as one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in the world. Its unique culture, exotic nature and charming people have attracted tourists from all around the world to visit. It is undeniable that Bali has made a very large contribution to Indonesia’s foreign exchange from the tourism sector which is the country’s third largest following oil/gas and textile sectors. Through the years Bali has been well known for its beautiful panoramas and mesmerizing dancing arts. Individual Balinese dances like the Manukrawa, Legong Keraton, Mergapati, Pendet and Baris as well as the more communal dances like Kecak, are performed everywhere, not only in Bali but also in Europe and America. Scholars and anthropologists from all around the world have studied the phenomenon of Balinese dancing arts, which connect so often to mystical Balinese ways of life. Address correspondence to Salmon Priaji Martana. Centre for Research on Tourism, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Villa Merah, Jl Tamansari 78, Bandung 40132, Indonesia. Tel +62 816 627652 E-mail: [email protected] 117 SALMON PRIAJI MARTANA So far, few scholars have paid much attention to Balinese painting arts, in particular the traditional painting art which has performed a major role in promoting and forming Bali’s image as the lost paradise, since the early days of 20th Century. When Balinese Dance had not yet reached its present fame, the unique, traditional paintings of Ubud painters, through several exhibitions held in Europe, became an unexpected promotion for whole aspects of Balinese society, and helped create demand among Europeans to come and visit the small island. Until this day, the role of Balinese painting art is still significant. John Lea (1988) noted that tourism market pressures always result in the decreasing quality of physical cultural products, and this happened also in Ubud-Bali. Painting art started to receive unbearable side effects from tourism activities; patterns, styles, production processes and even marketing management were forced to change to please the demand of tourism markets. Nowadays, one could say that Ubud paintings are not a pure art form coming from the hearts and souls of the painters, but merely the art formed by the financial attraction from tourism. This article will delineate the impact of tourism on the development of Ubud painting art, from its very beginning to the era where tourism became the master for art to serve. It also aims to describe the amazing transformation of Ubud from a simple agriculture village, where most of the inhabitants were farmers, to become a modern tourism village where cultures are blended, and the indigenous are hardly recognized during the peak tourism months. UBUD The modern Ubud is situated 11 km from the capital city of Gianyar Regency, and 26 km from Denpasar, the capital city of Bali. The soil is fertile and suitable for agriculture, the main livelihood until the early days of the 1980s. Ubud’s altitude at 250 – 360 meters above sea level, and the 10 square kilometer village provides a perfect place for work and contemplation. Ubud was the centre of power in the old Balinese Kingdom era, ruled by the Pejeng Dynasty in Bedulu, east of modern Ubud. It was Gajah Mada, the prime minister of the Kingdom of Majapahit, who conquered Bali in 1334, in his pursuit to bring together the entire Southeast Asian archipelago under the Hindu Majapahit Kingdom. The Majapahit district government under Kresna Kapakisan and his men, a noble Javanese, replaced the power of the Pejeng Dynasty. Most of the Balinese aristocratic families who live in the present royal palace are descendants of those Majapahit nobles, and are proud of it. Under Kresna Kapakisan’s order, the capital was moved from Bedulu to Samprangan. Two generations later, it was moved again to Gelgel, the most famous Balinese town in the past. The Majapahit reached its peak prosperity under the government of King Hayam Wuruk (1350-1389). In Hayam Wuruk’s time, the Majapahit military grew rapidly and the Majapahit culture certainly spread to Bali and other colonies. That was the early time of Balinese art development, before it became the art form we know today. After Hayam Wuruk’s death, the Majapahit Kingdom started to lose its stability. Sharp friction between successors aggravated the rot between the nation’s pillars. The 118 THE IMPACT OF TOURISM colonies were daring to separate and establish their own governments. The existence of Islam became one of the major causes of instability, in the early days of the 15th Century. Islam actually had entered the land of Java through trading routes established many years earlier. Its social system, which did not separate people by caste, became a great attraction to the traders whose position was low in the former Hindu caste system. Day after day, more and more coastal people converted to Islam as their religion, a matter that shocked the hollow Majapahit Kingdom. The year 1478 was an important time in the history of Balinese art. Demak, a small kingdom located on the north coast of Java, attacked the weaker Majapahit in a holy war. As predicted, the Majapahit fell apart, and the influence of Islam then spread throughout Java with no one able to obviate it. Anxiety emerged among the faithful Hindu, regarding the fast growth of Islam’s influence among the Javanese. To avoid Islamization, they fled as refugees to the safer eastern island of Bali. Among these were artists, scholars and priests. Lontar Markandya Purana, a manuscript written on palm leaves recorded that 2,000 people, scholars, artists and their families, under the leader Mpu Markandya, a Hindu elder, moved from Java to Bali during the period of 1478 Islamization. In Bali, Mpu Markandya, along with his followers, opened a forest for their settlement, in the location later known as Campuhan, a small part of modern Ubud. Campuhan is an area where the water of two rivers meets, and in Hindu ritual, water is a very important element. The waters of Campuhan were later discovered to have the peculiar property to heal sickness. Many people came to have the waters of Campuhan and increased the popularity of this place. In local Balinese language, this healing water is called ubad (obat in Bahasa Indonesia; medicine in English). From that time, the word ubad has evolved into ubud, and thus the origin of the famous village name of Ubud. The Balinese welcomed the arrival of those priests, high-class artists, dancers, painters and carvers from the Majapahit with delight. One of the refugee priests, Danghyang Nirartha (also known as Great Priest Wawu Rawuh) was directly installed as palace priest and main counselor by the King Waturenggong, the ruler of Bali at the time. Majapahit artists had found a new oasis to satisfy their thirst, and started to work again with all their hearts and souls. Waturenggong’s ideal was to build a little Majapahit by supporting those artists in developing their art quality. Slowly, Balinese art started to find its form, which was totally separated from artistic developments in Java under Islamic rule. Waturenggong also let Danghyang Nirartha to build temples around the coasts of Bali. We can still see most of them today, like the temple Uluwatu on the south peninsula of Bali. Several generations later, when the Balinese Kingdom felt apart into smaller kingdoms, the art life continued to develop. The artists, descendants of the earlier Majapahit artists, spread out and worked for the palaces of smaller kingdoms, where they became known as sungging. In 1597, Dutch expedition led by Captain Cornelius Houtman landed on the coast of Bali. This was the earliest meeting between Balinese indigenous culture and western culture. The whole European crew stood in amazement watching the King of Bali come with his 200 wives, sitting in a golden chariot pulled by two white buffaloes.