Bali Costum Pages

At home and it work-the-Bali-n6e like to be free of excessive clothing; ordinarily the'dress of; both men and women consists simply,of a skirt called kamben, (the women wear an underskirt tapih) of Javanese batik or domestic hand-woven material, and a head-cloth. The women wear this skirt wrapped tight around the hips, reaching down to the feet and held at the waist by a bright-coloured sash (bulang) . Along scarf (kamben tjerik) in pale pink, yellow, or white cotton completes the costume. Young girls love gay batiks from Pekalongan, full of birds and flowers in red and blue on a white ground, or hand-woven skirts of yellow and green for feasts, but older women prefer conservative brown and indigo or black silk enlivened by a green, yellow, or peach sash. The scarf is generally thrown over one shoulder or wound around the head to keep the hair in place, but it also serves as a ,cushion for a heavy basket carried on the bead, or to wrap over the breasts when appearing in front of a superior or entering the temple, because, although the Balinese are accustomed to go nude above the waist, it is a rule of etiquette, for both men and women, that the breast must be covered for formal dress. This is purely a formula and does not imply that it is wrong to go with uncovered breasts; often the cloth is worn loosely around the waist, leaving the torso free; but even modernized Balinese, who generally wear a shirt or blouse, wrap the breast-cloth across their chest or around their middles when they wish to appear properly dressed.

For daily wear the men also wear a kam ben, a single piece of batik reaching from the waist to a little below the knees, tied in the front and leaving a trailing end that falls into pleats. The kamben can be pulled up and tied into an abbreviated loincloth when the men work in the ricefields. An indispensable part of the men's dress is the head-cloth (udeng) , a square piece of batik worn as a turban and tied in an amazing variety of styles. Each man ties his udeng in a manner individual to himself, taking good care that the folds form a certain pattern and that the end sticks out just right. Conservative Balinese wear the udeng with a comer high like a crest, but the young generation prefers small tight turbans with the four points neatly arranged in different directions. Children generally wear only a lock of hair on their foreheads, but little girls learn feminine propriety by wearing a skirt many years before the boys. Priests dress all in white and one can recognize a high priest (pedanda, " staff-bearer ") because be goes bareheaded and carries a staff (danda) topped by a crystal ball (suryakanta, " the glitter of the sun"), symbol of his authority.

It is unfortunate that new fashions in dress are introducing a new sort of class-consciousness. Young elegants feel superior and emancipated " from the old-style peasant class when they wear a Malay sarong, a tube of cloth worn snug at the back, folded in front in two overlapping pleats and held at the 'waist by a leather belt. With the sarong go a pair of leather sandals, a common shirt, too often with the tails outside, and a Europeanstyle coat. This is the costume of scbool-teacbers, clerks, chauffeurs, and those in frequent contact with Europeans, who will, in the long run, set the fashion for the rest of the population.

All women in North Bali have worn the Malay blouse (badju) for over half a century, since they were ordered to wear blouses by official decree " to protect the morals of the Dutch soldiers." Women of the Southern nobility started to wear badjus, and the fashion is rapidly spreading all over Bali. The Balinese form of badju is clumsy and ill-fitting and does not suit the huskier Balinese women as it does the slim Javanese. Many women cannot afford more than one badju and often let it go without washing. A girl who looks elegant and noble in the simple and healthy dress of the country, appears vulgar when " dressed up " in a tight badju of cheap cotton, not always clean, usually worn pinned up at the breast with a rusty safety-pin. Those accustomed to associate nudity with savagery often refer to the Balinese as " charming primitive people unconcerned with clothes," but however scant and simple their daily costume may be, they love dressing up, and for feasts they will wear as elaborate a dress as they can afford, or borrow one rather than appear poorly clothed to parade at the feast. At temple feasts, weddings, and cremations one still sees middle-aged men in the elaborate ceremonial dress of former times: the white kamben with a trailing end, a rich piece of brocade (saput) tied over the I breast with a silk scarf (umpal) in which is stuck the ancestral kris, weapon and ornament, the sheath of precious wooA and ivory, the hilt of chiselled gold glittering with~rubies and diamonds, crimson hibiscus over their ears.