Worshipped as the goddess of knowledge, beauty, and the arts, Saraswati continues to influence daily life in the Balinese village of Peliatan. Saraswati in Bali explains how one of the world's most famous tourist destinations strives to preserve its cultural traditions through the ceremonies, shadow plays, and masked dances held at the Pura Madya temple festival as well as the art collection, landscaped gardens, and cultural events at the nearby ARMA Museum. Theater professor Ron Jenkins has studied Balinese arts and culture for more than thirty years. In this enlightening volume, he shares vivid descriptions of the festival and lively interviews with painters, dancers, farmers, kings, and priests to illustrate Balinese beliefs in the sacred power of art and literature. He also documents how ancient texts inscribed on palm-leaf manuscripts suggest that Saraswati's teachings enrich human life with invisible meaning. Anyone interested in the performing arts or world mythology will be fascinated by the way the museum and temple have helped to keep Bali's hidden wisdom accessible in changing times.

Saraswati in Bali: A Temple, A Museum, and a Mask

Arts & Photography

Jenkins, Ron

History & Criticism

BAB Publishing Indonesia

Floating Threads represents an attempt to catalogue float weave techniques used to decorate Batik cloth throughout the archipelago and hints at possible lines of distribution. Being a coffee-table book, photographs are an important part of the story. Our main sources for photography have been collections in Indonesia's own provincial museums and the National Museum of Indonesia with gaps filled by local collectors and foreign museums when not available in Indonesia. Unfortunately, Indonesia's provincial museums were established after 1950, when specimens of some textiles were no longer available in the country, the prime examples of this being the pinatikan of North Sulawesi and the Kalumpang (West Sulawesi) textiles featured in Chapter Two. The photographed textiles cover the 19th century to the present, complementing the text which reaches into the distant past and includes recent experimentations, for contemporary fabrics are as important as historical weavings to the continuation of Indonesia's precious textile traditions. Modernization is the only way to keep weavers interested in plying their trade, stimulated by the popularity of their products. New forms will always arise to replace old styles that have fallen out of favor, but there will always be a weaver or two who will go beyond craft-production to the level of fine art, as the reader will see in this book. The discussion has been expanded with technical details of specific weaves by the Japanese scholar Keiko Kusakabe, a PhD candidate who has been trekking through the difficult terrain of West and northern South Sulawesi for over a decade in her quest for information on traditional textile production techniques in the region. Keiko keeps these techniques alive by teaching them to her students in Japan.

Floating Threads: Indonesian Songket and Similar Weaving Traditions

Achjadi, Judi

Graphic Design

'Woven Indonesian Textiles for the Home' highlights the beauty and potential of traditional woven textiles. It demonstrates that taken out of their traditional contexts as clothing and ritual artifacts, textiles can be adapted and applied to contemporary needs within the wider market of design and fine living.

Woven Indonesian Textiles for the Home

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Jay Ph.D., Sian E.

Antiques & Collectibles

The Indonesian National Museum is one of the oldest museums in Asia, and for anyone interested in the cultural and national heritage of Indonesia it is the one place not to be missed. For those unable to visit Indonesia, Icons of Art brings this heritage to you in an exquisite and detailed volume. Its collections span an immense range in time and space, covering millions of years of natural and human history and thousands of islands scattered between the Indian and Pacific oceans. Icons of Art is an exploration of the National Museum's collections, including many never-before exhibited treasures, on the occasion of a major expansion of the museum.

Icons of Art: The Collections of the National Museum of Indonesia

Miksic, John N.

Traditional and modern Indonesian crafts are a little-known, yet vitally important facet of Indonesian life. Indonesian Arts and Crafts provides an overview of these crafts, and also examines the many ways that Indonesian craftspeople and designers are working together to create, through design, crafts of the highest international standards.

Indonesian Arts and Crafts

Ave, Joop

Hitchcock, Michael

Gustami, SP

In the early 20th century, Indonesia was divided into 350 greater and lesser kingdoms. Although Dutch imperialism influenced this pattern, the political history of the archipelago over the centuries had been marked by the expansion and contraction of various local spheres of influence. One of the oldest and most powerful centers of power in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago has always been located in central Java. The court of Surakarta Hadiningrat, formed in the 1740s, can trace its origins to kingdoms of the 8th century. In 1945 the ancient kingdoms were superseded by the newly-formed Republic of Indonesia.The courts with their panoply of ancient traditions gave way to a new political ethos in which individual achievement replaced aristocratic birth as the main criteria for success. Overnight the courts were reduced to political irrelevance. Their rulers lost both inherited power and traditional sources of income. Many simply disappeared, while others clung to a precarious existence as tourist attractions or cultural centers.Java is now home to over 100 million people, two-thirds of whom belong to the ethnic group known as Javanese. Javanese culture is known for its high degree of refinement and devotion to ideas of spirituality and etiquette. This stereotype, fostered in part by the Dutch, masks a much richer complexity. The past half-century has seen much rapid social change, usually peaceful, but more than once marked by extreme violence. The court of Surakarta continues to strive to find new ways to achieve the harmony between change and tradition which Javanese philosophy has always emphasized as one of its main goals.

The Court of Surakarta

History

Asia

**Gourmand 2016 Best Cookbook of the Year** The quintessential tastes of Indonesia are rich yet subtle, complex yet elegant. Each region of Indonesia is home to a distinctive cuisine, many of which trace back to the marvelous, abundant history of these islands. In this great nation, food is about creating a harmonious melange of diverse flavors, passions, beliefs, and traditions. Flavors of Indonesia is a beautifully illustrated Indonesian cookbook, culinary guide and cultural exploration that introduces readers to the specialties and characteristics of the world's largest archipelago. Celebrated chef and Indonesian TV personality William Wongso takes you on a journey through Indonesia, retracing the religious, architectural, and culinary history of Java as seen through the island's royal cuisine. You'll learn about spices and fresh ingredients as you visit local markets in Sumatra and sample the zesty dishes of Sulawesi. As elsewhere across Southeast Asia, some of Indonesia's most appetizing treats are to be found in its streets and back lanes, and Wongso shares his must-have street food and snack recipes in a special chapter. Experience the true flavors of Indonesia through William Wongso's expertly detailed descriptions of the most widely used ingredients and spices, along with recipes and techniques designed for preparation in modern kitchens.

Flavors of Indonesia: William Wongso's Culinary Wonders

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Wongso, William W.

Cooking Education & Reference

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Books by BAB Publishing Indonesia