8 Performing Christian Kebalian: Balinese Music and Dance as Interreligious Drama
In: Between Harmony and Discrimination: Negotiating Religious Identities within Majority-Minority Relationships in Bali and LombokSearch for other papers by Dustin Wiebe in
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Abstract
The Balinese Christian minority has struggled to culturally identify themselves as “Balinese.” Beginning in the 1990s, kebalian (Balineseness) has been a marker of ethnic legitimacy in Bali. This notion has been and continues to be couched in a discourse of difference: the Hindu Balinese vis-à-vis the majority Muslim culture of Indonesia. Balinese Christians are thus left out of the picture.
This chapter explores the development of Protestantism in Bali and the gradual independence of the Bali Church from international Christian denominations. To further this goal, Balinese Christian leaders have enacted a policy of “contextualization” whereby Balinese models of architecture, liturgy, and performing arts are privileged. Further, the Balinese dance drama, sendratari, which usually presents excerpts from Hindu epic literature to mass audiences, has been appropriated for the presentation of Christian stories in the formation of a Christian Balineseness. Within this effort, Balinese Christians and Hindus interact, share, and renegotiate their relationship.