The Pendet Dance at a Glance

Pendet Dance was once at issue in tourism domain. The dance belonging to Hindu community of Bali was displayed in a promotion package of Malaysian tourism without prior permission to the government of Indonesia whereas the dance itself purely belongs to Bali and Indonesia. The following is the brief history of Pendet Dance in Bali.

Pendet Dance constitutes a dance presentation to ancestors (Bhatara and Bhatari). It is regularly presented at the outermost courtyard of temple, facing to a shrine where Bhatara and Bhatari abide. The dance is performed by women in customary attires and they bring silver bowl with wide rim filled with canang sari, flowers and kwangen. Some of them also bring ritual paraphernalia such as holy water container and earthware flask. This dance is performed en masse, led by a temple priest and the dancers bring a pasepan or aromatic barks burnt on standing tray.

At the ending session, some dancers put the offerings, canang sari and kwangen in the shrine, while others sprinkle the flower to Bhatara as their honor. This dance is accompanied by gamelan music. At some regions in Southern Bali, this dance is presented in duet by some pairs of dancers called Gabor Dance. Sometimes it is also inserted with male dancers bringing kris dagger that later on known as Baris Pendet Dance.

In the 1960s, the Pendet Dance was presented to welcome guests in relation to Bali as a tourist destination. Interestingly, it was once performed en masse on the opening ceremony of Asian Games in Jakarta on the special request of President Soekarno.

Today, the Pendet Dance is usually presented by six to eight female dancers in arranged costumes. At the end of the dance, the flowers are sprinkled to guests.

T0 G0 BALI