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 wool and ivory,
the hilt of chiseled gold glittering with rubies and diamonds,
crimson hibiscus over their ears.
Few costumes in the world have the dignified elegance of the ceremonial
costume of a noblewoman: the underskirt dragging on the ground
in a train of silk and gold; the torso. bound from the hips to
the armpits; first is a strong bulang, a strip of cloth fifteen
feet long, covered by a sabuk, another strip of silk overlaid,
with gold leaf; with gold plugs through her cars, her hair dressed
in, a great crown of real and gold flowers,, with the forehead,
reshaped with paint and decorated with rows of flower petals,
two small disks of gold pasted to the temples; walking with poise
in a procession with other girls dressed like herself, in a display
of style, beauty, and dignity, The costumes for dramatic performances
are as Spectacular as any in our ballets; diadems of fresh flowers
and helmets of gold set with colored stones, the body wrapped
from head to foot in bright-colored silks to which bold designs
in glittering gold leaf are applied by a special process in truly
theatrical style. A Balinese woman is seldom without flowers in
her hair, and during festivals one sees a bewildering variety
of bead-dresses. They are then well aware of their beauty and
take special pains with the arrangement of the hair, fixed ingeniously
without pins and without the help of a mirror. The hair is combed
back with a fan-shaped comb, the end rolled into a bundle (pusung)
that protrudes to the left and is held in place tucked under strands
of the woman's own hair. Unmarried girls leave a loose lock (gondjer)
that bangs down the back or over one shoulder. Ordinarily the
flowers are simply caught between the hairs, some-times suspended
in the gondjer or over the forehead, dangling from a single invisible
hair.
Each type of bead-dress receives a special name, from the simple
flower arrangement worn at lesser feasts to the gelung agung,
the diadem worn by noble brides. The gelung agung is an enormous
crown of fresh flowers; sprays of jasmine, sandat, and bunga gadung,
mixed with flowers of beaten gold mounted on springs that quiver
at the slightest motion of the head. A beautiful forehead that
describes a high arch coming down at the temples is obtained by
painting it with a mixture of soot and oil. Little acacia blossoms
or yellow flower petals are carefully pasted in a row in the blackened
area to emphasize the outline of the brow. They are called tiangana,
meaning a “constellation." Girls who have reached puberty
cut two locks of hair, brought from the middle of the head, over
the ears in two curls (semi) , stiffened with wax to keep them
in place.
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